Macros are your friend.

I saw Skinny Meg post about how she's loving following a macro plan, and it got me to thinking about how following macros has dramatically changed everything. It really is like a miracle. Macros really brought to my attention how losing weight, and anything fitness related really, all comes down to a science. It's not all in your head, it's not the fitness Gods trying to piss you off and shit on your parade. It's science.

Go read this. Megan basically covered it all if you're feelin confused about what all of this junk is. Instead of just counting calories (which totally worked for the first 40-50 pounds, don't get me wrong) I count how many grams of protein, carbs, and fats I eat. This gives you the best of both worlds because you can tailor your diet to exactly what your body needs, while eating what you WANT. Yes you can eat complete junk to fit your macros, but you'll also quickly learn that to eat more (the former fatty in me loves this part) you should probs eat more "clean" foods to fill up your macros.

Perfect example: Yesterday at work, my boss brought in bagels for the office and I almost pooped my pants because ya girl would do some thangs for a bagel. Particularly an everything bagel. Drool.

Instead of freaking the fuck out over some bread product that is not of the whole wheat variety, I simply looked up the nutrition facts on that sucker, looked up the cream cheese that I was putting on it, and added it to my daily foods on myfitnesspal. Old Crystal would have said, nope can't eat it. It's not whole wheat. It's 270 calories. I can't. HELL YES YOU CAN. It's a give and take. If I eat this deliciousness, I will probs not have room for that sweet potato for dinner. Put your big girl panties on and make some choices. Bagel wins. Always.

Yea sometimes it sucks and things that I want don't fit into my macros, but again, I have goals and sometimes you gotta make sacrifices. Sometimes it can be really frustrating because I honest to god do not understand how I lost 50 pounds by eating whatever the hell I wanted, as long as it was in my calorie range. Sometimes I want to undo the knowledge I have now because eating in my calories was a lot easier. But I figure that the closer I get to my goal, the harder it gets, so I'm sucking it up and staying aboard the macro train, because I've seen that it works if I follow it to the T. 

So yea. Macros are fantastic and sometimes confusing when you get off the calorie train and hop on the macro train. But you should do it, because your eating doesn't have to be as strict. And former fatties know that eating is FUN.

-Crystal