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Macros to Mindful

By stephdorworth

January 1, 2022

mindful eating

mindful eating

Intro: Is tracking macros sustainable?

Tracking macros is a nice skill to have to improve awareness of how much and what you’re eating. It involves inputting every food or drink you consume each day into an app so you can keep track of your calories and macros for the day. Doing so makes you more aware of your food choices, portions, macros percentages, fiber intake, & more! It’s a fantastic skill to have and also is the best way to reach a physique goal like fat loss. By tracking macros you can ensure you’re in a caloric deficit (calories in < calories out) and therefore achieve fat loss.

Most people that track macros practice flexible dieting which is technically a diet, but it’s the least restrictive diet out there! There is only one rule - eat wholesome and nutritious foods >80% of the time. How often you eat and which foods you eat are up to you. So you can eat the foods you enjoy while still reaching your goals!

I’m 100% on board with tracking macros and flexible dieting because I’ve seen first-hand and from my clients experiences how effective it is. It’s a diet that is more sustainable and enjoyable than other diets that require you to cut out certain foods, only eat at certain times of the time, or eat meals you don’t enjoy.

With that said…. tracking macros is sustainable. But it’s not something everyone wants to do long-term for years and years until the day they die.

What IS sustainable?? Mindful Eating / Intuitive Eating.

mindful eating

Sustainable Dieting: Mindful Eating & Intuitive Eating

Mindful eating and intuitive eating are forms of eating that are not “dieting”. They are a more relaxed way to eat with less stress, less worry, less guilt, and less judgment. They teach you to go back to eating the way you did as a child - liberated from rules. They teach you to eat based on the signals your body is sending you - your hunger and satiety cues.

Mindful eating is a small part of Intuitive Eating. So let’s define both types of eating so you can see the differences and similarities.

Mindful eating is an approach to food that focuses on one’s awareness of food and their experience of the food. 

Here are ways to practice mindful eating:

  • Pay attention while you eat / don’t eat while distracted

  • Eat until you’re 80% full and then signal that you’re done (i.e. push the plate away, put your fork face down)

  • Eat slowly and chew your food more

Intuitive Eating is an eating style that promotes a healthy attitude toward food and body image. It is anti-diet and pro-respecting your body. The idea is that you should eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full. One aspect of it is eating mindfully, but there is much more to it. Let’s dive deeper in the next section.

mindful eating

Ten Principles of Intuitive Eating

Here are the 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating summarized:

  1. Reject diet mentality - say no to restrictive diets that often lead to outrageous cravings and binges

  2. Honor your hunger - pay better attention to your hunger signals and eat when you’re truly hungry

  3. Make peace with food - give yourself permission to eat foods you once marked as off limits so you won’t feel deprived

  4. Challenge the food police - talk back to your inner critic and challenge your past ways of thinking about food that were linear

  5. Feel your fullness - only eat until 80% full, eat with less distractions, and pause mid-meal to assess your fullness

  6. Discover the satisfaction factor - eat what you really want instead of settling so you’re truly satisfied 

  7. Cope with your emotions - use other ways to feel and work through your emotions besides food

  8. Respect your body - by making quality food decisions, using positive words of affirmation, and not punishing yourself for poor decisions

  9. Exercise - move for other reasons than to burn calories

  10. Honor your health - strive for progress not perfection

Intuitive eating looks like it would be easy and it is...only if you practice and apply what you’ve read and learned here. There are a lot of myths and years of poor dieting in your past that you’ll likely need to work through in order to fully become an intuitive eater successfully.

What Intuitive Eating Resolves

Why might one want to switch from tracking macros to eating mindfully / intuitively?

As I said above, tracking macros and flexible dieting have many positives. However, it’s not realistic for most (not all) people to do that till the day they die. 

Instead, I recommend you take 8+ weeks to transition from tracking macros to intuitive eating slowly. This will allow you to keep in mind all you’ve learned while flexible dieting (portions, prioritizing protein, food choices) while learning or re-learning how to eat intuitively one stage at a time. 

Trying to transition to it right away is far too much to do on your own while expecting to be good at it right away. Intuitive eating has many levels, so take it one level at a time to ensure you’re confident before going to the next level.

That’s why I’ve created the 8 Steps to Transition from Macros to Mindful Eating Guide that I guide my course clients through. It progresses you away from tracking slowly and into intuitive eating with a structured plan.

If you truly take the time to transition from tracking macros to intuitive eating then you’ll be freed! You’ll have food freedom and will get to eat guilt-free from now on!

Are you...

  • Tired of dieting?
  • Tired of tracking macros?
  • Obsessed with food labels?
  • Fearful of food especially certain foods?
  • Untrustworthy of yourself around food?
  • Emotionally eating?
  • Eating more when stressed or sad?
  • Tired of having a poor body image?
  • Not enjoying eating anymore?
  • Clearing your plate at every meal even if you’re full?
  • Tired of feeling deprived all the time?
  • Exercising purely to burn off the food you ate?
  • Under-eating?
  • Yo-yo dieting?
  • Having low self esteem?
  • Snacking without control?

If you answered yes to any of those, mindful intuitive eating may be exactly what you need to build back up your confidence with food and find food freedom!

mindful eating

Intuitive Eating-ish

What I teach my clients is “intuitive eating-ish”. A term I’ve made up! Here’s what I mean.

We’re all allowed to have our own opinions and I agree with most of the Intuitive Eating principles except the overall principle to not want to change your body -  ditching the desire to want to change your body. Intuitive Eating is all about body acceptance and being happy and healthy at whatever size you are. I personally believe it’s okay to want to improve your physique in some way, sometimes. They assume all diets are super restrictive causing deprivation and a poor relationship with food, but they forgot about one that’s not - flexible dieting. 

Flexible dieting is the least restrictive diet of all diets because there are no foods off limits and you still get to eat foods you enjoy on a daily basis. Therefore, I believe flexible dieting + intuitive eating pair up really well together. Having both as tools in your nutrition tool box can be very valuable to switch from one to the other based on what your current physique goals are. 

Want to maintain weight or put on muscle? IE may work well. Want to do a one month fat loss cut? Flexible dieting tracking macros temporarily may work well.

This is what I believe and what I teach. And I'd love to teach YOU!

The Macros to Mindful Course

Personally I practice Intuitive Eating and have done so for about 7 years now (only tracking macros occasionally for a photoshoot prep). In college I used to under-eat, obsess over food labels, exercise to burn off the extra ice cream I ate (as punishment), and I had a really poor body image. Since college I now eat two ways throughout the year: flexible dieting OR intuitive eating. I eat intuitively 95% of the year and then track macros 5% of the time before a photoshoot or vacation. It works really well to have knowledge on both ways of eating and I love that they both promote body positivity, they both allow me to choose the foods I eat, and they both don’t restrict severely.

Now, I want to teach you to do the same!

Introducing… the Macros to Mindful course! 

Make peace with food & improve your metabolism while giving yourself permission to be fearlessly nourished.

What if I told you that you don't have to diet another day in your life (if you don't want to)? 

What if I told you that your metabolism doesn't have to slow down as you age?

What if I told you that you could take back control of your eating and tackle emotional eating?

As children and teens, we got to eat what we wanted when we wanted. But at some point once we neared adulthood, diet culture began filling our minds with toxic information that would slow down our metabolisms, create fear around eating, and take the pleasure out of eating.

With this course you will:

  1. Heal your relationship with food - Make peace with food again and see it as nourishment instead of "good" or "bad". Be able to eat the foods you enjoy, even foods you've cut out in the past. 
  2. Learn to eat mindfully / intuitively - Learn to trust your body again so your eating can be guided by your hunger and satiety cues instead of emotions, stress, or anger.
  3. Improve your metabolism - Begin eating enough to fuel you instead of starving yourself so you can heal your metabolism. Prioritize your overall health over hitting a certain number on the scale.

When You Enroll Today Here's What You Get

  • 12 weekly video lessons ($900 value)
  • 12 weekly practical assignments to apply what you’ve learned (accountability is invaluable)
  • 12 weeks of Facebook group support ($1200 value)
  • Printable mindful eating guides ($100 value)
  • A virtual group cooking class! ($500 value)
  • Lifetime access to the Teachable course

Whip out that calculator - that's a $2,700 value

But I'm giving it to you for just $55.50 this week only - that's 50% off!

Just use coupon code "HALFOFF" for that 3-day discount which expires Sunday, Jan. 3rd at midnight.

The price will DOUBLE on Monday (Jan 3, 2022), so the earlier you commit the bigger the discount you get! I’ll never offer it this low again - never ever.

Want to learn more before enrolling? Click here to learn more and don't forget to use the HALFOFF coupon code at checkout.

Have questions? Checkout the FAQ section here and then email me if you have any questions not covered there.

Thanks for reading!


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About Dr. Steph

Six-figure freelance leader and media creator in Phoenix, Arizona energized by seeing you spark your passions into paid gigs freelancing.

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