Counting Macros

An old anorexic behaviour of mine that I once obsessivelely did was counting macro-nutrients. I became obsessed with counting macro nutrients when I was in my half recovered state and made sure I ate the exact same number of macronutrients each day. It could take hours for me to make a combination of foods that fitted perfectly into my macro nutrient goal and I found myslf eatng things that I didn't even enjoy, just so that I could eat the 'correct' amounts of fats, protein and carbs eacch day.

Each day I would try to eat 75g of protein, 305g of carbohydrates and 42g of fat. I know that lots of anorexics are quite scared of carbs but I never really was. My main issue was just with fat. I rememeber going through a stage when I thought that eating 10g of fat was far too much and that I tried to limit my intake to around 5g of fat per day. It was very hard for me to increase this to 42g but I knew that 42g was still really too low.While cooking wth oil is something I still need to get more comfortable with, eating foods high in fat really does not bother me anymore at all.

While I still see how much energy things contain while grocery shopping (as I really need to see if the food item will fit into my meal plan or not), I honestly never look at the fat content anymore. The other day when I was about to have an icecream, I caught glimpse of the fat content when I pulled the icecream out of the packet and I was surprised to see that the single icecream contained more then 20g of fat. Once I would not have even been able to even consider eating something so high in fat but I can honestly say that I did not even think twise about eating it, as I seriously did not care one little bit abut how many grams of fat it contained.

If I was having a sandwich for lunch when I counted macronutients, what I put in it would not be determined by what I felt like, but instead by what macronutrients I needed to increase/decrease for that day. If I needed to eat more fat, I would put in something like peanut butter or cream cheese. f I needed more carbs I would have jam or honey and if I needed more protein I would have ham or cheese. Looking back I am soo glad that I no longer do this aa now I can just eat exactly what I feel like.

I honestly have no idea how many of each macronutrient I eat each day and I honestly don't really care. I don't really think it matters what form I am giving my body the energy in. What I think matters is that I am giving my body the energy it needs by eating both foods that are healthy and also foods that I enjoy. The only macronutrient I Sometimes need to make a conscious effort to eat is protein as this is the macronutrient that I probably eat the least of. I get most of my protein through dairy products like milk, cheese, yoghurt and icecream but I know my teas are often lacking in protein. This is why I try and have meat and vegetables at least every few nights.

If you obsessively count macronutrients like I did, I highly suggest you try and stop as it is one of the best things I have ever done. Wasting so much time each day to try and come up with a combination of foods that wll allow you to hit your maconutrient targets is just crazy and I am sure you have so many other ways you could better spend that time.  At the end of the day, as long as your diet is reasonabely balanced, all that truly matters is that you are giving your body the energy it needs in order to recover. Remember that your body is smart enough to use the energy you give it, no matter what form it may be in.