Today I had to let go of 5 almonds from my daily eating competition prep schedule. After a two pound weight gaining this week, tweaking of macros was in order. Now please remember that my meal plan is a bit extreme as I am preparing for an extreme event. The extreme change in my meals was the reduction of 5 almonds.

Does 5 Really Count

I actually see it as a reduction of 15 almonds because I was sneaking approximately 10 every time I opened the refrigerator door. Now in reality, there is absolutely nothing wrong with almonds. In fact they are wonderful food; pure, naked and amazing for your health.

However, in the case of competition prep, every nut counts. “My competition coach” has no idea that I was eating all those extra nuts. Hopefully he is not reading this blog. Even if he isn’t reading it, he still knows that the results were not equal to the effort that I was supposedly putting in.

What COUNTS more that the 5 nuts is the mindless picking that we don’t count. LOVING our food, means tasting it, feeling it, experiencing it. It does not mean shoveling, standing while eating, wolfing it down or grazing (that is for cows).

People tell me all the time: “I don’t know why I am not losing weight, I barely eat!”. Not my clients. They know I am onto their secret sabotage. The food you eat while standing up still counts. That mindless eating, while on the phone, walking by the fridge, cleaning the kids plate still counts in the overall process of what goes in as energy.

Let’s be honest and real here. If the results of your weight loss efforts are not showing on your body, exam where you are possibly doing something to sabotage the results.

For me, whether or not I admitted to “my coach” or he reads this blog, he still knew that something was not right. So my not coming clean cost me 5 more almonds, or 15 depending on who’s counting.