Be Your Own Researcher

Throughout my training career, both as trainee and trainer, I've monitored myself to understand why things are happening, or not happening, the way they do. Currently, with COVID vaccine is out and people are starting to get more comfortable going out and start exercising more, it is a good place to review what your body actually need rather than just concluding with it's been all bad and need to change.

As much as I hate it and don't recommend calorie and macro-nutrients counting, I've done it several times in my career to understand where I am and what I needed to do to reach for my goals. Although it was only a temporally thing (may be for two weeks), it help me realize how much or how little I was consuming, and surprised with how much junk I was putting into my body. Now, few decades later, I can guess how much calorie, protein, carbohydrate, fat and water, I am consuming throughout the day. Because it is not pinpoint, my body weight, fat mass and percentage fluctuate but usually is within 2-3lb range.

Is it hard to monitor? Used to be. 20 years ago, we didn't had apps to track so I used notebook to keep track of everything. In 2021, there are all sorts of apps and way to monitor and track your calories, macro-nutrients, and even micro-nutrients (vitamins and minerals. Again it may not be accurate but it will give you an idea as to what needs to be adjusted.

Set yourself a week or two for data collection and although it is somewhat a time consuming work, study yourself. Here are some things that you can track.

• Weight

• Body Fat (%/lb)

• Calories (per meal and per day)

• Macro-Nutrient (protein, carbs and fat)

• Water (oz)

To save your time, use the app that is available that can help you track these things. Although it is not listed above, some apps, like My Fitness Pal, can also track your micro-nutrients which may comes in handy if you have hormonal imbalances.

Work on tracking everyday for 1-2 weeks. More data you have you will have better understanding of your habits and how your body is responding. Many are concerning about accuracy of the data, however, you cannot talk about accuracy if you only have 1 or 2 data points.

Remember this is not to judge what you've done right or wrong. It is to learn about you. If you are in physical or physiological condition that you are not wanting to be in, the data will speak to you and help guiding you to what you may need to adjust. If you are not sure, you can always contact professional to go over those data with you and have a game plan.

Can you be fit and healthy without these time consuming procedure? Absolutely. However, it is a good practice to know your body and your current habit.

Kota Shimada