I am normally the first person to Google anything I don’t know. It’s like an instinct. Yet, for some reason when I got the Instagram question about whether or not I’m eating iifym my brain just turned it into a typo.
There’s no way iifym is a “thing.”
Well, I was wrong.
Apparently, it stands for If It Fits Your Macros and I’m gotta say it… as soon as I Googled and saw site after site I rolled my eyes in the snarkiest way possible.
Listen, if you are following this diet and enjoy it I don’t mean to insult. I’m not rolling my eyes at you. I’m rolling my eyes at yet another way of eating that will probably be marketed to death and shoved down our throats like Atkins and low carb, Paleo, Whole30, gluten-free, blah blah blah.
Yes, some people truly need to live a gluten-free life and yes, many (myself included) have lost weight eating low carb. Whole30 sounds awesome, too, but when I look at the food list I immediately start to worry… what am I supposed to eat? As for Paleo? Don’t get me started. Please.
Not everyone is going to agree with me here and that’s OK. This is my blog and my little corner of cyberspace to share my thoughts. And my thoughts on diets in general are pretty negative.
If you’ve been reading long enough, you know I started out as a Weight Watchers (WW) girl so you may think I’m being a hypocrite, but the reason I found success on WW was because they didn’t tell me what to eat. They taught me how to eat and gave me a strategy to balance my calorie intake during a time I was really out of control. They also provided accountability and support. So yes, it’s a diet but, and again if you’ve been reading long enough you know, I made it my own.
I truly believe that’s key.
Our whole culture around dieting and eating in general is broken. We are constantly looking for the next thing to blame.
Enough already! That last one, about macros, is iifym, it reminds me of a personalized “Zone” approach.
I’m sorry but it’s all too much.
I get it. I do. We want an easy answer. We want to find that one thing that will solve all our problems, let us eat what ever we want and still look like a Victoria’s Secret model.
It doesn’t exist and never will.
The way I see it we have a few choices.
- We could get over it — just stop the madness and be happy fat. Many people have gone this route and if this is you and you are happy, AWESOME!
- Pick a diet and make it an obsession. Turn down birthday cake at every party, never eat bread again, beat yourself up if you have an M&M. Again, if this brings you happiness and you are sporting the body of your dreams… AWESOME!
- Work on doing a little better every day. Take in all the diet info and learn from it but make it your own. At the end of the day you know what’s “good for you” and what isn’t. Right? You know if you eat an entire bag of Oreos in a sitting and choose bacon double cheeseburgers every day for lunch you aren’t doing yourself any favors. You know fruit and vegetables should be consumed more than anything out of a box from your local grocery store. You also know you should probably move a bit more than you do now. And if you have weight to lose and it’s not coming off then really evaluate what you are doing. Be conscious about everything. Be honest with yourself. Start a food journal. Evaluate your goals. Are you trying to lose a few vanity pounds? Then maybe you do get a bit pickier about your diet for a little bit. If you have a lot to lose, remind yourself that every baby step counts.
That’s really it, isn’t it? Am I missing a potential path? More importantly, did I make myself look like in idiot for not knowing what iifym was?
Probably, but you know what?
I’m proud of myself.
Proud because I’m no longer searching for some diet to solve my problems. I’m not obsessed over every little thing I eat.
Proud because I continually challenge myself. I no longer let my inner mean girl tell me I’m not good enough, or strong enough, or skinny enough, or pretty enough, or YOUNG enough, or {insert any self-doubt} enough.
Could I lose a few pounds? Sure, I’m not the thinnest I’ve ever been. Some people probably even think I’m “fat” (because let’s be honest, if they think Cassey from Blogilates is FAT than, really, I mean … just watch this!) Others think I’m skinny. Now I’m even getting comments about my muscles! <– blows my mind!
At the end of the day, though, none of that matters. Does it?
All that matters is me, how I feel and really… I couldn’t feel any better.
Food Journal
- 5:45 a.m. Slice of toast with sunflower seed butter.
- 7:15 a.m. Post-workout shake (1/2 scoop).
- 8:45 a.m. Other quinoa experiment. This time I added a sausage link and some spinach. The hame and cheese yesterday was better. :)
- 12:30 p.m. Leftover pork chop, roasted potatoes, and broccoli.
- 4:00 p.m. small bag of quinoa chips — love!
- 6 p.m. Dinner was breaded and baked flounder fillets, homemade fried rice, and broccoli
- 8 p.m. A few crackers with chocolate hazelnut spread with the kids.
Activity Journal
- 6 a.m. workout: Thursday is a long workout day and it was CRAZY! But I really enjoyed the change-up. Reminded me of Tough Mudder Training.
2 Rounds — was supposed to be a 40-minute time cap but I kept going and finished it in 45:20
400m Run
26 Hand Release Push ups
400m Run
26 KBS (60/40)
400m Run
26 Sit-Ups
400m Run
26 Back Extensions
400m Run
26 Double-Unders
400m Run
26 Box Jumps, 24/20 - I #wycwyc’ed my morning — was feeling really energetic yet I had a lot of writing to do so I took the stairs for every pee break, did squats and counter push-ups while waiting for the microwave and walked on every call.
- 3:30 p.m. quick 1/2 mil jog to before meeting Ryan after school.
Misc
- I’m exhausted AGAIN. I was going to stretch but honestly, I’m going to log-off, take my supplements and relax. I can see myself falling asleep on the couch in about 5 min.