It’s Saturday night, and Uber Eats is calling your name. You order up that large meat lover’s pizza and wings, and in no time, it arrives piping hot to your doorstep. You eat it like it’s going out of style and within minutes are feeling the food guilt and telling yourself “Man...I have to hit the gym even harder tomorrow.”
 
I’ve been known to devour Barro’s pizza (like a whole pizza) with wings and a Cold Stone ice cream and then go cardio it out to try to find a way to undo all the indulgence.  I get you 100%. I’ve been there many times, too. Stuck in the “training trap.” It wasn’t healthy, and it never worked.

What is the “training trap”?

The training trap is the black hole of treadmill running, double Metcon-doing and two-a-day lifting sessions to try to justify the late night pizza and beer sessions and all day chips and salsa benders. 
 
Here is what I’ve realized:
2 hours of cardio in the gym is much easier than 12 hours of daily discipline in the kitchen for most people. It used to be for me too. But it never bred real results.
 
If you want your hard work in the gym to show all the muscle, strength and hours of training, you need to up-level your game in the kitchen first.
 
Data doesn’t lie
 
According to a Harvard medical study, a one-hour vigorous weight lifting session will burn just over 500 calories per session for a 185-pound person. 
 
A one-hour session of running at roughly 11 miles per hour for that same 185-pound person burns roughly 800 calories in that session.
 
When I actually began to look deeper into what I was really eating, it was eye-opening.  In fact, my 3-mile moderate paced run was burning roughly 300 calories and was completely negated by my daily four tablespoons of almond butter habit (also roughly 300 calories), because I really had no food awareness. I had no idea how much each scoop of nut butter, although a healthy fat, was adding up to along with all the other calories I was taking in a day…or how much each pump of mocha syrup in my coffee really meant to my body.
No wonder I saw ZERO progress. Poor and inconsistent food choices will leave you with food guilt, no energy, and poor sleep patterns. Hardcore exercise with no food plan is a recipe for ZERO gains.

If You Don’t Know Where You Are, Then You Don’t Know Where To Go

 
Here was my problem: I really had no idea of what my caloric intake was. I thought I was eating “clean” and that my binges were so minor they wouldn’t affect my progress.  “It’s only one day,” I thought. “I will work out even harder this week.” That pattern repeated itself over and over again. It was the status quo of maintenance.
 
If I didn’t know what I was actually eating how could I ever reach my goals?
 
It is so basic. I was a science teacher, for goodness sake. I taught my students every year that we had to have a baseline to measure against to understand if the variables we are changing are actually affecting the outcome.
 
Why would my diet be any different?
 
I had to go back to the beginning and find out my food baseline in order to make progress. “What gets measured, gets managed,” and food data is no different.
 
I encourage you to do the same. Begin to track your intake by writing it in a journal or even better, recording it in an app like MyFitnessPal to truly see where you are. My clients gain so much value in that very first step of becoming food aware by learning what they are really putting into their bodies.

Basic Principle of Scale Loss

The most basic principle of losing weight is a discussion of calories in versus calories out. If you eat more than you use, then you won’t see that scale (or the mirror) shift. Calories out include your daily fitness activity, your own genetic gift of metabolic rate, but also your resting metabolism. All are critical components to scale progress, revealing that hidden six-pack and contribute to that calorie out component.

Find What Works For You For The Long Haul

Once you know where you are, you can begin to hunt for the lifestyle that works for you.  Not the diet that lasts 30 days where the weight comes back two-fold months down the road.
 
The one that actually teaches you how to become “food aware.” The one that teaches you how to navigate life through vacations, social situations and date nights. The one that gives you the skills to make choices in those situations to support your goals.
 
There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to finding nutritional sustainability. The value of knowing where you are and what you are putting into your body is a perfect springboard to finding the size that fits you.
 
Consistency Is Your Greatest Advocate
 
One of the biggest reasons we put emphasis on our training over diet is we often lack a plan. Just like the gym, you can’t show up in the kitchen without a training plan. You have to create a weekly meal plan, grocery shop, meal prep, and execute.  Yes, you have to actually eat the food you prepped.
 
These skills take time to develop. Just like your back squat, repeated reps create muscle memory and consistency to increase your experience and create positive habits.
 
Be A Weekend Warrior
 
Putting in consistent effort for seven days a week is when true progress happens.  But those weekends, though. They can derail you. If effort is only made on weekdays, that’s 5/7 days a week, a mere 71%.  Even if you just have one “cheat day” per week, it still puts you at 85% for the week.  You and your goals deserve better. You can’t have A+ goals with C and B effort. 
 
When we practice consistency and put in effort on weekends, we minimize the indulgent behaviors. Progress begins to reveal itself. When you get a glimpse of progress, it’s enough to turn that spark into a flame.
 
Eat Like An Athlete
 
Proper nutrition isn’t just about aesthetic changes. It’s also about nutrient density and eating the right foods to support overall health. Taking in large amounts of alcohol, high amounts of saturated fats and processed carbohydrates aren’t your ideal caloric sources. Nor do they benefit hormone balance, a key component to training, recovery and long-term health.
 
Learning to limit these and consume them in moderation is a practice beneficial to lifelong wellness. Eating more real foods like, rich in vitamins and minerals, will both help with recovery and performance and reduce inflammation caused during training.
 
Enhance Your Relationship With The Barbell
 
Working out should be a stress reliever; something you enjoy doing not something you do to justify food intake. By being in control of your food you enhance your relationship with the gym.
 
When you combine proper nutrition and exercise, your results are enhanced. But what I’ve found is that when my food was finally in check, my relationship with training was also enhanced. I began to enjoy it even more. Working out became something I chose to do out of enjoyment instead of obligation. 
 
By gaining control and putting effort into how you fuel your body, you too can avoid the “training trap.” Think about your relationship with fitness and food and where your energy is best spent. Invest those hours of hard work in the kitchen so it pays dividends in the gym and in the rest of your life.
 
Amanda Walker is a certified nutrition coach, blogger, and CrossFit Trainer, working to help busy people build a relationship with food that lasts. She fuses her love of food, science, and the art of coaching to help people shift their nutritional mindset to become aware of how they fuel their body. You can connect with Amanda at www.awalkmyway.com or on FB and IG at @awalkmyway.