No More Counting Calories!

I just read a great article in my Fitness Journal for ACE Certified Professionals called "Nutrition by the Handfuls."  It talks about how frustrating it can to count calories and track macronutrients and many people just give up trying to figure out how to eat healthy!  Because I haven't counted calories in years, I love the approach and method of the article so I'd like to share the basic information with you here! 

All you need is your hand.  Well, more specifically, your palm, fist, and thumb.  And some food, of course!  This is how it works:  your palm determines your protein portions, your fist determines your veggie portions, your cupped hand is used for carbohydrate dense food and your thumb is for fat portions.

For protein dense food like lean meat, fish, eggs, cottage cheese and Greek yogurt, you will use your palm to determine the serving size.  According to the article, each palm sized serving will provide 20-30 grams of protein to help build muscle, burn fat improve, muscle recovery and boost performance. Women need 4-6 protein portions each day and men need 6-8 portions.

Your fist will be used to portion nonstarchy colorful vegetables like spinach, broccoli, salad greens, carrots, etc.  Women will need 4-6 portions per day and men will need 6-8 fist portions per day. Since veggies are low in calories and high in nutrients, you can always eat more veggies than the recommended amount!

Grains, starches (corn, potatoes, etc.) and fruit (yes, fruit is a carb!) you will use your cupped hand for the portion size, which will provide approximately 20-30 grams of carbs.  Women need 4-6 carb portions per day and men 6-8 portions per day.  The proper amount of carbs help fuel workout performance, maintain hormones and regulate blood sugar levels.

Finally, the thumb is used to measure healthy fat dense food like nut butters, avocado, nuts, seeds and oils.  Each thumb sized serving will provide approximately 7-12 grams of fat to maintain a healthy immune system and hormone functions.  The daily servings for fats are 4-6 for women and 6-8 for men.

How many meals you eat each day will determine your breakdown of servings.  If you eat three squares a day, then you would need at least 2 servings from each category at each meal (men would need 3 at some meals.)  If you eat 6 small meals a day or 3 small meals and 3 snacks in between, you would have about 1 serving from each category at each meal or snack. 

Now this may or may not sound like a good method to you.  If you are stuck in your current nutrition plan or tired of calculating everything you put in your mouth, why not try something new?  If you do, let me know how it works for you!  Now get started and give yourself a hand!