4 Insanely Simple Macro-tracking Tips That Busy Mamas Need In The Beginning
I’ve cracked the code to losing weight and it’s not what you think it would be! It’s not a lit of food you can or cannot eat. And it’s not about how often you work out. Nutrition and exercise are crucial of course, but it’s not as important as this: having a community to help you along the way. In my Macros Made Easy Program, we focus on nutrition and habits that will change your life, but the community in that group is the game changer.
Recently, I had a new mama join my program and inside of our group Voxer chat she asked if anyone could help her figure out how to hit her goals better. And she got so many messages with tips and encouragement. Before I could get in there and offer my advice she already had the help she needed.
This experience got me thinking that maybe you would like a taste of this community! Maybe what you need on your health and weight loss journey is some advice from busy mamas who are going through the same thing. So I decided I’d share the tips my clients gave to the newest member of the Macros Made Easy program. I hope they help you too!
Plan your meals ahead of time
One of the first tools I give my Macros Made Easy Mamas is how to meal plan. I teach them my backward meal planning system (you can grab it for free here!) and I get so much feedback on how well it works.
But the crazy thing is that new clients almost always resist implementing it! And for the silliest reason: they don’t like meal planning!
So many women avoid meal planning because they feel like it’s constricting. But meal planning actually frees up so much time and mental space for busy mamas.
I want you to think about this for a minute. How much time every day do you spend thinking about what you’re going to eat for your next meal? Before I implemented meal planning, I was thinking about food constantly.
“What will I eat for breakfast?” “What about the kids? What am I making for their lunches?” “Crap, I need to make dinner. What do we have on hand?” All day long I was worrying and stressing about what I could make for the next meal.
When you don’t have a plan you have to think about food constantly! Instead of being stressed out all day, every day; just take 15 minutes to sit down and plan out your food! Sure you might spend the first three minutes stuck in the “I don’t know what to plan!” mindset, but once you get one idea on paper, the rest follows. Sometimes the hardest part is just getting over that first hill, then you’re sailing!
I like to plan my all meals out the night before so that when I wake up the next day all I have to do is eat! Some of the mamas in Macros Made Easy, like to plan their meals out in the morning while they eat breakfast or as part of their morning routine.
As long as you plan it all out, it doesn’t matter when you do it. But everyone in our Voxer group agreed that planning ahead made their day so much easier!
Prepare meals where you can track food separately
There are a lot of experienced macro-trackers in the Macros Made Easy Voxer group and I never kick anyone out after they’ve finished the program because I want the newer mamas to learn from these women who have been doing this for a long time.
This is a tip that I hadn’t really thought about or suggested myself, but when the question came up on how to better hit macro numbers, a few of my long-time tracking mamas made this suggestion and it not only helped the newbies but even women who had tracked for a while but were still struggling to hit their numbers. So I knew you needed to hear it too!
One of my Macros Made Easy Mamas who has been tracking for almost four years, suggested that to hit your macros you should make meals where each component could be separated. That way you could add more or less of each ingredient to hit your numbers better.
For example, when she was first tracking she made a lot of tacos, burritos and Hawaiian Haystacks. She liked meals like this because she could adjust each portion to her macro needs. If she was short on protein, she threw more chicken on her plate. If she had too many carbs, she could use less rice. But because everything was separate she didn’t have to adjust the whole dinner, just what she put on her plate.
She also recommended staying away from casseroles while learning how to track because you had less control over each macro.
Once she learned how to adjust her meals she’s been able to add more casseroles back into her meals. But being able to control the amount of food in her meals helped her feel successful and built up wins so she had more confidence in what she was doing.
Always have protein options available
Mama, if you want to lose weight and be successful with macro tracking, you have to hit your protein goals! Protein is one of the most undereaten macros but it’s vital to our health!
One of the tips that I teach, and that my clients help find new ways to implement, is having protein options readily available.
A few things I like to keep on hand are:
Rotisserie chicken or cooked chicken
Lunch meats
Greek yogurt (I like to have fat and non-fat stocked so I have what I need to fit my goals each day)
Shrimp (easy to make right from the freezer too!)
Protein shakes/bars
I also combed through the group chat to see what my clients like to have on hand for protein. Here are their suggestions:
Bone broth
Collagen (plain and flavored)
Cottage cheese
Pre-cooked meats (Barre Chicken breasts, Sous Vide Sliced Grass-Fed Beef Sirloin. Check out Costco for options like this!)
Protein is one of the harder macros to cook in the moment because it usually takes more time to prepare. I also suggest setting aside one day a week to prep all your protein for the week so you always have some kind of protein ready.
But the mamas who follow this tip see great results because they can easily hit their protein goals!
Uplevel the food you’re already eating
Ok, my last tip is one of my favorites because there are endless ways to implement it!
Too often in the health and weight loss world, you’re told to restrict or cut back. And it feels like we have to sacrifice everything we love to have the body we want.
But what if you switched the narrative? What if instead of cutting out what you love, you just tweaked it to fit into your nutrition?
For example, I LOVE coffee! When I first started macro tracking I told my coach I wasn’t going to give up my coffee and she said no problem! I used to make my coffee with a lot of coffee creamer. And my coach never told me I had to stop doing that.
But I started to realize just how much my coffee creamer was “costing” me. It took up a big portion of my fat goals each day and over time, I realized I’d rather use my creamer allotment for something else.
Instead of cutting out my creamer or coffee, I switched the creamer for a protein drink! It gave me the same rich, creamy taste in my coffee but instead of costing me fat, it helped me hit my protein goals! It was a win-win that I never would have though about before I understood the cost of my coffee creamer.
Macro tracking can seem very complicated or overwhelming when you’re starting out but having a community of women who’ve been in your shoes makes it so much easier to succeed.
When you join the Macros Made Easy Program, you don’t just get access to me, you get an entire community of women who’ve been in your shoes. And they’re always willing to help you out!
If you’ve been trying to track on your own and aren’t seeing the progress you want or just feel stuck in your health, then let’s chat! Schedule a free Healthy Mama Blueprint Call to see how joining Macros Made Easy can help you reach your goals faster.
Save to Pinterest