Step 6
Track, analyze, update
Now we come to the final step in the program. You will want to make tweaks and updates to your meal plan based on how you feel. And to do this, we recommend you follow a cycle of track, analyze and update.
use your data to design a meal plan that works for you
Track...
As we have covered in earlier steps, you should track your weight and what you eat. You can then look at how various food choices impact your your weight loss progress.
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However, there are also a number of other datapoints you might want to consider to see how your body responds to food such as hunger, energy, workouts, mood, sleep and exercise.
1
Hunger
Hunger is the body's way of telling us we need food because we are running low on nutrients. Try to keep track of your hunger levels throughout the day, ranking your day as 1 if you feel starving and 5 if you are stuffed. Ideally you want to be feeling comfortably full after each meal never stuffed.
2
Energy
Your energy levels are slightly different to hunger. Your energy is how your body feels outside of working out. Do you feel motivated? How willing are you to do normal daily activities or run errands? Do you just want to lie in bed all day? Again try to rate yourself on a scale of 1 if you feel like you have no energy and 5 if you feel like you have loads of energy and feel great.
3
Mood
Your mood relates to how happy or frustrated you feel. Your mood is impacted by so many physiological, psychology and environmental factors and food is an important piece of the puzzle. If you are feeling generally down in the dumps then you want to rate yourself a 1 however if you feel like you are jumping for joy and volunteering to help out at any opportunity then you should rate your mood as a 5.
4
Sleep timing
Sleep is a super important part of your health and well-being. Getting a good night of sleep will help your body repair, keep you mind rested and get you ready for the day ahead. We typically sleep in 90-minute cycles so ideally you should be aiming for 6 to 7.5 hours (about 4 to 5 cycles) in terms of the length of time you sleep.
5
Sleep quality
There are two aspects of sleep you should focus on: length of sleep and quality of your sleep. Sleep quality refers how refreshing your sleep was so rank yourself a 1 if you were tossing and turning all night and record a 5 if you slept well and wake up feeling great.
6
Exercise
Finally, you should keep track of your exercise and workouts. Our app breaks this into cardio, weights and mindfulness. How strong do you feel? How well was your training session? Were you able to practice mindfulness during the day? You can log the time that you spend on these activities and add notes on how it is all going.
Analyze...
Once you have tracked some of biometric data then you can analyze it. Your data is likely to fluctuate day to day so ideally you want to try and look at weekly trends or averages.
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Under the ANALZYE section of the app, you can look at number of trends including: total calories, biometrics, meal timings, total macros, side-by-side meals, and hydration​ levels.
Update...
There are three main ways you can make updates to your plan.
Total Calories
You can increase or decrease your calories. A lower level of daily calories may sound better, but if you are too hungry or tired or grumpy then increasing your daily calories could be a good idea and may even help you stop snacking.
Daily Macronutrients
Change the allocation between macros can also help solve for issues like hunger and exercise. Increasing your protein intake will typically helps you feel fuller for longer and help with muscle repair. Fat is highly calorific and can help fill you up. And slow burning carbs can keep you powered through the afternoon, so play with the macros for the day.
Mealtime Allocations
Finally, you may want to play with your meals. Ideally you will have three main meals a day and your afternoon treat, however you may want to have 5 smaller meals spread evenly throughout the day. It is up to you to experiment.
Some final thoughts
And there you have it. Six simple steps to help you build a routine for eating well that will help you achieve your weight loss and lifestyle goals.
Remember that this is a journey. If you have bad eating habits that you need to change then it will take some time. But with small, good decisions made at every meal you will start to see the effects aggregate.
It can be frustrating at the start. In particular when you feel like you are putting in so much effort and not getting any results. But stick with it. You will get there. This all starts with changing the way you think about food and these thoughts will manifest in action.
By making those small, good choices to eat well at every meal your actions will in turn will become a routine. And with some more time, you will not even need to think about what you have to eat, it will just become your way of life.
Remember, as a rule of thumb it takes 30 days for your actions to become a routine and 90 days for your routine to become your new way of life.