IIFYM–Getting Started

For those of you who are saying “What the Whaaaaaaat is she talking about” you may want to check out THIS post where I tell you all about my new fitness journey with If It Fits Your Macros. After you do that visit Skinny Meg’s blog. Megan has been doing this way longer than I have and knows what’s up! Her blog if full of helpful IIFYM info!

Let me tell ya how today’s blog post is going to play out because it has a lot going have a lot going on……

I want to share a few things that I’ve enjoyed since starting this eating plan. I received several emails from peeps with great question about the program. Some of those questions were asked often so I thought I would answer them here as well. Annnnd I have some “before” photos for ya.

Let’s jump in……

 

Things I found helpful my 1st week of counting macros

1. My Fitness Pal Premium- I upgraded to the premium version and am so happy I did. It’s made tracking somewhat easier and I love all the graphs. It’s great for visual people. There’s a hack that’s floating around out there if you don’t want to pay for the upgrade. Who does, right? I couldn’t figure it out though so I got frustrated and just paid for it. Just search “My Fitness Pall Hack” and you should be able to find it.

2. YouTube & Pinterest – I’m going to lump these 2 together because I used them the same way. I did a little hunting on these two platforms for all the help and tips I could find. Loved watching IIFYM grocery hauls on YouTube for food ideas. Also found a few people that talk about setting up MFP to make it more Macro friendly. Great place to start your IIFYM research. (I’ll include links to some of these things below.

3. Periscope – Ahhh I can’t say enough great things about this beautiful little IIFYM community that’s forming on Periscope! I LOVE chatting with everyone and find it so inspiring and helpful. The other day I did a roll call during one of my scopes and asked people to share how much they wanted to lose. It was pretty awesome see all the numbers roll in. Yes they were just numbers but behind each number was a person working towards reach their own personal goal. I found it so inspiring! If you have the Periscope app you can find me under Kendra_Huie. Also look up Skinny Meg. Her scopes are super informative!

4. Food Scale – Because well that’s your main tool during this program! I picked mine up at Target for $18 (I think) but you can find them at several places and of course on Amazon. What can’t you buy on Amazon, right? After buying mine Skinny Meg mentioned that you should try to find one that not only weighs ounces & grams but also milliliters. You can always convert to milliliters but if you’re able to find a scale that does it for you it would just make your IIFYM world just a tad bit easier.   

5. Pen and Paper – Keep it somewhere handy! There were several times I either didn’t have time to enter my macros into MFP or I couldn’t find my phone. If you have a pen and paper handy jot down your macros and enter them in when you can. No excuses! 

6. Calculator – I waited way too long to pick one up. A calculator is a must when figuring out serving sizes. Before I got one I was going into MFP then exiting to use the calculator on my phone then back into MFP to track my food. Nope! Make it easy on yourself and pick up a cheap calculator if you don’t already own one.

 

Yummy food

Just a few phone snaps of some yummy food I’ve eaten the last week. I’m thinking a IIFYM food post should happen soon!

Zoodles, sandwiches (oh sandwiches how I’ve missed you), Trader Joe’s Spinach Kale bites, and Trader Joe’s Mahi Mahi burgers have been some of my fave foods this week.

FAQs

I’ve received a few emails from people considering starting IIFYM. I always feel the need to start all my replies with “This is all new to me”. I don’t want to dish out advice about a program when I am newer than a newbie ya know buuuut I’m happy to share what I have learned so far. There were the questions that were most commonly asked in the emails I’ve received.

Did you feel full? Yes yes yes! Y’all since starting IIFYM I am never hungry and have a hard time making sure I get in all my calories. Now keep in mind I’m 5 9’ and have 60lbs to lose so my macros will be higher than someone that has less to lose but all around a little weight to lose or a lot the program is all about turning our bodies into calorie burning machines aka eat all the food burn all the food! 

I’m nervous about starting. Why did you decided to jump in? I was nervous too so much so that I sat back and watched the program for months before deciding to jump in. I kept telling myself that I would keep researching and learn more about counting macros before starting. What ended up happening is months went by I wasn’t any more educated about counting macros and it all still kind of made my head swim. I knew that if I just didn’t jump in and learn as I went along it wasn’t going to happen. I made a mini goal to follow the program for a month then go from there. I knew I was mentally in a place where I was ready to start tackling this baby weight aka I have some fight in me. No matter what program you decide to start IIFYM, Weight Watchers, Cleaning eating, Paleo, whatever…..there is ALWAYS that “Growing Pain” phase. Things are new and you have to kind of dive in to figure it out. I’m rounding out my 2nd week and things are much better than they were last week but I would say that I’m still in that “Growing Pain” phase and that’s ok! It’s all about that fight! No this isn’t easy clean eating isn’t easy either. The question isn’t “Do you think I can do it?” but ask yourself “Do I want it bad enough to fight for it?” “It” being whatever diet regiment you decide is best for you. You have to want it bad enough to tackle the “Growing Pains”! 

Has it been hard? I could sugar coat this for you but that wouldn’t do you any good so the honest truth….YES it has been hard. I had no idea what I was doing when 1st started. I had to figure things out on my own. The flip side of that is I can also honestly say only 13 days it’s clicking more and more each day. I still have things to learn but it’s definitely not as challenging as it was that 1st week. I entered my 1st recipe in MFP last night. It actually wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be but I couldn’t figure out how to enter my portion. See still learning! You just have to give yourself grace as you’re figure it all out.

Who did you macros? Elizabeth aka Poppy Locks (look at the more section then counting macros on her site if you would like to reach out to her about doing your macros). I was on the fence about hiring a coach. I figured it was going to be expensive and I needed to make sure this was what I wanted to do 1st before putting more $ into it. Well Most coaches will calculate your macros for around $30-$35. I decided I didn’t want to waste 2 weeks not knowing if I was where I should be macro wise so I reached out to Elizabeth. She was very helpful and I recommend having a coach help you out if you’re able to swing the fee. 

What blogs/recourses have you found helpful? As I touched on above in the tools I found helpful section did a lot of hunting on Pinterest and YouTube. There are TONS of IIFYM’ers out there kindly sharing their knowledge. I will include a few links to blogs and YouTube videos I found helpful below.

Vlog’s I Found Helpful
How to Set Up My Fitness Pal for IIFYM

Larry North’s Path to Wellness Workshop

Jazmine’s Healthy Essentials Grocery Haul
Alexandrea’s My Food Staples Grocery Haul
-Side Note On Her Haul……
I tried the yogurt which is pretty popular with macro counters but it wasn’t my jam; super sweet and taste artificial. Wasn’t a fan of the protein bars she recommended either. They’re growing on me but I don’t love them. I also didn’t like the baby bell cheese (the ones in the blue wrapper) yuck! I did however like the bread she recommended. I’ve been checking macros on bread since starting IIFYM and haven’t been able to find a better macro bread yet. I also loved the dressing she recommends. Even though I wasn’t in love with some of the things she mentioned it’s still a great vlog to get some ideas when you’re 1st starting out. 

Blog’s I’ve Been Visiting

Skinny Meg

Live Fit

Malzis Fit

Work In Progress

My Life in Macros

Week 2 Pictures (My Before Pictures). I figured I would share these with you guys since you can’t always see where I’m at weight wise from an Instagram selfie. These were taken on the same day but I took my outer shirt off so you could see my mid section a little better!

And the journey begins!

I’ll see you back here on Wednesday (I post every Wednesday) for phone pics that didn’t make it to Instagram It’s should be a fun mindless random post! My kind of post!

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