PREP WEEK: DAY 5 · Friday Training
Alcohol Tracking, Sleep & Stress
HAPPY FRIDAY, friends!
I hope that you have been practicing intermittent fasting and focusing on more whole food nutrition this week. If you haven't watched our daily training videos this week, I encourage you to do so as soon as possible. You will need to understand our strategies in order to move forward successfully. Prep Week is the only week I do daily videos to supplement all we’re learning.
I also challenged you to start tracking your meals in your new app! You need to practice this every day to ensure that you understand the concept of tracking macros. We will begin carb cycling next week; therefore, it’s important that you’re prepared!
Today, however, we’re going to talk about your biggest win so far this week! We ALWAYS celebrate weekly wins on Friday, so go ahead and get used to celebrating on a weekly basis!
Take some to think about it and tell us what your biggest win is for the week! We want to celebrate with you!
Do you have more energy to play with your children or pets?
Are you focusing more on whole foods?
Are you sleeping better?
It is important to celebrate every single small win along the way. Celebrating every step of progress, regardless of its size, is what will keep you going!
HOW DOES ALCOHOL FIT?
As we are approaching the weekend, I wanted to touch on something that a few of you have already asked about - how alcohol fits into our health journeys. This may or may not be relative for your specific journey; nonetheless, it's an important topic and it’s important for you to understand how it can negatively affect your overall health and fat loss efforts. One question that I ALWAYS get at some point is, "Can I still drink alcohol while living the FASTer Way?"
The answer to this question is fairly simple - if you are committed to an active pursuit of fat loss, I encourage you to limit your alcohol. When you drink, your body prioritizes metabolizing alcohol OVER metabolizing fat for up to 24 hours after drinking! What this means to you is this: Remember how I explained that your body has two energy/fuel sources (carbs and fats)? Do you remember that I told you that your body always burns carbs first, then fat? Well now I have a game changer for you. 😉 If you have alcohol in your body, your body prioritizes it first and must burn it off FIRST - even ahead of carbs and fats! You can see now how frequent alcohol consumption hinders our ability to be a fat burner. We want your body to stay in the prime fat-burning zone! 🔥
With all of that being said, you shouldn't be afraid to enjoy a drink or two on occasion. After all, we are trying to create a sustainable, practical lifestyle. If you want to enjoy a drink or two on treat day, by all means, do so! 🥂 Try choosing low carb, low calorie drinks such as white wine spritzers, skinny margaritas or vodka with seltzer and lime only.
As far as TRACKING alcohol, unfortunately, it isn't as simple as just scanning the barcode. Since our body has to burn alcohol first, it can be considered the fourth macronutrient (with no nutritional value). Here is why scanning the label into your app isn't a correct way to track:
Alcohol labels only show the following macronutrients: protein, carbs and fat. It doesn't show "alcohol" and since alcohol is considered the fourth macro, we have to include the calories that the "alcohol macro" brings to the table. There is a fairly simple way to track alcohol. It may not be simple at first, but please feel free to reach out if you need help tracking an alcoholic drink.
HOW TO TRACK ALCOHOL
You can track your alcohol 1 of 3 ways; as a carb, as a fat, or as a combo of both!
If your drink has 120 calories:
To track as a carb:
Divide 120 by 4 = 30g of carbs is what you track.
To track as a fat:
Divide 120 by 9 = 13.3g of fat is what you track.
To track as a combo of carbs & fat:
Divide 120 by 2 = 60
Then divide 60 by 4 = 15g of carbs
And divide 60 by 9 = 6.7g of fat
You would track 15g carbs & 6.7g fat for that drink.
Read the article attached for more information on how to track alcoholic drinks. Let me know if you have any questions. 🥂 After reading the article, you’ll need to understand how to track alcohol in the app. Go to the Nutrition Tab > scroll down to “Custom” + Add Food > Quick Add.
https://www.avatarnutrition.com/blog/flexible-dieting/track-alcohol-macros/
