Tracking Nutrition & Training During Lock Down

It’s funny how in times of crisis we humans show an urge to come out of our closets and put a makeshift effort to work upon the shortcomings that have always held us back in starting with any project or incomplete assignment. Fitness as a subject had been neglected by many from time to time, while it took a pandemic for few to come up and work upon themselves to bring a fitter and better side of them. With all good plans there are always those spoiler alerts that come along, and yes when I am talking about plans, how can I not mention about this friend of mine who happens to hold a degree when it comes to procrastinating things or events?

So, somehow this friend rose up to the time, and with a goal to only stop once the desired fitness levels have been achieved, but with those N number of problems, too. We tried figuring them through a discussion and we realized that for every N problem, there will always be N+1 solutions to cater to them. Nevertheless, let’s check out how the conversation went out:

Friend- Well coach, I would love to start my fitness journey, however I don’t have a food scale, so how would I track my caloric intake and how do I put a check on my food habits with respect to quantity?

When it comes to Quantified Nutrition, a food scale happens to be your biggest weapon of success, perhaps a companion for life. However if you don’t have your companion at that moment, you don’t stop the hustle, there are various other ways, too.

• Choosing the food items which can be counted in numbers/units could be a good way, eg: bread slices, eggs, cheese slices,whey, nuts, chapatis, etc. The calorie breakdown can be easily calculated for such items, either going by what’s mentioned in the packets or may be with what is universally accepted for them with some approximation (like 50–60 gm wheat flour = 2 med size Indian breads having nearly 170–180 calories, 1 whole egg = 6 gm protein and 5 gm fats having nearly 70 odd calories ). While there are various apps to check for the macro distribution for them, specially FITTR with a huge database of a variety of food items or My Fitness Pal, where you can even scan and get the values of the items.

• Preferring to fit in items like paneer, ready to cook oats, semolina (upma), etc can help as you can simply eyeball and separate out the quantity needed, plus they also come in small packets which makes it convenient to quantify and adjust in the plan.

• For items like rice, lentils, one can go about with the size of a typical bowl. (a medium size bowl of lentils would have around 30–50 gms lentils, having around 120–180 calories).

• For the content of oil/ ghee, going with a table spoon could do the job.

So, you see it’s about going in approximation in such scenarios, wherein it would be advisable to save some window in overall intake, so that it can be well compensated later.

• Another way over here would be to use the scoop of whey protein (if you have it) to measure the quantity of food items like rice, lentils, etc, while if you have those baking spoons, things can be easier than thought of. One heaping scoop of size around 33 gm (protein 25 gm) can help you get nearly 50 gm of rice.

Friend — And what about fruits? How do I add them?

• I would personally keep them less in quantity, specially because they provide lesser micro nutrients with respect to the density of calories they have, than what is actually believed to have by all. Yet, if you want to, try keeping fruits like bananas, apples or oranges where you don’t always need a kitchen scale typically to know the calories.

Friend- Well, this seems doable than what I thought of. But, I do have a couple of more concerns — I don’t have a weighing scale, while I misplaced my measuring tape. So, how will I track my progress?

• When it comes to fitness, it is way more than just the changes over scale. One needs to focus on over wellness and improvement in strength and endurance. You can easily track them by clicking pictures regularly, they are the best, trust me! While measurements can be validated through a pair of outfits, especially a jeans and a Tee. If really needed, you can use a ribbon/ thread with markings done at several points to track changes in statistics.

Friend- Wow, this looks great to start off. However, I am still note sure of how I am gonna do the exercises with no access to gym and outdoors.It’s a pretty sedentary routine that I am living these days.

• Philosophical and practically both, you need to come up with an attitude that you are working on building a habit moving forward, so something is always better than nothing. Starting with few body weight and core or mobility exercises could be a great way to begin your journey along with some HIIT stuff, and if you have those dumb bells and resistance bands, then my friend you are blessed! There can be various splits and circuits that could be prepared and executed using them. And yes, try staying active over the day, set up timely reminders during those long seated hours when you are working in front of the PC, last thing you would want is messing up with your posture.

And by the way, you can check out the live sessions in the FITTR app for the exercises to be done at home without any equipment.