To count calories or not to count calories, is that the question? One of the most common questions I get is whether it's best to count calories and track food or following more of an “intuitive eating” style. If that’s your question too, you’ll want to read on. Today, I’m going to discuss both styles in hopes of helping you identify which may suit you best.

Before I begin, it’s important to note God’s instruction regarding peace. He tells us to first seek peace, then pursue it. Pursuing it means to confidently go after and follow it. When it comes to settling into a healthy pattern of lifelong peace with food and our bodies, the same rule applies. As you read this today, I encourage you to ask the Lord to help you identify the “whispers” of peace that you experience as you consider different options. He will lead you into peace. As you read, you’ll probably notice even small exhales of peace run through you as you learn more about one option versus the other. Don’t ignore that! That is the Holy Spirit fulfilling the promise to lead you into all peace. When you seek and discover peace, simply pursue it and be assured that you are on YOUR best path.

Overall, I prefer to see people become comfortable with the ability to eat intuitively. It's simply getting in touch with your body's natural hunger and satiety cues, being mindful about choosing foods that are both important to you and nourish you, and trusting your body, even with things like cravings. When we trust our bodies to perform exactly as God designed them to, so much of the anxiety and preoccupation we tend to have over food or diet rules naturally fade away. So, does that mean that counting (tracking) calories (or macros) is an unhealthy or less desirable option? Not at all! In my opinion, there can be a place for both! I am a big fan of tracking calories or journaling food in three scenarios:

Scenario #1: Tracking for Understanding

If you are new to nutrition and the journey to healthy eating, you may simply not have the knowledge needed to understand how many calories, or how much fat, sugar, protein, etc., certain foods have. Gaining knowledge and understanding is a critical part of improving your health, achieving your goals, and making informed decisions. For someone just getting started, tracking food and calories can be an incredibly helpful tool. It truly does teach you about how the food you eat affects your goals, gives you an accurate look at portion sizes, and helps increase awareness calorically.

Scenario #2: Tracking for Accountability and Mindfulness

Another benefit of tracking food is the accountability and mindfulness it helps provide. It's so easy to mindlessly grab a bite of something here, or a lick and taste of something there. Who else is famously guilty of taking last bites of your kid's meals, or a final bite of dinner when you are cleaning up? It's so easy to do and often we're not even truly hungry when we do it. Tracking food is a great way to help yourself stay accountable and mindful to prevent this type of behavior. When you commit to write down every single thing you eat, you become aware of just how often you're consuming mindless calories from the food you're not even fully enjoying. Creating this awareness is really helpful and important! Once you become more aware of that behavior, it is infinitely easier to overcome it.

Scenario #3: Tracking for Freedom of Mind

I find that tracking food typically causes one of two responses in people. They either feel very restricted and anxious about tracking and it triggers diet mentality, or it helps provides peace to have safe boundaries, mindfulness, and a visual snapshot of how they've fueled their body that day. If you fall into the first category I would say that counting calories and tracking food may not be part of your God-given, peace-filled plan. Long term healthy behaviors should not evoke feelings of anxiety or cause you to stumble mentally or emotionally.

Remember, seek PEACE and pursue it. If tracking food robs you of peace, it's simply not the right tool for you.

More traditional intuitive eating may be a better option for you. However, if you fall into the second category (personally, this is where I fall), tracking may provide a wonderful tool for increasing peace. This can by especially true during unusually stressful or busy times. I easily become less mindful of what I'm eating when I'm overly stressed or busy. It's not unusual during times like that for me to think back on the day and have absolutely no idea of what, or how much I ate. The biggest problem in that scenario for me is that it causes me to waste valuable energy and mind-space going back through the day asking things like, "Did I overdo it?" For me, tracking food provides information that yields peace. At the end of the day, I can simply take a look and know that I was eating appropriately and just put that thought "on the shelf," rather than wasting time rehashing the day. I find tracking food to be a freedom tool. If that's you, I believe it can be a blessed companion to an overall intuitive eating style.

If you identify yourself in any of these, adding (or continuing to if you're already tracking food) may prove to be a blessing for you. If you opt to track your food and calories, remember, all the elements of intuitive eating still apply! Trust your body and use tools that work FOR you. You'll be well on your way to finding your peaceful path!