Graze Anatomy – The Truth About Food Grazing

Posted by Coach Todd on Mar 14, 2012 in Nutrition | 2 comments

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Your at the family’s Sunday dinner and every snack known to the human race has been made available to you thanks to Aunt Agniss and her Food Network obsession. Or maybe you are at the birthday party you dont really want to be at, so you avoid social interaction by making your way back and forth between the bounce palace and the snack table, never stopping long enough for someone to ask “so which one is your kid?” Whatever the occasion…Well, it doesnt even need to be an occasion because we do this at home as well. But food grazing can be a very effective tool in portion control, but it can also kill your daily macros if you arent paying attention.

3 Food Grazing Issues

There are 3 issues when it comes to food grazing that you are going to need to be aware of. Having success when it come to weight loss, or getting ripped is all in the details, so while food grazing might seem like an insignificant topic…you need to pay attention, because these issues have even caught the ol’ Coach Todd off guard.I

Issue #1 – You Wont Track It

This is the most common mistake people make when they hit the open range and start grazing. You dont end up tracking what you are eating and before you know it, you have eaten the entire tray of lil’ smokies….mmm…lil’ smokies….er sorry! But think about the last time you entered those “well its just a bite” snacks into your nutritional tracking. Pretty much never! I’m guilty! This is precisely the problem.

The nature of grazing can be extremely hazardous to your success if you arent careful. Think about how grazing works for a second. You take a bite hear and there. You make a little plate of goodies. This small servings, while they might seem insignificant, can start to add up pretty quickly and you will find yourself 200-300 calories (maybe even more) before you realize that you are getting full.

If you are disciplined and focused on getting results then of course you will recall everything that went down the hatch and log that in your nutritional tracking and adjust your meals to make up for the influx. But because there is something in the mind that tells you “its such a small portion”, you wont track it.

Issue #2 – You Eat Too Much

As previously stated, because the servings are so small, a bite hear and a bite there, they seem insignificant. Lets just say that you take one bite of “something” every 5 minutes for an hour and a half. Thats 18 bites of something which equates to a pretty big snack! Enough to make a dent in your allotted daily intake at least!

Another reason that we eat too much when we start food grazing is because of the size of the food. You dont see too many people grazing on a 16oz new york steak or a 12oz lean grilled chicken breast unless they are pure man-ness, wear flannel, wrestle tigers for a living, and box with kangaroos in the outback for fun.

Usually the food we graze on is something that is already portioned perfectly for a single bite like chips, cheeses, deli meat/cream cheese rolls, possibly some fruit/veggies, and lil smokies…mmm…lil smokies…DANGIT! Its this bite size mentality that turns off the tracking switch in the brain and turns on the compromise switch that tell you “its just one bite”. Just one bite…over and over again.

So watch out and be on your guard, and dont fall into this trap of letting your brain tell you its just one bite, because those “just one bite’s” will add up quickly. Pay attention to what you are doing and keep track of what you put in the fuel tank!

Here is what I do: Get a small plate and fill it up with what you are going to allow yourself to eat (1 trip). When you have that plate, you are far less likely to keep coming back to the snack table for more. And dont just hold the plate while the food goes directly from serving dish to mouth. Actually use the plate, lol.

Issue #3 – The Foods Are Generally Not Healthy

This is the biggest issue when it comes to food grazing. The food is usually just crap. Grazing foods are usually bite size and come in small portions unlike your healthier choices like lean meat, complex carbs, fruits, and veggies. Well, actually fruits and veggies can come it bite size portions so that would be your best option. You still need to track it though!

But when you are at some type of social event, go ahead and think about what types of snack foods were available. The chips, the salsa, the deli meats/cheeses, the cake and pies, the jello surprise, the bean dip, those stupid wedding mints, and lil smokies…mmm…lil smokies…WHAT THE HECK!!! My bad!

So what do you do? The BEST thing you could do is plan ahead and bring a healthy snack if you know that no healthy options will be available. Even more important that you bring your own snack if you dont know what is going to be available. I usually have some jerkey or a protein bar in the glove box of my car all the time for situations just like this.

If you dont have your own snack and there happens to be some fruit and veggie trays…stick to those. Dont go overboard on the fruit though if you are on the fat shredder plan because it will throw your carbs up real quick.

The key solution to this food grazing epidemic, lol…is that you PLAN. I think this will be etched into my headstone, but “if you fail to plan, then plan on failing”. If you arent careful, you can quickly throw you nutrition out of whack and find yourself in a place you dont want to be called excuse-land. But if you are a member of RIPPEDCLUB…You dont make excuses!