If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it

We all have those days, weeks…months?…where we feel frustrated. Where we are making all the “right” moves toward our goals, but not exactly getting where we want to be. It’s complicated, and there is so much data to look at. How do you measure your progress?

The Dreaded Scale

Many people have a love/hate relationship with this device. It is the most common way to measure progress with health. The problem is, most people have a “weekly weigh-in” and don’t take into account the daily changes our body goes through. What you ate for dinner, how much water you are retaining, whether you have had a bowel movement…these all play a role in determining what that scale says.

We let this number affect our mental health. How many times have you gotten a result that you didn’t like, and said to yourself, ‘forget it — none of this matters, I’ll just have a cookie’. Oh wait — is that just me? Don’t tell me if it is. 😂

Pro tip: as long as you don’t have an emotional attachment to this number–and trust me, this has taken me a long time–taking an average over time is a much better measure of this data.

Tape measure

Another way to measure your progress is to literally measure your body. I bought a new tape measure last month, and so far, I’ve been impressed! It is easy to use on yourself, and keeps the data in an app, which is really convenient.

Again…this is something that is better to collect data and look for trends over time rather than obsessing over your measurements.

That is so hard to do! I know. I’m right there with you. If I knew how to stop obsessing, believe me, I would be giving out all the tips. As it stands, I just measure and forget about it. And then conveniently forget to measure for the next 6 months. 😉

Body Scans

You might be thinking, ‘what other torture devices are available to shoot down my confidence and tell me I’m clinically obese?’ Well, my friend, you are in luck! InBody is just such a torture device!

How much body fat do you have? How much lean muscle mass? What is your bone density? If you have ever wondered about those things…look no further. Set your bare feet on the scale and your hands on the convenient handle and let the…current?…flow through and determine the amount of all your tissues.

Then you can look at the results and die inside just a little bit.

But remember…like any other scale…it is affected by what you ate the night before, what time of day you are measuring, and can vary widely in the numbers it tells you–even on the same day. So take heart!

Which brings me to…

DXA Scanning

This scan is supposed to have maybe a 1% margin of error. Lie down, let the low-grade X-ray judge you. Show you your Visceral Adipose Tissue (that is, fat around your organs). Have fat somewhere else? Yep…you’ll see all that in a dark purple color! Didn’t think you were fat before? Oh boy, get ready!!

To be honest…it is a really good baseline. Repeating this measurement a couple times a year is probably beneficial. There is a lot of data to sift through and utilize to adjust your current routine and nutrition. (I’m still sifting through my data…and trying to understand what it all means.) Dr. Peter Attia probably has a podcast all about this scan and how to interpret data.

Non-Scale Victories

We can’t always rely on the hard data. Sometimes, you have to step back and assess your quality of life. Scale stays the same…are your clothes fitting better? Do you have more energy? Can you lift heavier weights? Did you beat your personal best mile time? There are plenty of other ways to measure your progress that have nothing to do with the outward appearance of your body.

Frankly…this is the HARDEST part of measuring for me. I tend to focus on the negative side; for example: ‘I can lift 5 more lbs than last week…but still not as much as ‘so-and-so”. This is extremely counterproductive. Once I figure out how to stop doing this I’ll probably write a post about it. 😁 Until then, I’ll try out all the tricks I can find to stop the self-sabotage.

So tell me…how do you measure progress? Anything else I should try?