While on your fitness journey, one way to ensure frustration is to focus solely on the scale. There are nearly a dozen uncontrollable factors involved in weight fluctuation, that your day-to-day chances of seeing a decrease are fifty-fifty. No one likes losing! Think of your favorite childhood sport or game and imagine losing every single time you play. It wouldn’t be too fun, would it?
In order to see success, we must allow ourselves to win and to win often! The best way to do this is to step off the scale. Focus on areas in which you can win and build motivation and momentum from there.
5 Alternative Ways to Track Progress
Progress Pictures
There is nothing more motivating than scrolling through old progress pictures and seeing yourself transform. Do your best to take progress pictures in the same spot with the same lighting and clothing.
Gym Progress
Worry less about what you weigh and focus more on how much weight you can pick up. Track your gym sessions. You should always aim for some form of progression, whether it be lifting heavier weight, doing more reps, or increasing your endurance and form.
Measurements
Tracking your inches lost/gained is a must! We see clients all the time who stay around the same weight for a while but lose inches all over. One rule of thumb to remember is if your waist is shrinking, you are losing fat.
Getting Compliments
My clients will say, “Johnny from accounting said I looked super fit today” but then follow it up with, “but I don’t know…” COME ON! You really think someone would go out of their way to make that up? You take that compliment and eat it up!
Mindset
Anytime we catch ourselves making progress toward a better mindset, we should celebrate — whether it be saying no to a second potluck helping, stopping after one slice of pizza, getting back to the workout grind right after vacation, not beating yourself up over a slip (versus a relapse), or finally learning to focus on forms of progression that don’t include using the scale.
By Nico Abaya
