A New Way to Measure Progress

Have you ever woken up, stretched, moved your body around and thought "wow, I feel great!" only to mosey downstairs, step on a scale and ruin your whole day?

I know it's happened to me about a million and a half times. I wake up feeling strong, fit, healthy and well-rested, then I step on a scale, see a number that I don't like and conveniently forget how amazing I felt just moments earlier.

You then base your entire day off of that number. Anything you do is subconsciously framed by "but I weighed X lbs. this morning". It all of a sudden doesn't matter how great your jeans fit, how easy your workout felt, how radiant your skin and hair looks, how happy you feel, how well hydrated you are, how many friends you have or how much fun you had today. The ONLY thing that matters is that weight.

This post is not to encourage you not to track progress in your health journey, but rather to explore some ways to measure progress that don't leave you hating your beautiful bod and feeling like a pile of poo! (It's important to note at this point that I am not completely against weighing yourself! I think that weight is just one measure of your health, and as far as I'm concerned, I put it at the bottom of the list.)

Instead of, or alongside weight, try tracking measurements for certain body parts, like waist or hips (important note: this can still be quite triggering for some, so keep an eye on how you feel during and after measuring yourself). Try taking photos of yourself in the morning once a week and comparing them to the previous week. Try keeping a journal of how you feel on a daily basis and include things like how your body feels as you move around through the world. Try measuring weight loss by a favorite dress or pair of jeans. Measure muscle gains and physical progress by focusing on what you can DO. ( this one is my favorite, can you tell?) Try new, challenging activities and measure your progress on how fun/easy/ exciting the activity feels! Focus on what your body can do instead of how it looks and things get a lot more relaxed and fun.

Instead of saying I want to lose 20 lbs., try saying I want to be able to hike to the top of that mountain and feel how freeing and encouraging that is. Instead of saying you aren't good enough and something needs to change, you get to re-frame it to the idea that you're fantastic, but you can also improve and become even more fantastic! It feels so much better.

Check out this video I made about a year ago discussing summer,swimsuits,body positivity, and joy.

Comment below with the goals you have, what you want to be able to DO with a healthy, strong body!