Measure success by what you gain, not lose
In today's image conscious world, people are more concerned with
how much they weigh than about how good they feel about
themselves. Measuring their success by how many kilograms they
have lost instead of how many amazing things they've gained by
following a healthy diet and exercise plan.
Diets and fitness programs have been taken on with one single
goal in mind....to lose weight, lose fat, lose inches, lose,
lose, lose! But when you really analyse your fitness program, do
you ever think of what you can gain instead? No, I'm not talking
about gaining weight or inches, but rather gaining confidence, a
satisfaction of success, a better self esteem, self-respect,
muscle definition, increased energy, better health and a better
physical condition?
So many people make the common mistake of using a weight scale
to determine how successful their new diet or fitness program
is. Scales are possibly the worst piece of equipment used to
determine our success. An ordinary weight scale can only
determine our body mass as a whole, and not our individual fat
weight, muscle weight, bone density or even the amount of water
we're carrying on the day we measure ourselves. All that counts,
each bone and each litre of water we carry, can influence the
needle reading.
Each day, our weight fluctuates, which means the scale
indication will differ. All this can be caused by a number of
factors; water retention, the time of day we measure ourselves,
the clothes we wear and most importantly the different scales we
step on. Think about it, how many times have you heard someone
tell you how much they prefer their own scale to the one at the
gym? Is it because they have adjusted their scale to show
relatively fewer kilograms? Weighing yourself on a carpet or
tile surface can also influence the reading.
Instead of jumping on the scale and measuring your progress day
to day to determine how successful your new fitness program is,
why not measure your success by all the things that have
positively changed in your life because of your new fitness
routine?
Its pretty simple, when you exercise regularly you feel so much
more energized and even though your scale weight may not always
get lighter, your mirror reflection becomes more bearable,
friends and family members constantly compliment you, and you
feel much healthier. But there's always that damn scale weight
lurking in the back of your mind, and after stepping on it, only
to be told you are exactly where you were when you started, you
begin to lose interest and return to your old unhealthy patterns.
Believe me, its very frustrating, not to mention de-motivating
when you spend an hour in the gym each day and follow a healthy
diet only to be told by a piece of machinery that you are not
doing any good. Setbacks like that can seriously put strain on
your desire to complete a fitness routine.
So my advice to you is, toss the scale, try to stay away from it
as much as possible, but if you must only measure yourself every
three to four weeks. Make sure you are using the same scale at
each measurement and make sure that you do it early in the
morning on an empty stomach, after you have been to the toilet.
Start focusing on all the positive things that have happened in
your life to determine the success of your efforts.