As I was out walking the other day, I was listening to an episode of an awesome podcast where the host (Hal Elrod) was interviewing the CEO of Organifi. They were talking about how to measure success on the weight loss journey (as well as other journeys – but weight loss was being used as an example).
I was delighted to hear the conversation lead to a very different way of measuring success.
What we typically think when a weight loss goal is discussed, is that you’re going to need to step on the scale at varying intervals and track your progress that way.
The problem with this (especially for women) is that changes in weight aren’t always an accurate indicator of success! Sometimes we’ll see an increase on the scale, but a decrease in inches.
This is because muscle is more dense than fat, so if you’re focused on building muscle (which of course improves metabolism) and losing fat at the same time, you’re probably going to occasionally see some numbers you don’t want to see! There’s also hormonal changes, how much sleep you had last night, what colour undies you’re wearing today (kidding!), or certain foods which may cause bloating or inflammation.
So while the scale and body measurements can provide you with some idea of where you’re at, and in particular where you’re starting, there is another (and probably better!) way to measure your progress towards your weight loss goal, and I’m going to talk about that in a moment.
So what’s a better way to measure your weight loss progress?
If using the scale to track your progress isn’t the best way, then what is? What should you be tracking instead?
Your new habits are what you need to track! Remember, your old habits and choices brought you where you are now – you’re in a place where you want to lose weight. To stay where you are, all you need to do is keep making the same choices.
So if you choose not to make some changes to your choices and actions, how will you achieve your weight loss goal?
Exactly!!!
Tracking your new habits, choices and actions
When tracking your new habits, choices and actions, what are you actually tracking as such? How often are you applying them? How consistent are you in creating your new habits?
Your new habits could be one or more of the following:
- Eat mindfully at every meal (Put your fork down between bites, chew slowly, remove all distractions such as your phone or the TV, and enjoy your meals)
- Stop eating when you feel 80% full. Wait 20 minutes before eating anything else, if you’re still hungry.
- Gradually add whole foods into each meal. Start with one meal per day, gradually building this up over time until most of your meals contain fresh, healthy, whole foods.
- Exercise for 5 minutes, three times per week. Build this to 15 minutes per day over time, and maybe add in extra days here and there for just going for a walk.
- Take the stairs whenever you can.
- If you’re working from home, set a reminder for every hour, and do a lap of your house each hour. This gets your blood pumping a little, and it clears your head.
Let’s explore some examples of each way of tracking…
Betty’s weight loss progress using the scale
Betty wants to lose weight. She has weighed herself and she wants to lose 20kg (around 40-50lbs). Every single week she’s on the scale, tracking her progress.
She’s committed to eating healthier and exercising more often, but hasn’t made a specific plan for this.
Like any human, she will likely have some great weeks, followed by some not so great weeks, and the more not so great weeks she experiences, the more quickly her commitment to her goal will diminish.
Change is HARD, and if you’re seeing constant fluctuations, it’s so easy to become disheartened and eventually give up. Not only that but we really don’t have a lot of control over what our bodies do sometimes, and this can feel really disempowering!
Susan’s weight loss progress using habit tracking
Susan also wants to lose weight. She has weighed herself and taken all of her measurements, and plans to check these measures again in 2-4 weeks.
Susan knows that she needs to change her eating habits and she needs to move more, so she makes a list of what she would like to start doing:
- Eat mindfully at every single meal
- Add in one new whole, fresh food per week, gradually building this up to daily or every other day.
- Exercise for a minimum of 15 minutes per day, three days per week. This can be walking or resistance training – she gets to choose.
Over the course of the next few months, Susan will use a checklist to keep herself accountable to her goal to implement and stick to her new habits.
Her focus right now is not on her weight or her measurements. She already knows her starting point, so now it’s about becoming the new version of herself that she wants to be, that has a healthy, fit and strong woman.
Susan’s focus on sticking to these habits is also a focus on what she can control. This gives Susan a feeling of empowerment as she progresses towards her goal, and she’s less likely to lose faith in the process.
What happens next?
As expected, Betty eventually loses momentum. After weeks of frustration and a lack of results, she eventually gives up and goes back to her old habits and ends up putting on more weight than she was carrying before.
Susan on the other hand, has been tracking her new habits, and while she’s not been perfect, she has known to get back on track whenever she veers off sometimes (we are all human after all). Eventually Susan will add in new habits as the old ones become a part of who she is, therefore improving her progress even more.
Why did this happen?
Losing weight and keeping it off isn’t about hoping for the best. It’s 100% about changing your habits.
Your old habits got you to a point where you need to lose weight, so they’re certainly not going to help you to actually lose the weight, are they?
So it’s really important to start implementing new habits – making new choices – to move you toward your goal to have the body that you want. But how can you know how consistent you’re being with your new habits unless you’re tracking them?
Susan did a great job of creating some new habits which weren’t going to cause a complete life overhaul in one go, but this would still help her to get closer to achieving her goal.
Choosing your new habits
It is very common for a person to become “stuck” when coming up with new habits to start applying to their life, and the overwhelm becomes stagnation, so they don’t make any choices at all.
So what is important here is to make ANY choice. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it’s not a choice you’ve not been making previously.
You’ll very quickly learn whether that new choice was a positive one or not, from the “feedback” or “sign posts” you recieve after making this choice. I’ve talked about feedback in another post.
If you’re worried that a new choice you make may be the wrong one, that’s perfectly ok, because you can always make a new choice later on!
How to get started
It’s really important to remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day! It probably took you years to get to where you are, so it’s not going to take you five minutes to reverse that!
I therefore suggest that when you’re starting to make new choices, to start small.
The reason for this suggestion is that if the shift is too big, it may feel too hard, overwhelming or uncomfortable, and you will either not move forward at all, or you’ll resist the change altogether.
As you begin to form these new habits, you can start adding in new (and even slightly bigger) ones and take it from there!
Whatever you do doesn’t have to be immediately life-changing, but over time, they will accumulate into one big change!
Every few weeks or months, sure, step on the scale and check your weight, but I can guarantee you that your weight loss progress will be directly linked to your consistency with your new habits! So what’s great about tracking how well you are sticking to your new habits is that you will have a tangible reason for why you may or may not be moving toward that desired weight loss goal!
Soul Realignment for Weight Loss
If you are noticing a great deal of resistance to implementing a new habit, there could be something going on in your energy to cause that. You could have some blocks or restrictions in your energy field, or limiting beliefs, some of which may have formed earlier in this life or during a past life, which seem to be “sabotaging” your efforts.
All is not lost when this happens though – we can clear those blocks and restrictions quite easily, and while starting a new habit may feel really uncomfortable, you will be more likely to give it a red hot go than if we hadn’t cleared the blocks. Mind you, anyone can lose weight without a Soul Realignment – it’s just that this can sometimes make it feel easier to change those habits!
