3 Ways to Track Progress, that aren’t Based on How You Look
Hello lovely ones,
It’s getting to that time of year isn’t it? Where all of the “new year, new you” BS marketing starts to come out of the woodwork and all of a sudden you find yourself pressured into signing up for some sort of extreme January workout regime and diet plan, all so that you can fit into that societally prescribed “ideal” … and then what happens? Maybe you stick to the plan for a while, and maybe you feel good for it, but sooner or later you find yourself falling “off the wagon” and so the cycle continues.
I have spoken at length as to why that happens. But in short, it’s because these extreme exercise and diet regimes are not sustainable. They don’t take into account you having a normal human existence with things like holidays, bereavements, stress, kids... All of which affect your ability to follow a bodybuilder's workout plan and don’t even get me started on how inconsiderate toxic fitness culture is of your hormones… Take all of that and wrap it up in a calorie count that often isn’t even enough to sustain a toddler and it’s no wonder so many folks feel like they’ve “failed’ before January is even over. And that’s the real kicker - if you didn’t know already, diet culture and this type of marketing relies on you failing... It relies on you buying in time and time again to the latest trend, that’s what makes it a multi-billion dollar industry.
You know I want to change that narrative so here are my 2 (or 3) cents. Exercise is about so much more than weight loss and health is about so much more than how we look, that doesn’t however mean that you cannot track or acknowledge your progress, today I want to share with you 3 ways that you can measure your progress that aren’t based on how you look.
Notice how you feel
Health is about so much more than how we look, we literally cannot tell how healthy someone is just by looking at them and often when we say “healthy” what we actually mean is “thin”. This is because societal conditioning teaches us that a thin body is a healthy body - not true! Health encompasses your stress levels, your resting heart rate, your CO2 max, how well you sleep and many other things, none of which can be guaranteed by body size. I would always say to keep a journal of how you feel at the start of exercise, and how you feel after and a regular check-in every 10 days or so, it can be super simple, literally one word (if you’re a SLAM member you’ll notice these check-ins are present in your workout books) that way you can look back get a representation of how your exercise regime is making YOU feel! If you feel better than you did before you started then you, my friend, are making positive progress!
Are things easier?
The magic really is in the basics, instead of obsessing over how many pounds you have dropped or what that pesky wee sad step count says your relativity to the ground is - pay attention to whether the basics in your life are feeling easier - Are you moving up the stairs at work faster? Do the manual parts of your life or job feel easier? These are real-life indicators that you are getting fitter and stronger - PROGRESS <3
Are you happier?
Movement should be joyful, we are taught that it is only valid as a punishment, a way to shrink our bodies and atone for what we eat but in fact, movement is a surefire way to get a good ole endorphin release and endorphins make you feel happier! Life is hard work, we face so many challenges as humans so if you have found something that helps you feel fitter and stronger and you notice that as a result, you are also feeling happier, less stressed, less angry, more responsive and less reactive then you are making progress toward a better, more fulfilled life!
So there you have it, three ways to measure your exercise progress that have absolutely nothing to do with how you look, I hope you find them useful friends and I hope that this helps you work towards a healthier relationship with your body!