As the title suggests this post is about how I keep track of my progress with cold hard data.
Ive always been interested in data and how it applies to everyday things, for example I can tell you off the top of my head what the gas mileage is of my car, my wife's car and the boat.
Anything I have an interest in has some form of data associated with it, how much of that data I look at or think about would usually be determined by the level of passion or how much I care about it.
That interest in data has naturally invaded my weight loss progress, nutrition labels, comparisons between food, natural weight cycles. The list could go on and on, but you get the point.
Some people prefer to weigh in every few days to weekly, fortnightly and even monthly to track their progress. Way too irregular for me.
I weigh in at least every morning before eating or drinking anything right after I have had my morning wee, this gives me a baseline, where I know all things are equal each day. I also log any new mini-goal reached (weight and date) on the bathroom mirror, so I have a quick reference visually and can see the weight either dropping or stalling over time.
This I find motivating in a couple of ways, firstly if I can see slow or no movement over the past couple of weeks its time to reflect on what I have been eating and look for anything that may be stalling me and adjust accordingly.
Secondly, when I can see progress it gives me even more motivation to stay on track and keep focused and it makes me feel good to see the numbers drop and reach that new milestone.
Thirdly, it helps me keep track of what effects different foods have on my weight and re-enforces the rule that a treat is really just that....a treat.
I can see how different foods or treats change the figures, for example: the beers I had one Saturday night affected my progress over the next few days (and it does big time, 4 slices of regular pizza and 8 or 9 regular beers not only stalled me for 5 days but I gained over 1kilo (water weight mainly is my guess) for 4 days), but that was ok, because it was a planned night out and we had a bloody good time. I knew there would be consequences other than a slight hangover the next day.
Keeping an eye on the numbers on a daily basis also helps me avoid seeing any depressing gains and the demoralizing effects that can have, because if you are keeping track of the figures so closely nothing can go out of control without you being aware of it. This I admit is easier for me as a man, as we do not fluctuate all that much over the course of a month unlike the female of our species with her monthly cycles.
90.30kg as of this morning.
Ive always been interested in data and how it applies to everyday things, for example I can tell you off the top of my head what the gas mileage is of my car, my wife's car and the boat.
Anything I have an interest in has some form of data associated with it, how much of that data I look at or think about would usually be determined by the level of passion or how much I care about it.
That interest in data has naturally invaded my weight loss progress, nutrition labels, comparisons between food, natural weight cycles. The list could go on and on, but you get the point.
Some people prefer to weigh in every few days to weekly, fortnightly and even monthly to track their progress. Way too irregular for me.
I weigh in at least every morning before eating or drinking anything right after I have had my morning wee, this gives me a baseline, where I know all things are equal each day. I also log any new mini-goal reached (weight and date) on the bathroom mirror, so I have a quick reference visually and can see the weight either dropping or stalling over time.
This I find motivating in a couple of ways, firstly if I can see slow or no movement over the past couple of weeks its time to reflect on what I have been eating and look for anything that may be stalling me and adjust accordingly.
Secondly, when I can see progress it gives me even more motivation to stay on track and keep focused and it makes me feel good to see the numbers drop and reach that new milestone.
Thirdly, it helps me keep track of what effects different foods have on my weight and re-enforces the rule that a treat is really just that....a treat.
I can see how different foods or treats change the figures, for example: the beers I had one Saturday night affected my progress over the next few days (and it does big time, 4 slices of regular pizza and 8 or 9 regular beers not only stalled me for 5 days but I gained over 1kilo (water weight mainly is my guess) for 4 days), but that was ok, because it was a planned night out and we had a bloody good time. I knew there would be consequences other than a slight hangover the next day.
Keeping an eye on the numbers on a daily basis also helps me avoid seeing any depressing gains and the demoralizing effects that can have, because if you are keeping track of the figures so closely nothing can go out of control without you being aware of it. This I admit is easier for me as a man, as we do not fluctuate all that much over the course of a month unlike the female of our species with her monthly cycles.
90.30kg as of this morning.
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