In the very beginning I was a big advocate of not weighing or measuring myself. I thought that time would tell of my results and success would come inevitably.
Don’t forget to Record Baseline Stats to see how far you have come!
After all I should be able to see the success of all my hard work, shouldn’t I? Well there is a slight problem with that thinking.
While the weight took decades to be heaped on, one still thinks that it should come off 10X as fast.
That is why most of us fail, our road is paved with every good intention,, except patience.
You put it on slow, and it makes sense you should take it off slow.
Losing weight slowly can help this become a lifestyle, you also can avoid saggy skin, and other problems with rapid weight loss.
In hindsight, this is why it is important, to take baseline measurements.
Because these small steps can only be recognized if you have a measured starting point.
So what should you start with?
Starting Weight – try and weight yourself, the same way and at the same time of day.
Height – you will need this for BMI
Body Measurements
Neck, Chest, Waist, Hips are important. Arms, thighs, calves, forearms, shoulders and back are optional.
Current Daily Caloric Intake – this is not what you should be eating but what you are eating right now. The easiest way to do this, is to keep a food journal and write down everything you eat for 1-2 weeks.
BMR – Find your Basic Metabolic Requirements and how many calories you need per day to lose weight.
All of these should be your baseline stats and measurements. Now comes the painful part, take photos of yourself.
Any before photos you have of yourself will become great motivation as the weight begins to fall off. You just may forget what your former self looked like!
And more importantly when people cant believe how much weight you lost, you will have photographic proof to show them!
Now that you have all that recorded where should you store it?
Well I still see people who bring in old-fashioned notebooks into the gym and hey, they work.
We Live in A Digital Age for a Reason…
And that is to make our lives easier. So why track in paper what you can easily track on your smartphone and can easily update it real time.
Right down to every step you take, and every morsel you eat.
Two programs I like are MyFitnessPal and BodySpace both should be available in the app store of your favorite phone operating system.
Both allow you to track your workouts, and eating real time and tracks it effortlessly for you. All for free.
What other apps do you like to track your nutrition and workouts?
Don’t forget that two things will always trump the entire effort you put into the gym everyday.
How well you follow healthy eating habits, and how much you move throughout the day.
You can wipe out an entire workout with one candy bar, slice of pizza, or ice cream cone.
But eat well at each meal, move all day, and workout and you will build a healthier new you.
Heck you can even skip the workouts if you just ate healthy and moved all day!
Well now that you have setup and are ready to record baseline stats, it is time to move on to the next step of our simple reset.
Setting up a movement and exercise plan, yes they are different things…