SS Fitness

One thing that I find many people get frustrated about is their progress. We worry that we aren’t doing enough and that the results we think we deserve are taking their sweet time to manifest.

I encourage everyone to have several different ways to measure their progress. By this, I mean that many of us obsess over the number on the scale or our perceived body image, which is not always accurate.

I recommend:

1. Your weight: the number on the scale. Personally, I don’t track my actual weight at this particular point in my life because I found that it was not serving me well. When I get closer to my competitions, I will be more inclined to weigh myself. Right now, I am more focused on using the skin fold method and tracking my body fat percentage.
2. The way your clothes fit: we all know that as we slowly start to get closer to our goals, our clothes fit differently. The way they fit may be different, and this can be a great way to see your progress if you are not comfortable with the scale at this point.
3. Performance goals: how much you are lifting, how fast you can run a mile. This may not be the best tracker for physique goals, but many of my clients and friends, especially those who have had poor experiences with body image and fitness in the past, really gravitate toward this measure. It allows you to look past your appearance and instead focus on what your body is capable of. I think everyone should push to have performance as one of their measures, as it can feel much more achievable and can make fitness a lot more fun, helping to encourage you to hit important milestones. This all promotes consistency, and as we know, if you love what you are doing, you are more likely to stick with it.
4. Lastly, your confidence and mood: while this is much more difficult to track, many people can tell if they are feeling better. Health should help you to feel better, and if it’s not, then something is wrong. I always encourage lifting and fitness because I think it gives a lot of people a sense of confidence, which really shows up in their day-to-day lives. When we feel better, we are better people. I find that we are more encouraging to others, friendlier, and fewer insecurities help us have better and stronger relationships.

I know this is a bit of a random post, but I really just want to encourage you to look for progress in all aspects. Just because the scale doesn’t seem to be moving as fast as you want doesn’t mean that you aren’t improving. If you are making the necessary changes and working hard, you just have to be patient and keep at it. The results will come in time. I am so proud of you – keep up the great work and don’t stop.2