We know that when people make healthy changes, they often measure success by measuring weight loss. The problem with tracking our weight is that it’s not the best marker of health. Weight fluctuates, day to day, week to week – with hormones, time of day, hydration and more. When weight loss slows or plateaus, does that mean our healthy choices aren’t paying off? Absolutely not! For all these reasons, we like to think of weight loss as a possible ‘side effect’ of healthy lifestyle changes, but not the main motivator! But, when we focus less on weight, how else can we measure success?
Improving your health markers
Reducing our risk of lifestyle diseases is, rightly so, a major healthy lifestyle motivator for most people. Some of our risk factors for developing lifestyle diseases, such as the amount of fat (lipid) and sugar in our blood, and our blood pressure, can be hugely impacted by any healthy changes we make. Thankfully, these markers can also be measured in a simple blood test. Talk to your doctor about checking your blood lipids, blood pressure, Hba1c (marker of your blood sugars over the last 3 months).
If any are higher than expected, setting some goals to normalise or improve these over time is a great objective way to measure your health improvements and progress over time!
Strength and fitness goals
For many of us, when we focus on our health, we try to increase the frequency we exercise too. With consistency, our fitness and strength will inevitably improve, but sometimes improvements can be subtle, and unless we set goals and monitor our progress overtime, we might not give ourselves the credit we deserve!
Write down measurable goals, perhaps the time it takes to walk or run around the block, the number of press ups you can do or the amount of weight you can squat or carry – and prioritise tracking these over time! Don’t forget, whether your goal is exercise once a week or once a day, if it’s an improvement on your previous self you’re heading in the right direction.
Energy and mood
Most people experience a huge improvement in energy and general mood when they prioritise their health – 3pm slump be gone! But, unlike the result of a blood test or time on a stopwatch, we usually can’t directly measure our energy and mood. With something so subjective, it can be hard to spot changes over time. To measure success here, make sure to jot down your energy and mood levels each day. Even something as simple as rating each out of 10 daily, can be a great way to see how far you’ve come. Of course, not every day will be marked with boundless energy, but if the general trend is an improvement – we say that’s a success!
Don’t forget that as with any measurement of change, progress is almost never linear. There will be ups and downs, and that’s okay! Focusing on your journey of sustainable day-to-day wellness, as opposed to solely a number on a scale, is a great way to stay motivated.
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