A PERSONAL TRAINERS GUIDE TO TRACKING YOUR PROGRESS THE RIGHT WAY

1. A PERSONAL TRAINERS GUIDE TO TRACKING YOUR PROGRESS THE RIGHT WAY

2. BENEFITS OF TRACKING PROGRESS “What gets measured, gets managed.”– Peter Drucker It’s hard to find something that quote doesn’t apply to.If you want to improve on something, you need to track your progress, and the behaviors that cause progress. Researchers call this “self- monitoring” — the process of tracking and analyzing your thoughts and actions to become more aware of how they impact your goals. A goal that about 30-60% of people share is weight loss. If you’re reading this article, it’s safe to assume that you’re probably one of them. You’re in the right place.If you want to manage your weight, you need to measure your weight. You also need to measure the two things that control your weight — your eating and exercise habits.Self monitoring isn’t magic. You still have to create and maintain a caloric deficit to lose weight. However, self tracking makes this easier. When people record what, when, and/or how much they eat, and/or their weight — they usually eat less, and lose weight as the result. The simple act of recording your food intake, body weight, or exercise levels is more important than how precise you are or what method you use.The dieters who lose the most weight in the short- and long-term also tend to be the most diligent about self tracking. If you track your weight on a regular basis, you can see how far you are from achieving your goal and how fast you’re progressing.Weighing yourself is a great first step, but you should also record your weight. This allows you to make adjustments to your diet and exercise plan to keep the fat falling off.If you see you’re falling behind, you can exercise more and eat less.If you’ve lost more weight than you predicted, you’ll be even more motivated to continue.

3. EMBRACING THE JOURNEY Most of us have spent a large part of our lives chasing a weight loss goal, to the point that fighting with the scale has become second nature.For the scale-focused weight loser, success can be a fleeting thing. Sometimes your weight goes down and sometimes it goes up. Sometimes it stays the same. The scale may change because you ate more or because you worked out less or because someone snuck in and recalibrated your scale as a cruel joke. The scale may change because you're retaining water or you're dehydrated or because the planets have become misaligned. Whatever the reason, it's impossible to know what's really going on and you may feel like a failure.What you may not realize is that, sometimes, forgetting about your weight can actually help you lose weight. It may sound strange, but one study showed that people focused on health rather than weight ended up changing their behaviors in a way that led to better weight management. Maybe the numbers on the scale aren’t dropping as quickly as you would like, but you’re seeing and feeling the benefits of weight loss in other ways. Take time to celebrate these positive changes in your life! As you lose weight, you’ll probably notice specific ways your physical performance has improved. Do you need to take fewer breaks when you exercise? Are you able to walk farther? Can you keep up with your children or grandchildren more easily? These are all important milestones and measurements beyond the scale that are worth celebrating. Take credit for them, and allow them to serve as inspiration to continue with your new healthy lifestyle.

4. ASSESSING YOUR GOALS What would it be like if you didn't worry about your weight anymore? What would you do for yourself if your goal was to, say, feel better every day or have more energy? Shifting your goal to something tangible, something you can see, feel and touch on a regular basis may be just what you need to get the results you're looking for. Some ideas: Your Health - Do you need to manage stress a little better or get rid of chronic back pain? Maybe you want to feel more energetic or get more quality sleep every night. When you exercise to feel better, rather than look better, you're much more likely to stick with it, especially when you can actually feel the progress you're making. Your Performance - Why not focus on what you want to accomplish rather than what your scale is telling you? Maybe you want to be able to walk up the stairs at work without collapsing or maybe you'd like to work in the yard without throwing your back out. Think of things you'd like to do better and set your goals accordingly. Your Satisfaction - Don't you feel good about yourself when you finish a workout or eat the grilled chicken instead of the cheeseburger? Focus on how you feel when you make different choices throughout the day. Doing more of the things that make you feel good makes it easier to keep doing them day after day.

5. MENTALITY CHANGE Positivity should become part of your self-talk. After all, when you think the same thoughts repeatedly, your mind may start to believe they are true and these beliefs could influence how you act. For example, if you constantly tell yourself that you can’t lose weight, you may internalize those thoughts and inadvertently not take action to change your eating habits or exercise routine. On the flip side, if you continually think about how determined you are to reach your weight loss goal you may find yourself embracing behaviors that drive you closer to accomplishing it. The first step to changing your thinking is to identify whether your self-talk is positive or negative. Take time to listen to that voice in your head is it encouraging you to move forward to reach your goals? Or is it pessimistic and discouraging you? If you find that your inner voice is negative, you can take steps to change it. The key is to reframe your thoughts and retrain your mind to think in a more positive light while you’re losing weight. For instance, maybe you find yourself thinking you won’t reach your weight loss goals because you haven’t lost any weight this week. Instead, focus on measurements other than the scale. Maybe your clothes fit a little differently that’s a success! Also, try shifting your negative thinking with positive weight loss quotes to help you regain your motivation. This type of reframing can apply to any negative thoughts you may have about weight loss or any other situation in your life. In addition, try keeping a journal to track your successes and goals. Not only is this a great tool for keeping you on track, but it can also help you remember all the successes you’ve experienced so far. When you need an extra boost of motivation, use your journal to remind yourself how you felt when you accomplished a small goal. Your Jenny Craig weight loss consultant is also your go-to motivator and can help you see from a different perspective.

6. WEIGHT LOSS VS FAT LOSS Tracking your weight and fat loss poses a challenge, but you can do it without a crazy amount of effort. As you mentioned, tracking body weight doesn't necessarily indicate progress due to a couple of factors. First, you body weight fluctuates greatly throughout the day—anywhere from a few pounds to even as much as 12, depending on your body type, food and water intake, and activity levels. Additionally, gaining weight might indicate positive progress because you've gained it in muscle mass. If you do need to reduce your weight to a healthier level, daily monitoring will prove useful. You just have to account for fluctuations. Let's discuss how to do that in a bit. For many people, tracking fat loss proves more effective than tracking weight loss to measure progress. After all fat is what many people want to lose. Some scales measure body fat, muscle mass, and more, but they offer a few problems as well. First, they attempt to provide an overall assessment of total body fat rather than measurements based on specific key areas of your body. More importantly, they have a very high margin of error (above 5%) so you end up with unspecific and most likely incorrect information. Correctly measuring body fat, in most cases, requires the aid of a professional and you have a lot of options. Some come at a reasonable cost and others will break the bank (we'll talk about this in a bit). You may find that tracking your fat loss accurately doesn't matter that much because other less-specific methods of gauging progress take less time, money, and effort. You want to see positive change in general, not necessarily as a series of numbers, so constant measurement may not suit you.

7. TRACK WEIGHT LOSS ACCURATELY Scales may provide different body weight readings at different times of the day, but that doesn't point to inaccuracy. Rather, your body weight fluctuates throughout the day. Water, food, clothing, and various other factors contribute to how much you weigh at any given time. You'd lose your mind if you attempted to account for these constant changes in your weight, so you want to concentrate on averages. That means doing the following: Get yourself a good body scale. Weigh yourself at least twice a day: when you wake up, before you go to bed, and in the middle of the day (if possible). Ideally, weigh yourself naked. Clothing can add a few pounds, and that amount varies, so you should avoid it if possible. Chances are you can't weigh yourself in the nude in the middle of the day, however, so weigh yourself before and after you get dressed a few times to find out how much (approximately) your weight changes when dressed so you can subtract that amount if you need to weigh yourself clothed. Average every weight measurement for the day. Take those averages and average them each week. While this won't account for fluctuations, average measurements will keep you aware of how your body weight changes throughout the day. You won't find a five pound gain upsetting in the morning if it disappears when you weigh yourself again at night. Daily and weekly averages will provide you with a somewhat more accurate idea of your actual weight, too, so you can see actual progress over the long term (in the event healthy weight loss is a relevant goal). Of course, constant measurements don't work for everyone. We're all a little bit different. If you find yourself discouraged by constant measurements, try tracking your weight weekly instead.

8. TRACK FAT LOSS ACCURATELY Accurately tracking fat loss requires regularly body fat measurements with a reasonably low margin of error. While you have many options available to you— dual energy absorptiometry , ultrasound, water displacement, and a number of others—they can waste a lot of money. Tracking your fat loss doesn't have to require expensive equipment, and if you have more appearance-oriented goals you may prefer methods that don't track the numbers at all. Figuring out the right method for you depends on a variety of factors, but if you're young and have a body mass index (BMI) under 30 you should consider professional skin fold measurements with calipers. Although you can easily and accurately perform these measurements yourself, seeking out a professional will cost less than the aforementioned techniques. With a few additional measurements you can get a more accurate idea of your current situation For general health gains, usually a combination of body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and sum of 5 skin folds (So5S) is the best assessment, as it provides information on both the amount and distribution of body fat in order to gain a better assessment of body weight, adipostiy, and fat distribution. It should be noted, however, that it is hard to determine "ideal weight" for those who are not high level athletes (where this actually matters) and that the assessment of ideal weight from percentage of fat is subject to many errors. In other words, we should move from concentrating on weight loss for aesthetics and move to concentrating on weight loss for health benefits where necessary. Many individuals (especially women) who want to lose weight often times do not need to do so—they just want to do so to fit society's current beauty norms. This could result in unhealthy life style and eating habits.

9. SET REALISTIC GOALS When aiming for a healthy body fat percentage, women want to stay under 25% and men under 20%. Women shouldn't drop below 18% and men below 12%. (Note: Women naturally have higher percentages of essential fat than men which necessitates higher goals.) On top of that, when working towards a healthier body you should always remember the following: Your body differs from everyone else's body. While we share a number of similarities as humans, what works for you may not work for someone else. Always remember this when reading information about health. What you know about your body now will change dramatically as you continue to age. A 10-year-old's body differs greatly from a 20-year-old's, which we find obvious because we can see it. Our change in appearance in adulthood isn't so dramatic, so we don't always notice how different our bodies become. What works when you're 20 may not apply when your 30, and those changes continue throughout your life. Patience matters. Progress doesn't happen overnight, and you may notice very little change in the beginning. When setting weight loss goals and creating your plan to achieve them, ignore the mirror and other incredibly imprecise "measurements" for a month. Micro-measurements don't look like progress. The difference a month of positive work can provide does. Seeing that change requires patience.

10. MEASURING WAIST CIRCUMFERENCE Another way to estimate your potential disease risk is to measure your waist circumference. Excessive abdominal fat may be serious because it places you at greater risk for developing obesity-related conditions, such as Type 2 Diabetes, high blood pressure, and coronary artery disease. Your waistline may be telling you that you have a higher risk of developing obesity-related conditions if you are: A man whose waist circumference is more than 40 inches A non-pregnant woman whose waist circumference is more than 35 inches Waist circumference can be used as a screening tool but is not diagnostic of the body fatness or health of an individual. A trained healthcare provider should perform appropriate health assessments in order to evaluate an individual’s health status and risks. To correctly measure waist circumference: Stand and place a tape measure around your middle, just above your hipbones Make sure tape is horizontal around the waist Keep the tape snug around the waist, but not compressing the skin Measure your waist just after you breathe out

11. PROPERLY WEIGH YOURSELF Now that it is understood that total body weight is moderately helpful at best, I wanted to spend some time explaining how to actually weigh yourself so that your results are at least consistent. I see people constantly do it wrong, and inconsistencies causes significant fluctuations and variance in readings. Things such as food, drink, body waste, clothing, shoes, even wetness from a shower can skew the results. Here are tips to consistent, reliable results with a scale: Weigh yourself immediately after waking up in the morning. Be completely undressed. Remove all clothes, undergarments, socks, jewelry, everything. Completely empty your bladder and bowels beforehand. Do not drink or eat anything prior to weighing yourself. That’s it. If you adhere to the above, all the variables are taken out of the total body weight equation and you will be tracking changes to lean body mass plus fat, only, as intended. Another recommendation, do not weigh yourself more frequently than once per week. Even following the above guidelines, weight fluctuations still occur based on hormones, water retention, and other factors. Weekly weigh-ins truly show trends and largely eliminate routine fluctuations.

12. NON-SCALE VICTORIES The following are my top 10 empowering ways to assess your weight-loss progress without the use of a scale: 1. Take progress photos. Who doesn't love selfie time. Take a photo of yourself — ideally wearing the same outfit, standing the same way, and in the same place — once a month or every few weeks. “This will help you see the changes you might not notice when you’re looking at yourself every day,” 2. Check in on your skin. Forget BB creams and freaky-looking face-masks. One of the best ways to get a natural-looking glow is to just exercise and eat well. Working out out makes you sweat, which helps detoxify the body, ultimately leading to improved skin. Just be sure to shower as soon as possible after a major sweat session to avoid pore-clogging buildup. After a few weeks of exercising and eating a plant-heavy diet, you’ll likely start to notice major improvements in your skin. 3. Step into your old jeans.“It’s possible to reduce your body fat percentage and weigh the same, especially if you’re losing fat and gaining lean muscle. If you no longer have to do ‘the dance’ to zip your pants or you recently had to invest in a belt for the first time in years — those are amazing signs of progress. 4. Phone a friend. It’s often harder to recognize and acknowledge positive changes in ourselves than in others. Appoint a friend or loved one to be your ‘Compliment Czar,’ and set a daily, weekly, or monthly time to give each other positive feedback. Keep it totally positive and constructive (no fat talk!), and graciously accept each others’ praise. 5. Check Your Blood Pressure. It’s not the sexiest way to record your progress, but when it comes to your heart health, it's one of the most accurate.

13. NON-SCALE VICTORIES 6. Feel Out Your Sex Drive. The quality of your sleep, your workout, and even the number of veggies on your plate impacts your sex drive. An increase in your sex drive is a good indicator that the other pieces of your health are in place. 7. Work out with a heart rate monitor. A heart rate monitor will allow you to check in regularly throughout your workout (by connecting it with your fitness tracker) or you can just pore over your stats when the workout’s over. You can see how you stack up from one class or workout to the next over a period of time. 8. Assess your sleep.When you’re expending extra energy working out and putting better foods into your body, you’re more likely to get a good night’s sleep. Most fitness trackers measure sleep quality, so you can easily make a connection between your workouts and diet and the shut-eye you’re earning. 9. Keep a Feel Good Journal. Me time is so important for improving our stress levels, finding balance, and being healthy. At the end of each day, write down three things you did that made you feel good in your body. They can be big or small, but by taking note of ways you nurture yourself each and every day, you can make sure that your health, wellness, and sanity are headed in the right direction. 10. Fire Up the Instagram Account and start snapping pics of your food, along with captions on how you feel before and after each meal or snack. Use descriptive words like energized, sated, grumpy, deprived, stuffed, or bloated. Paying attention to the food you eat, and how you feel after each meal, will help you see how your relationship with food is improving. Sound a little too public? Just switch your feed to private.

14. WEIGHT LOSS APPS There are hundreds of apps out there claiming to help you lose weight. Some help, some don’t. Finding the right app to help you lose weight makes dieting a little easier and a bit more fun: tracking weight loss becomes a game with food tracker apps, calorie counters and exercise motivation. Most weight loss apps claim they can motivate you to get healthy and also help you to better track long-term progress in your weight loss journey. So lastly, here's my top 10 list that will assist you with making an informed decision: 1 MyFitnessPal 2 Noom 3 WW (Weight Watchers) 4 Nike Run Club 5 MyNetDiary 6 Nourishly 7 MyDietCoach 8 Lifesum 9 Fitbit 10 SparkPeople