Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Sticks of Butter

This week I am toting my very useful (and very heavy) body composition scale around to various locations so people can see their progress (or lack thereof). It makes me think about how people measure progress---the traditional way would be in pounds lost. The 80's-90's way would be via Body Mass Index (BMI) improvements... Today's way is more focused on body fat percent. The problem is that even with this measurement, there is no way to be 100% accurate. I have a pretty good scale, but drink a bottle of water and eat a snack beforehand and your reading will be thrown off.

I wish I could help people to not focus on pounds, but rather, on actions. Pounds (and similarly, cholesterol readings, BP, blood sugar, etc.) are a side effect of what you DO. So, if you have planned a strategic way to improve your actions over time---that my friend, is a recipe for success in my book. Unfortunately, wellness coaching costs money and I have to prove my worth by showing results in numbers.... but I have faith the actions' effects will trickle down to the level of the numbers.

This morning, I was speaking with someone who has lost 22 pounds since our January weigh-in. Her numbers showed a significant difference... and that was important, but the real impact came when she figured out how many calories she had dropped by working out more and eating less-----77,ooo

77,000 is not chump change---she is serious about this (and doing it in a very healthy way).

Not everyone can blow themselves away with the numbers---but think of a way to represent your progress that makes you feel good.

...someone else said weight watchers told her how much weight she had lost in Sticks of Butter (1 stick=810 calories)

How would you measure your progress?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Cupcakes!