I came to a pretty stark realization today. Actually, yesterday, but it carried over to today. That realization is that weighing yourself is a pretty stupid method of measuring progress.
Let me explain with myself. At night, right before I went to bed, I decided to weigh myself. I stepped onto the scale and cringed. Really? That much? After almost 4 weeks of working out? The next morning, I weighed myself again. I had lost 4 pounds, overnight! But then I ate breakfast. Weighed myself again. Boo. I had gained 2 pounds from drinking 30 ounces of water and eating a healthy nutritious slice of egg casserole.
Today, I didn’t weigh myself in the morning, but I did weigh myself in the mid-afternoon, before eating lunch. I weighed less than I had the previous morning, which was confusing considering I was still wearing my shoes, and had eaten breakfast, and drank copious amounts of water.
So my conclusion is that scales are stupid.
Workouts
7 am New You Ladies
Chipper
9 am CrossFit Class
3 rounds max effort toes to bar
Isabel- 30 snatches for time
4 pm- ZooFit Kids
Coaching rather than working out, but this is a kids’ class, so I needed to exert a lot of energy to show the movements, keep kids focused, and motivate them.
Breakfast- Protein shake
Lunch-salad
Dinner- Salmon and veggies with spices (today’s theme was PURPLE!!!)
ZooFit Tip- I know feelings are very subjective when measuring progress. The idea behind using “how do you FEEL?” as a measurement is to rate your energy level. But I’ll be honest. If I step on the scale and don’t see it going down, or my favorite pair of jeans is still tight (because I didn’t wash them in cold water or line dry them or whatever unrelated excuse is really causing them to be tight), I’m not feeling too great!
This is why I love keeping track of my workouts, and why I repeat workouts often. I’ve finally made the realization that if I am not seeing progress with my clothes, my weight, or even my “feelings”, I have something completely objective that will tell me how I am DEFINITELY improving. If I do a Tabata workout and program burpees, I may get 32 the first time I do that workout. A couple months later, I repeat that workout, but this time I get 38 burpees. Yeah, that will put you up on cloud nine quicker than you can say “Bob’s your uncle”. And it marks progress. Your cardio is getting better. You are getting faster. And stronger. You may not notice it directly, but there is improvement, and seeing that kind of improvement will motivate you more than watching that scale slowly, ever so slowly creep lower and lower.