8 things you should be tracking from the start!

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You know you want to feel better and look better, but how do you know what the end goal is, if you don’t know what the start of your journey looks like?

Here is  a comprehensive list of things you can track (and you NEED to pick at least one of them from the start) to track your goal.

Remember, when you’re getting healthy, if you notice a lull in your weight loss, it’s only because your body is adjusting something else. This is okay and even good!

1. Weight. Duh. You’ll track your weight on a scale, but here are some tips to make sure it’s the most accurate.
   • same outfit/or lack of outfit. Hey, weighing in the nude is actually catching your true weight
   • when you first wake up and AFTER voiding. Pee weighs a lot, you’d be surprised
   • pick when and be consistent – every day? once a week? once a month? (Definitely no less than once a month)
   • track your weight in an app like MyFitnessPal, CarbManager, or another one. Do this so that you can see the overall loss in a graph. Trust me. This helps more than you know
   • take it with a grain of salt. Your weight, your identity, your progress in any eating lifestyle is NOT determined strictly by the scale. Don’t let it be your master.
2. Body measurements. HUGELY important. The measurement of your waist is going to show a difference before the scale. It’s amazing how much we rely on that stupid scale.
   • Bare skin. Do not go over a shirt or something.
   • Write it down.
     • Waist
     • Hips
     • Thigh (top of one – same one every time)
     • Thighs (across the same point every time)
     • Arm (bicep, same one every time)
     • Bust (just under the arm pits)
   • Use a pliable body measuring tape. This one is a great one (it comes with calipers, we’ll talk about those later)
3. Body fat percentage. By using calipers and measuring the fat points on your body, you’re getting a better understanding of what you need to work on for your health as well as what your goals are.
4. External appearance. Yep, I said it. You need to take some selfies! Okay, not just any selfies. You need to take some front shots (in a swimsuit or some kind of tighter clothing), side shots, and back shots. You might need to get some help from someone. Make sure it’s clear lighting and head to toe. Sometimes the changes we need to see can be missed because we didn’t take the images far enough down.
5. Sleep and wakefulness. Yes, you can track this. For instance, keeping a small journal beside your bed will let you keep track of when you sleep and when you wake. If you note when your insomnia kicks in, you can track that and what helps get rid of it. Note your circadian rhythms (times you’re more energized during the day and times you’re most tired) and see if they fluctuate as time goes on with your new lifestyle.
6. Blood work. Let’s be honest. Sometimes, we don’t know we have a problem until we see our doctors. They might tell us our cholesterol is high, our AC1 is high, our blood sugar is high, or anything else is out of whack. Keep that as a tracker and get your blood work checked regularly to monitor that progress.
7. Clothing fit. This is even more telling than any of the above. It doesn’t matter what you do. If those jeans need you to lie on the bed and suck in to zip it, you’ll know if you’ve lost any weight when you don’t have to do that anymore. So keep a pair of what-if jeans or even an outfit that you want to fit into one day (be realistic, a baby’s onesie is not a smart goal) and try after periods of time to fit into it. You’ll get there sooner than you know.
8. How do you feel? For long stretches of time on Keto, I didn’t lose weight, but man, my depression didn’t kick back in, my fatigue never returned, I wasn’t obsessed about food, and I was feeling better and better about myself. I just FELT better. It’s a weird feeling when you’ve been unhappy with yourself for so long. Use a journal to make sure you’re asking all the right questions and answer them honestly. There might be other underlying issues at play and you’ll never know until you track them.

Okay, now you know what to track to stay on top of your goals. We only want success for you, but you can’t define success, until you know what your goals are.