I don’t talk about work stuff here because, well, this is a weight loss blog. But as I was leaving the gym this morning, I thought of something that might be kind of relevant.
I’m a corporate marketer. I have my MBA in marketing. I judge the success of marketing initiatives by pre-defined metrics. You see, when you set out any marketing program, you have to come up with your goal. Who is your target? What are you trying to accomplish? How will this work out better than other methods? How will you measure success? What metrics will you use?
via fragmented on Flickr
I have a confession. Despite my scale boycott, I have weighed. My feet can’t stay away from my trusty Tanita high-capacity scale. This scale is the only metric I’ve ever lived by when measuring my fitness and weight loss goals. I mean, I am a weight loss blogger after all- seems pretty common that I would check my weight- right?
If bodies were just true machines- steel, nuts and bolts- and you could easily predict the outcome based on the inputs, then I’d be golden. My food has been good, my exercise is better than ever, my sleep is slowly but surely getting better. My body though? Not giving me the output (weight loss) I want. I put in the right ingredients, processed it in this crazy body of mine, but it’s not producing widgets (weight loss) like it’s supposed to!
I’m chalking it up to faulty equipment. This body, poor thing, doesn’t know what to do. My brain, poor thing, doesn’t know what to think. How do I know if I’m fixing the equipment? The only logical answer is to get on the scale to see how I’m doing. Trainer Rob says I’m doing great with my workouts. Random lady at the gym says she can tell a difference. My BodyMedia FIT tells me that I have at least a 1000 calorie a day deficit between my eating and my working out.
But this brain? It just wants the facts. When my feet hit the scale, I hold my breath and scream in my head “SHOW ME THE MONEY!” and wait for that magic confirmation that my hard work is paying off.
Instead? I see the same number as I saw before. The same. And I feel defeated.
So, how to break out of this? I’m having my hubs hide the damn scale. Seriously. When he gets home tonight, that thing is going somewhere that I won’t be able to find it. If I ever get the urge to check my weight, I’ll have to remind myself that a) that is stupid; b) I don’t know where the hell it is
I also need to learn to read my body’s signs better. There are verifiable outcomes there, I’m just not used to reading them, and they’re harder to recognize.
For example:
- Just 1 week ago I couldn’t do 3 sets of stair runs without feeling like I was going to absolutley puke (me + stairs = FAIL). Yesterday I did all 3 stair runs and my puke meter was only at a 3 instead of a 9.
- The first 2 weeks of training, my body was SCREAMING at me. Sore all over. This week? Despite raising the intensity and adding in a 5th day of work, no pain.
- When I started working out with Trainer Rob, I was going sooooooo slow to keep my heart rate under 140. Now? If I go at the same speed I was going 3 weeks ago, my heart rate is around 125.
So for now, I’ll have to “listen to my body” (sounds so “new-agey” right?) to see how I’m doing. I’ll still do my planned weigh ins on Mondays, and have hubs hide it during the week.
How do you measure your success?
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