When most of us make the conscious decision to improve our health or aesthetics our immediate thought is: I need to lose weight. In our minds weight is the optimum marker of health and losing it will mean we suddenly look and feel amazing.
When most of us make the conscious decision to improve our health or aesthetics what we actually mean is: I am not happy with how my body is performing or how it looks and feels.
Nevertheless, we usually jump on the scales, gasp at the number displayed and set a target for how much lower we want it to be. That number now becomes our health/aesthetic marker.
‘I’ve lost weight so I must look better.’ ‘I weigh less so I must be fitter.’ These are common phrases we hear.
Imagine the scenario:
You can be at your ideal weight, that magic number you decided on the scales, but you look and feel far from how you wish.
Or.
You can be the weight you are now, your previously considered unhealthy and undesirable weight, but you will look, feel and perform exactly as you wish.
I guarantee I know which one you would prefer. Weight is a completely useless tool for measuring how you look, how you feel and how you perform. It doesn’t allow for an increase in muscle mass – lots of people who start exercising to lose weight actually add some kilos on the scale due to muscle gain. It doesn’t reflect how your clothes fit or how well your sleeping at night. It doesn’t acknowledge that you ran a little bit further a little bit faster this morning.
If you’re looking to gauge your improvements in health, in fitness or in how you look – use a mirror, your clothes and a note pad.
Look in the mirror – do you look better, are you happier with the image staring back at you?
Try on your clothes – do they fit a little better?
Write down your workouts – has your squat increased, did you row a little faster tonight?
This is where you will see real results. This is where tangible results that you can see, feel and experience are realised. This is where the thing you were after when you decided you wanted ‘to lose weight’ becomes real – not on some shit scales from Argos.