Why Track Your Progress?

It’s human nature to view progress as instant. You come across a neat-looking statue and your brain struggles to comprehend that it took Michelangelo 3 full years to carve David. You just see the end result.

The same, of course, is true of fitness. Drastic before and after photos get circulated around the internet, and as well they should. Accomplishing a transformation like that is a huge deal. But we don’t see the work, the consistency, and the discipline that it took to get to that point, we just see the photos. It makes it seem easy.

Unfortunately, anyone who has tried to lose a couple pounds knows it’s not as easy as going for a 20 minute run and watching the weight melt off. Progress of any kind in fitness requires consistent inputs with little to show as an output.

You put a quarter in a gumball machine, you get a gumball. You lift a weight, run a mile, skip dessert, and get what? Not a gumball, that’s for sure.

The point is that there won’t be any immediate gratification in your fitness journey. BUT that doesn’t mean you aren’t improving. We just have to measure it. Here’s how:

1: Track Your Body Weight

Seems obvious, right? You’d be surprised how many folks think they’re the same weight they were last year, only to step on the scale at their gym and realize they’re 15 lbs heavier than they were the year before. It’s easy to let bodyfat creep up if you’re not diligent or leading a SUPER active lifestyle.

So the first thing we should be tracking is our body weight. Get a scale and put it in your bathroom. Step on it while you’re brushing your teeth. Build the habit of getting a bodyweight number.

Getting this data gives us a baseline, and also keeps us accountable. Just like if you saw your bank account go negative every week, you’d fix your spending habits, if you see your weight increase every week, you’ll be more inclined to fix your eating habits.

That leads me to my second point, which is TRACK THE DATA. If you have a regular old scale, put the weight in a note in your phone, or a paper notebook by the scale. Both work just fine. Better yet, input the number into your nutrition tracking app (more on that later).

You could also get a smart scale like this one from Withings, which honestly is just useful so you don’t have to remember to write down the data because it sends it straight to your phone or computer.

2: Track Your Food

This one gets people tripped up because they think it’s going to take a lot of effort and time on their part to measure, weigh, and log every calorie they eat.

In reality, tracking your food has NEVER BEEN EASIER.

Download an app like Cronometer, and just start by logging one thing you’ve eaten or drank that day.

“Well I did have a Dr. Pepper with lunch”

Perfect, go on the app, hit the plus button, click add food, and type in “Dr. Pepper”

Then click add and you’re done. It’s logged. OR if you want to do this even easier, scan the barcode on your Dr. Pepper and it will pop right up.

If you eat a lot of food that has a barcode (probably more than you think) then logging food is insanely easy. Granola bar? Milk? Beef Jerky? Ground beef? All come with bar codes on the packaging.

If you’re eating at a restaurant, just take your best guess as to what you ate, search it in the app, and click save. It’s OK if you’re not exactly accurate. Remember that we’re building consistency and increasing our ability to see progress on our nutrition.

If you’re eating at McDonalds or Chipotle, their entire menu is in the Cronometer database, so just search your meal and add it.

IT’S OK IF THIS ISN’T PERFECT. Building the habit of tracking your food will allow you to see that you’re progressing on your goals of weight loss, muscle gain, or improving your nutrition overall.

3: Track Your Workouts

This also has never been easier. We’ll have posts in the future that cover exactly how to work out, with workout plans and details. But for right now, just start by tracking the workouts you are doing.

If you’re a runner (or would like to be) you don’t need a fitness tracker off the bat. They are helpful, but your phone will do the trick just fine. Download Strava and use that as your run tracker. You’ll see your distance, pace, and a calories burned estimate. All perfect starts for improving your running, and your overall fitness.

If you’re a lifter, download the MyLiftLog app and start inputting your exercises, reps and weight. Lifting weights is all about progressive overload, and tracking this is super easy to do. Between sets, while you’re sitting resting, just punch in a couple numbers and click save. In 4 weeks, you’ll see how much progress you’ve made, as well as what weights and reps to do to keep improving week over week!

If you want to take your workout tracking to the next level, grab a Whoop strap and start tracking your heart rate, strain, and calories burned more accurately! I’ll dig a little deeper into this in the last progress tracking tip, but a wearable is super helpful in accurately tracking your progress on workouts, as well as sleep and recovery scores. Other excellent choices for trackers would be an Apple Watch, Oura Ring, FitBit/Pixel Watch, or Garmin.

Click here for a free month on Whoop

4: Track Your Sleep

Sleep is a critical pillar to your fitness journey. Without sleep, your body won’t adapt and grow from your workouts, you’ll struggle to lose weight as your hormones won’t be optimal, and you’ll experience a severe lack of motivation and focus as a result of being tired.

A good starting point for sleep tracking is to simply be aware of when you’re ACTUALLY going to sleep (as opposed to laying down and scrolling your phone) and when you’re waking up. Shoot for 8 hours.

A sleep tracking device (like the Whoop mentioned before) will show you how much you’re truly sleeping, and what the quality of your sleep is like. You may be sleeping a few hours less than you think because you’re waking up in the night, watching Netflix too late, or just on a suboptimal sleep schedule. Seeing the data firsthand allows you to make incremental improvements to your sleep routine so you can improve and progress.

This truly is the most important pillar of your health journey. All roads lead through your sleep. So begin tracking it, make adjustments based on the data, and watch your workouts, nutrition, and bodyweight goals all improve.

What can you do today?

Start by downloading the apps I mentioned above. You’re already on your phone 7 hours a day, and these apps will be your keys to unlocking future gains through tracking your progress. You may not see improvement in the mirror every day, but you can see:

1. Better sleep

2. More weight lifted

3. Nutrition quality improvements, and calorie goal achievements

4. Weight trends in a positive direction

All of these should be fuel to motivate you to keep going. THAT is how you achieve a drastic before-and-after photo. Consistently improving day over day.