Fitness Friday’s – What Gets Measured, Gets Managed

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Hey you. Yes, you over there. The one reading this article. I hope you are having a great holiday season and I want to thank you for taking the time to read my work.

I was blessed again this Christmas. Santa was very good to me and I got several things on my Christmas list. One of the things I’m most excited about is this Bluetooth scale from Renpho. I know it’s silly but I’m can’t wait to use it. “What’s so exciting about a scale, Joe?” Well, it has to do with a quote people miss associated with Peter Drucker: “What gets measured, gets managed,” which is crucial when dealing with fitness and weight loss.

January 1^st is next Tuesday which starts many people’s New Year’s Resolution season. We tend to see the new year as a time of rebirth and reinvention. Last year is over and next year is full of possibilities. The sky’s the limit for all of us. The world is our oyster and we’re going to shuck it.

The problem is we start of strong each year and by February we’ve given up. We stare down the Hydra and it swallows us whole. Change takes work and dedication, which we know, but life has a way of creeping up on us. Things happen, we hit speed bumps, and we get discouraged. We don’t see progress being made so we feel like failures slowly letting our resolutions slip away.

This is big with fitness especially. Everyone starts out, or wants to start out, strong but it slowly slips away. We don’t measure our progress so we use our “feelings” instead of actual metrics. We “feel” like we aren’t losing the weight. We “feel” like we aren’t getting stronger. We “feel” like we aren’t getting healthier. We feel, we feel, we feel. And even if we are measuring it’s not consistent enough to capture the highs with the lows.

“What gets measured, gets managed.” This idea is about taking the time to CONSISTENTLY measure what we are doing to see the progress we are making each day. This means creating a workout plan where we test ourselves at regular intervals, measuring the different areas of our body with a tape measure, and weighing ourselves every day. Then we need to keep a log of this information to track the progress instead of keeping this in our heads. This helps us see trends in the data.

“But, Joe, that seems like a TON of work.” I know it does and it does take some planning but it’s easier than you think. There are plenty of different fitness programs, apps, and ways to track health and fitness progress depending on your goals. (I plan on covering some of these apps in greater detail in a later post). It’s important to find one and stick with it. Interested in becoming a running machine? Check out the Running for Weight loss or Zombies, Run! apps. Looking for free daily circuit and HIIT training? Hylete’s gotcha covered with their app. Want to get super strong? The StroStrongliftsnglifts 5×5 app helps build brick houses. Need to track weight loss progress? The iPhone and most of the wearable fitness trackers, like Fitbit, have health apps or you can weigh yourself each morning and put it into a Google Spreadsheet (which is what I didn’t for several years before Fitbit). All of these are free and reduce the friction of measuring progress.

This is why I’m thrilled (Yes, I said “Thrilled) about my new scale. Since it’s Bluetooth capable it makes super simple for me to capture all kinds of information. I get my weight, Body Mass Index (BMI), Body Fat Percentage, and half a dozen other things set to my phone by standing on it each morning. I don’t need to remember to record the data at all, which is something I have a problem doing. Now, there’s no hiding or forgetting.

The important thing to remember here is we want to use data to help us meet our goals and instead of using our feelings. The data will tell us if what we are doing is working or if we need to adjust fire. Maybe we “feel” like we are being healthier because we’ve cut out soda but still put too much sugar in our coffee. We “feel” better but the data tells a different story. Maybe we don’t “feel” like we are getting stronger but the data shows we are making progress each week. It’s the data which will help us make better decisions and, when used wisely, will help keep us on track. Good luck and stay strong!

*I know measuring things like weight doesn’t always give us an accurate picture of what’s going on but it’s an important start. We want the data we are collecting to be simple, measurable, and something we do consistently. This way if we gain a pound from the previous weigh in we can thing about possible causes and work towards making corrections. If we lose weight, we can give ourselves a pat on the back and try to replicate the success.*

**Important side note: If you are going to weigh yourself, it is important to remember to weigh each morning after you go to the bathroom but before you eat or drink anything. This helps to give you the most accurate assessment of your actual body weight without anything extra. Weighing yourself in the mornings ensures you are consistently using the same baseline. The more accurate the information the better decisions we can make.**