5 Ways To Monitor Your Progress Without The Scale
LISTEN: APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | STITCHER
Girl, step off the scale! It’s not doing anything helpful for your mental health and it doesn’t even track your progress in an accurate way. If the scale is triggering for you, or you find yourself way too obsessed with it, step off it now. The scale shouldn’t ruin your day, your confidence, your happiness, or your worth. The scale should be tossed in the trash you and should adopt other ways of measuring your progress. So in this episode of Embrace Your Real, I share 5 BETTER and way more effective ways to track your results without ever having to step on the scale again.
5 ways to measure progress without a scale:
Energy level
Strength
Consistency
Progress photos
Measure your body’s other numbers.
Link mentioned in this episode:
Episode 37: Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss: What's the Difference & Why Does it Matter?
If you want more from me, be sure to check out:
Instagram: @embraceyourreal | @movementwithjulie
Website: www.juliealedbetter.com
Workout app: sale.movementwithjulie.com
Amazon storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/influencer-6bda1ca8?ref=cm_sw_em_r_inf_pub_influencer-6bda1ca8_dp_DgsIam9salgfi
Transcript:
Hey. Hey, beautiful human. Can I steal 5 minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Role With Me, Julie Ledbetter. I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned. If you're ready to embrace a real. Let's get it. Let's go. Hello and welcome to another bonus episode of the Embrace Your Podcast Girl. It is time for you to step off the scale. It is not doing anything helpful for your mental health and it doesn't even track your progress in an accurate way. Yes, I said that if the scale is triggering for you or you find yourself too obsessed with it, please step off it. Now, this scale shouldn't ruin your day, your confidence, your happiness, or your worth. The scale should be tossed in the trash or beaten with a baseball bat. And you need to learn to adapt other ways of measuring your progress. So if this is you, if you are struggling with this, listen up. Take some notes. I am going to share five better and more effective ways to monitor your results without ever having to step on a scale again. But before we dove in, I wanted to share this review. It comes from Mrs. Zacks. You gave a five star review and said true positives. I came across Julie on TikTok and she kept popping up on my For You page. After a few days I decided to follow her on Instagram and came across this podcast as well. It is so nice to listen to someone who is positive and informing.
I am downloading her app next and starting my next and newest part of my fitness journey. Thank you Julie. I am so excited for you. I am so grateful for you. The TikTok algorithm wins again. Here we are. You went from TikTok to Instagram and now you are podcast and now you are hopefully going to be a part of the movement with Julie community and I cannot wait to sweat alongside of you, so thank you so much for your review. If you haven't already read it, interviewed the podcast. You know, I'm going to ask you to do it because it is my one ask of you. If you find any value from this podcast, I just ask that you leave a rating interview. That is how other people find the show. It's also how other people can recognize and kind of find other episodes that they can relate to as well. So I got to do is scoot you over to Apple Podcasts and type in embrace cereal first. Make sure you subscribe so that you never miss an episode. And next, if you could scroll all the way down on that page, you'll see the reading interview. Okay, so here we go. Get your pens ready. Listen up. Five ways to monitor your progress without ever having to step on the scale. Number one, monitoring your energy levels. Now, many people spend so much time worried about the number on the scale or the physical changes in their body, but they forget to take notice of perhaps one of the most important changes, and that is how you're feeling. Most likely, you're so wrapped up with the physical changes that you haven't really stopped to consider things like your energy level. If you find yourself with more energy, maybe a little pep in your step, this is a huge indicator of progress that you shouldn't overlook.
In my opinion, energy is way more important than the number on the scale. Once you start to see progress, you're going to notice that you have more energy for the things that actually matter and allows you to live life to its fullest. In my opinion, if you have the energy to do the things that you love with the people that you love, you are living the dream life. What more do you need? Once you're nourishing and moving your body optimally, you will feel better from the inside out, which in turn allows you to have the energy to move more, which promotes the physical changes that you're seeking, which will result in more progress. And the positive impact cycle goes on and on and on. So if you're struggling to see if you're progressing, check in with yourself and see how your energy levels have been lately. And this is why I'm a huge believer that writing things down, especially when you first start out, or if you're really in a phase of wanting to monitor your progress, you've got to have some sort of journal. And if that's not pen to paper, that can be on your phone. Whether that's on the note section, maybe it's on your calendar. I've seen so many different ways of people kind of writing this down, but you will likely not remember how you felt last Thursday unless you write it down. So I would just encourage you, maybe just start with like a one, two, three, four or five kind of system. Like how are you feeling? How's your energy levels? Do you feel like you were really hungry? Do you feel like you were really tired and some kind of parameters that you can check up on that you maybe want to write down are kind of your sleep.
So maybe write down like I got, you know, 7 hours of sleep and I'm feeling good on a scale from 1 to 5 saying, you know, I'm feeling a 4.5. I feel like I have decent energy. And so that way you are monitoring your energy levels from day to day. And you're also looking at things like, did you properly feel your body? Are you hydrating your body enough? Are you sleeping enough? And all of those things? Because you have to remember there's so many different components with that. But energy level is something that you definitely should not overlook when it comes to monitoring your progress. Number two, strength. How strong are you getting? This is a really exciting metric. I love, love, love. When women start to see that they're getting stronger. So going from £10 dumbbells on bicep curls to £12 or £15, that's huge. That's so huge. In order for you to do that, your body has to literally change. So if you're increasing the amount of weight that you're lifting, it's impossible for your body not to be somewhat changing. If you are getting stronger, you need more muscle to lift heavier, and the more muscle that you have, the more you're likely changing your body composition and burning fat. So in my opinion, tracking your strength is an amazing metric when it comes to monitoring your progress. This is why I absolutely love this perk and this feature inside my Julie app is that you're able to track the weight that you are lifting per exercise so that you can see your progress, each specific exercise. So the next time that you do it, or maybe a month or two months or three months from now, when that exercise pops up again, you're able to look at your history and see how much you lifted, and you can celebrate the heck out of that.
Another metric of strength is not only lifting heavier, but increasing your reps and stats. Maybe before you could only do eight reps of, you know, £20 chest press, but maybe now you're able to do 12 reps of a £25 chest press. Like, that's huge. And that shouldn't be something that you overlook or maybe before you could, you know, do one pushup and the rest of them on your knees and now you can do four pushups and the rest of them on your knees like that is something to celebrate. Celebrate those small wins. All of these things are so important. And this is why I believe firmly why you should be tracking your weight in your workouts. I know that it takes a little bit of extra time, but if you're wanting to monitor your progress, it is going to be super helpful for you as you progress in your journey to kind of look back and see where you started and remember that strength in and of itself. That is a key way to monitor your progress without stepping on the scale. Number three, consistency. This one tends to be a hard one for many people, but consistency is truly the most important thing when it comes to success in building the body that you want. If you don't want to step on a scale or take a single measurement from your body, but you track how consistently you've been following your plan. If your consistency rate is at least 80%, I promise you there will be progress. There is no way for you to not see progress if you're that consistent with nourishing and moving your body. So instead of tracking your weight or tracking the dumbbells that you're lifting in your program or taking a body measurement instead, if you're tracking how many days you've gone, honoring your body with movement, how many days you've gone, nourishing your body with what it needs, whether that's hitting all of your macros or just your protein goal and your water intake.
Again, it doesn't have to be perfect, but it does need to be consistent. So this is a great way to track and monitor your progress. So I want to encourage you to grab a calendar and every day that you stay consistent with your your movement and with nourishment, put an X on it. And at the end of the month, if you see at least 80% of the calendar covered with access and you do this for three months, it is inevitable that you are going to see progress in your body if you're noticing that you're only earning, you know, 50% or 40% on that calendar, that's a clear indicator that something needs to change. And this is all a way to monitor your progress without ever having to track a single number. I know sometimes numbers for people and tracking certain numbers and analytics that can really stress people out and it can really be something that they become obsessed with. So this is a great way to just kind of look overall at those Xs and ask yourself, am I staying consistent? Because tracking your consistency, it might not be an exciting metric, but in my opinion it is one of the most effective because the more consistent you are, the more it will be become, the more consistent you are, the more progress you will inevitably see. Number four Take Progress Photos. This is something that I wish I would have done when I first started out, and this is something that I hear so many women saying when they're, you know, five, six, seven months into their fitness journey. They said, dang it, I wish I would have taken a photo at the beginning, but I was too embarrassed, I was too ashamed of where I was at.
And I told myself, you know, I would start taking photos when I was consistent for a month or two months. But I'm telling you, when you look back, you are going to wish you had your day. One photo. I know it is really hard to take that photo. I know it is feeling it's embarrassing. I know it might feel you might feel ashamed of yourself. You might feel super frustrated. But I'm telling you, take the photo. Ideally, when you take progress photos, you want to wear the same outfit, you want to stand the same way, and you kind of want it in the same place and at the same time of day. So for me, I personally love to take. My progress photos. In fact, I don't even take photos. I just take a video and I'll tell you why. I feel like it's a lot easier for me to take progress videos because I can just screenshot from the video, but I just pop my phone up and I put it on selfie style and then I take it first thing in the morning before I eat or drink anything. After I've gone to the bathroom, I typically wear underwear and a bra. You can wear whatever you feel comfortable in, but whatever you do, I just want to encourage you to wear the same thing because your body will look different in different clothing. And I know again, it's hard to take the photo. It is, but just take the dang photo. You're going to be so thankful. And when I say take the photo, I don't mean take a photo every single day. I don't think that you need to do that. I don't even think that you need to take a photo every single week.
I think if you take a photo once every three or four weeks and compare the two, that is when you will start to see and notice changes and especially if you are consistent, like I mentioned above. So if you have been consistent for four weeks from the day, one photo to the day 30 photo, you're going to see changes. It's inevitable, especially if you've been at least 80% consistent in your movement and your nutrition. So stop staring at yourself daily. Stop taking your body apart daily. You don't need to do that. Take the progress photo stored away and then in, you know, three, four or five, six weeks, take another progress photo and put a side by side and then be honest with yourself and ask yourself, if you're not seeing a lot of changes, what other things can you change that you might not have change within those last six weeks? Or to your pleasant surprise, if you've been consistent and if you've been working hard, you will likely be amazed at the progress that you see because you have to remember we see ourselves every single day, so you might not feel like you're changing, but if you take that day one photo and then you compare it to your day 90 photo, I can assure you if you been consistent, you will see changes. So just remember that. And again, remember same time of day, same clothing that will really help you as well, because our bodies change even from the morning to at night with no food in our stomach to a full stomach of a delicious food that we've got throughout the day, your body will likely look different, so try to do it at the same time, same outfit, and you will thank yourself.
Number five, measure your body's other numbers. So let's forget about the weight. We're not stepping on the scale. Instead, start tracking other things like your sleep, your resting heart rate, your daily steps, whatever it is you can do those on a smartwatch, whether it's a Fitbit, it's an Apple Watch or whatever. If you are a numbers driven, this can help you. This is, for some people is their worst nightmare. And if that's you, you've got to have the self-awareness for that. But if you like to track numbers, track those things, look at your body measurements. One thing that I want to note with the progress photos, I do not take my my body measurements every single week. I take them along with my progress photos. So that's typically once every four weeks, once every six weeks. I like to take my body measurements as well. But if you don't even want to do that, if you're like, I don't want to do body measurements, there are so many other things that you can track. Like I said, your deep sleep, your resting heart rate, your daily steps, all of those things, because that is your overall health. Sleep is critical with your overall physical health and your changes that you're seeing in your body and your overall body composition, your resting heart rate. That's a huge indicator of what's kind of going on in your body. And is that daily resting heart rate at a healthy range? Right. So there are so many other ways to monitor your progress without ever having to step on a scale. So there you have it. Those are five ways to monitor your progress without ever having to step on the scale. One thing that I want to know that I kind of get weary about, I mean, for some things it can help, but for other things, I don't think it's one of the best indicators of monitoring your progress, and that is how your clothes fit.
And the reason I say that is because when you're relying on your clothes as a metric, if you're gaining muscle or if you're changing your body composition, your clothes will likely fit different than before. And sometimes that's then fitting, you know, better than they did before. Are there times you're maybe growing a booty and your jeans are not just they're not fitting anymore? And that could be discouraging if you're only looking at your clothes, like as an indicator of if you're making progress or not. So just be super mindful of that and remember that. Yes, if you want to use clothes as an indicator, they can sometimes help. But other times, you know, I'm looking at some of my old clothes that I used to use as like an indicator of progress, and I can't even get them past my knees simply because I've grown a beauty and I've grown some quads. And that's something I'm dang proud of. And, but in the. Oh, man. If I would have used clothes as an indicator, I would have gotten super discouraged. So kind of take that with a grain of salt. But definitely something worth mentioning. So let me recap those five ways to measure your progress without ever having to step on a scale. Number one, your energy level. Number two, your strength. Number three, consistency. Number four, progress. Photos. And number five, measuring other numbers that are related to your overall health. So your sleep, your resting heart rate, your daily steps, all of those things. If you love this episode and is exactly what you needed to hear, you should definitely check out episode 37. Weight Loss versus fat loss. What's the difference and why does it matter? This episode will really help you understand why weight loss doesn't actually matter and why the metric of this scale shouldn't be considered.
Also, if you are looking for workouts, if you're wanting to start tracking your strength as an indicator for your progress, definitely check out my weekly workout app. It's called Movement with Julie. You can check it out and sign up by going to sale. That's Sally Dot movement with Julie dot com to gain instant access. If you are a new subscriber and you're signing up monthly, you get 50% off your first month if you join. Using that link, I will link it in the show notes as well. Or you can go to sale. That's Sally Dot movement with Julie Wacom. That is all that I have for today's episode. I hope that this was helpful. I hope that this gave you some good insight as to how to monitor your progress so that you don't have to have that battle with the scale. We don't need the scale. There's so many other ways to monitor our progress. And I hope that this showed you just that. That is all that I have for today's episode. I love you so much, and I feel that's all right, sister. That's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, Julie. A lot better. Yes, it's within in the middle for that daily poser about real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves.
Remember, that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace the real because you're worth it.