How can I track my progress?

The most common way to track your progress is by the number of pounds you lose. Most of you will have a goal to lose 5 kilograms, 10 pounds, etc. in a certain period of time. So it is common sense to track your progress by number of pounds lost.

Over the long term, this can be a good measure, in the short-term it is not. When you start your weight-loss journey, most people start to exercise. This help you lose fat, but you can also gain muscle. Muscle weighs heavier than fat, so it is common for your weight to stay steady, or even go up in the beginning. This can be disheartening if you are just looking at the number, but it is actually a fantastic sign. When you have more muscle in your body, your metabolic rate increases..you burn more calories just for having the muscle! When you stop building muscle, your weight will start to go down dramatically. Remember, everyone's bodies are different, so the changes affect everyone in a different way. Weight loss is not linear.

So definitely use your weight to track your progress, but you should also track in other ways too. Some ways are the change in your blood-sugar levels, change in cholesterol, how long you can exercise without stopping, how your face and stomach look, how your clothes fit..You should definitely track your progress in more ways than one.

How do you track your progress? Please share with everyone in the comments to give us ideas.

If you have any questions, please email me at gethealthandinshape@yahoo.com

How do I start losing weight?

There are two things to focus on when you want to lose weight; the food you eat, and exercise you do.

Each day, you should ask yourself two questions: Firstly, "what is one thing I can do today to reduce the calories I eat?" And "what is one thing I can do today to increase the amount of exercise I do?"

The things you do should be very small things. If you were thinking of going to McDonald's, I'm not saying you should think about not going, or choosing the salad option (who goes to McDonald's for a salad?). If you normally have coke with no ice, have it with ice (you will drink less coke, and consume less calories). If you normally have ice, then don't drink the whole drink. Another thing you could do is leave a few fries at the bottom of the container..I know a lot of people think this is wasting food, but your body will not mind..

The second question you should ask yourself each day is "what is one thing I can do today to increase the amount of exercise I do?"

With this I'm not saying you should start going to the gym, or run for an hour. If you normally take the lift or escalator on the way to work, take the stairs. If you have two minutes when you get home, walk for one minute on the footpath, and one minute back.

The key to this is to ask the questions every single day, and to do something extremely small. If you do this every day, you will start to think about it more and more, and every little bit helps. If your action is very small, it is going to be easy for you to do, and sustainable for the long term.

If you have any ideas about little actions you can take, please share your ideas in the comments to help us all.

If you have any questions to ask, please email me: gethealthyandinshape@yahoo.com