5 Ways to track your progress without dieting

Spoiler alert: I don’t ever talk about or promote dieting, weight loss and body transformations. Why? Because there is an incredible amount of people out there doing this. Also, we seem to know exactly what we have to do in order to achieve that “perfect body”. Nevertheless, the struggle with disordered eating and a crappy body image is bigger than it has ever been before. Hence, this article is about 5 ways to track your progress in terms of self-acceptance as well as in terms of improving your body image and sense of self.

95 percent of diets or “lifestyles” fail

Whenever I hear someone talk about the amazing benefits they get from eating clean, eating a paleo diet, following a ketogenic diet or whatever else they decide, I think to myself: “Okay cool. I would like to talk to you in 5 years, 10 years and 20 years from now and see how that is working out for you. Intentional weight loss for the sake of losing weight is a battle you are not going to win. The reason is that our bodies are genetically wired to hold on to weight as much as possible. This is especially the case if we have restricted our food intake in the past.

Unfortunately, our bodies have not evolved to the point, where they are aware of the diet culture we live in. What our bodies care about is that we seek out food whenever we can and hold on to it for dear life. Food scarcity means danger for our bodies and they will do anything to prevent us from it. Instead of focusing on finding “the perfect diet” for you, here is how you can actually keep track of your physical and mental (!) health.

1. How balanced are your exercise and rest periods?

What are the reasons you exercise? Are you allowing yourself to rest and recover properly? If you exercise in order to lose weight, you will probably not exercise forever and eventually call it quits. If there isn’t an enjoyable reason behind the movement you choose, it will be extremely hard to keep up your motivation. Again, you want to exercise in a way that you can see yourself do in 10, 20, 50 years from now. Resting is just as important. The “Team no rest days” trend is not something to be proud of. Our bodies have evolved by thriving off periods of movement AND rest. Not just one of the two. Keep that in mind next time you are trying to force a workout. Some days are means to be rest days.

2. How much are you comparing yourself to others and how can you dial it back?

Comparison is the thief of joy. We all do it every now and then, but how about focusing on comparing your current self to your former self when it comes to your mindset? Changing your mindset gives you the opportunity to live a whole new life. To see new colours, to experience pure joy. You have to make the choice to be happy. However, happiness gets killed off by constantly comparing our flaws to other peoples talents. Everyone has a bad day, where they think that they suck. The difference between optimists and pessimists is that you can choose to let go of those thoughts and not be defined by them. Research has shown that happy people are more willing to overcome struggles and get to a balanced place quicker than unhappy people. It is all about your mindset.

3. When was your last social media cleanse?

 I wholeheartedly believe that social media can be at the center of our insecurities. We all know that it serves as a highlight reel of people’s lives, yet we get sucked in over and over again. We compare our bodies, our significant others, our kids, our pets, our clothes, our jobs and our travel destinations.

What has helped me tremendously is unfollowing people that make me unhappy or make me doubt myself. You don’t have to follow people that make you feel unworthy, you just don’t. I started following people of all body shapes and sizes, people of all genders and ages and it has entirely changed my perspective. Seeing a variety of bodies and genders and ages has helped me realize that we are all essentially the same and it is our job to find our own worth within us.

4. What triggers your food choices?

 Again, are you eating (or restricting) to lose weight? Are you dieting to “gain control” over your life? Are you emotionally eating? (BTW, there is nothing wrong with that. I wrote an article about it.) Are you binge eating? What triggers your choices for food? Something to reflect upon.

The goal here is to make food choices without overthinking it. To make choices out of love and respect for yourself. I don’t care what size you are, losing weight doesn’t have to be a top priority. Taking care of yourself, mentally and physically is way more important. If your body changes along the way, great. If it doesn’t, great.

5. What is your happiness level?

Here is my personal opinion: Scales are stupid and you should throw yours out the window. Dieting can lead to disordered eating and body dysmorphia. Weight loss will not make you happy. Dieting will not make you happy. A shift in your mindset will. Rest will. Allowing yourself to eat what you crave with no guilt and shame will. Doing a social media cleanse and following people of all shapes and sizes will. Gratitude will. Loving and respecting yourself enough to not fall for the diet industry will. So, what is your current happiness level and what can you do today to increase it? Happier people have lower stress levels and reducing stress is the overarching health goal everyone should have, in my opinion.