Making the Cut

Measurable Tasks

November 20, 2014

1730

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his last week has been a busy one for me, or at least that’s going to be my excuse. This week, I want to talk a little about measurable tasks, people have mixed views about looking at a number on the scale when your are dieting or even beginning a fitness plan. The reason why is pretty simple. When you first start, speaking specifically of a fitness/weight training plan, the composition of your body changes. You start creating more muscle mass, and we’ve all been told that muscle mass weighs more than fat, well this may not be entirely the case. But I do know that you are creating muscle, that has mass. The weight that the muscle is creating must be taken off somewhere, typically fat. On top of that muscle burns more idle calories than fat so your already burning more calories just by creating muscle.

In any event, the point of that whole diatribe is to say that even though you don’t see a change on the scale doesn’t mean you’re failing, and to use the scale may not be the best measure of progress. I’m on week six of my 12 week fitness plan, and the next few weeks will be interesting to see how well I can follow it, I did miss 4 days last week, but was able to make up a couple this week, and although I’m not seeing the scale move I’m seeing things change in other places.

The amount of weight I’m lifting on different exercises is increasing with every workout, and that is not something to complain about. I will say I’m using the Bodyspace app by bodybuilding.com to track my exercises, I will say the application’s “Max” for the exercises sometimes is kinda funky but it does a good job of tracking previous sessions and informing me of other goals. This allows me to measure tasks other than weight. Other people talk about measurements, waist size ect. The entire point is to just find something that keeps you motivated, and I’ll say getting in the gym and feeling stronger and showing myself I’m stronger is a huge motivational factor, the thing I dread most about going to the gym is the cardio, but I know I have to do it so I suffer through it for 25-30 minutes every day.

I realize I wrote this one a little differently this week but anyways here is my recap from last week –

•Diet – Well last week I would rate my diet as terrible, I ate whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, I know to reach my goal I’m going to get to have to get this under control, but I’ve used the excuse of “Hey I’m converting fat to muscle, I’ll diet later” which is an absolute copout and I know it, just let me have my vices.

•Gym – Last week I started to slip, I had meetings one night and it turned into a late evening, and other than that time just wasn’t in my favor, I was in the gym 3 or 7 days last week, but I did make up 2 of those days earlier this week although I didn’t make it to the gym yesterday (Preparing to have my daughter for a week) and won’t make it today (got a 6 hour roundtrip to get her). I will say I plan to be in the gym everyday for the next 10 days one way or another, I want to teach my daughter good fitness habits at a young age and hopefully she will do the same.