Weight loss can be a long journey with many ups and downs. Documenting that journey can be a great way to recognize your accomplishments and keep you motivated when you are feeling stuck. There are many strategies and tools to help you lose weight and many ways to document your weight loss. The essential and practical approach is to find a strategy and method of documentation that works for you because what works for you may not work for someone else.
Here are a few options and the pros and cons of each.
Taking full-body photos of yourself before, during, and after reaching your weight loss goals is a great way to document your progress. They are visual, and pictures will show the progress that the scale may not show. As you lose weight and gain muscles, the scale may not move, but you will look leaner and healthier. Shutterfly offers the best photo books, and when you’ve reached your goal, you can use all of your photos to create a photo book of your wellness journey.
With Shutterfly, you can choose from several layout options, templates, backgrounds, and stickers or captions. You can edit the photos so they look like a professional photographer took them. You can add where you were on your wellness journey with weight and measurements in the captions. Pictures of your workouts or meals may also add to the story and help motivate others who see your journey.
Keeping a journal allows you to document your progress and how you are feeling throughout the process, what weight-loss products you’ve tried, and how you felt about them. For example, Super Youth Skinny Greens offers a blend of natural ingredients beneficial to weight loss. Skinny Greens act as probiotics to help with gut health and ensure you are processing food quickly and effectively. Skinny Greens may be what you need to make your weight loss successful.
A journal will allow you to record all of your personal information to repeat what is working. You can also get a better idea of your overall health by recording how you feel each day in your journal. You’ll know what you ate and drank when you feel bloating, inflammation, or digestion issues. You can also share your observations with your doctor to identify any possible problems with food allergies. Keeping a journal will also help you stay connected to how you feel mentally and emotionally throughout the process.
Taking regular measurements is a great way to track your progress without a scale. Your weight is not always a good indicator of your progress because you may be losing inches without actually losing pounds. Recording your measurements on set days is the best way for you to see your actual progress. Knowing your measurements can also be motivating if you start weight training because you can see the inches going up or down where you want them to. Monitoring your weight is one of the least effective ways to monitor your progress; measurements are far more accurate. While changes in inches can be seen in photos, measurements will pick up on small changes that you might overlook in a photo.
Weight loss is a significant part of your overall wellness. Being overweight increases your risk of a wide range of diseases and disorders, including diabetes, heart disease, and certain types of cancer. Losing weight can also improve your digestion, increase your energy, and allow you to be more physically active. It can also boost your self-confidence as you are happier with what you see in the mirror and the way your clothes fit.