Getting in shape – whether that means crushing it at the gym, losing weight, or just feeling healthier in general – is a long game.
No matter what goals you’re chasing, you can bet you will need to work at them for months and years.
It makes me sad to see how many people give up on themselves before they’ve been at it long enough to see the true results of their efforts.
Some people try to do way too much and once and end up flaming out.
Other people focus exclusively on the most obvious measures of progress and ignore all the other signs that they’re moving in the right direction.
Both of these approaches set you up to fail. We have to be patient and keep showing up for ourselves if we truly want to transform the way we look, feel, and perform. This is why it’s so important to take a sustainable approach to training and eating.
We also need to adjust some of our expectations (for example, in regards to how much weight you’ll add to the bar each week or how fast the scale will drop) and expand our definition of what it means to progress in the first place.
Here are a bunch of things you can look for to tell you that you’re moving in the right direction.
Signs of progress toward your strength training goals:
- Lifting more weight
- Doing more total volume (sets and reps)
- More density (doing more volume in the same amount of time)
- Using better form
- Things just feel easier
- You’re able to train without pain
- Progressing to a more advanced variation of an exercise (eg. moving from kettlebell deadlifts to trap bar deadlifts)
- Changing the lifting tempo (slowing down, adding pauses, speeding up)
- Increasing your workout frequency (how often you train)
- Increasing your workout consistency
Read more: How to bust through training plateaus
Signs of progress toward your weight loss goals:
- Scale weight goes down
- Measurements (like waist, chest, hips, arms, etc.) go down
- Body fat % goes down
- Clothes fit better, or you go down a size
- You notice changes in the mirror or in progress photos
- Other people notice changes (even if you can’t see them)
- You feel lighter and more energized
- You can consistently stick with your diet
- Reduced instances of binge eating or completely falling off the wagon
- Less stress and anxiety around food
Read more: To Weigh or Not to Weigh? The Many Ways to Measure Fat Loss Progress.
Signs of progress toward building a healthy lifestyle:
- Sleeping 7-9 hours each night
- Regularly including things that help you recover from training (eg. massage, low intensity movement, foam rolling and mobility work)
- You can consistently stick with your diet (can be a generally healthy diet, does not need to be geared toward fat loss)
- Less stress and anxiety around food
- You can delay gratification in the short term so you will feel better in the long term
- You feel lighter and more energized
- Increasing your workout consistency
- Increasing your activity outside the gym
- Increasing your daily step count
- Able to complete physical tasks that used to be out of reach
- Reduced aches and pains
- You feel less stressed out
- Health metrics and/or bloodwork improves
I’m willing to bet that no matter how hard you are on yourself, you can find a few things in each category that already apply to you.
Keep going, keep an open mind, and reach out for help if you’re not sure what needs to change.
Are you feeling frustrated with your progress toward your goals? Sometimes we all need some help and guidance to make sure we’re moving in the right direction. You can apply for my 1:1 coaching program here.