Choosing Your Path and Measuring Progress

Following Paleo for weight loss reasons and not seeing that scale budge?

Or, perhaps you’re looking to reform your lifestyle to address debilitating auto immune conditions but it’s been a month and you’ve had no relief?

Two things to consider:

• How are you quantitatively measuring your progress?

and

• How patient are you being with yourself?

If you weighed in a few months ago, began Paleo last week and then hopped on the scale only to see a three pound increase, you’re not really being fair to yourself as you may’ve gone up just a little far before you began to adopt Paleo principles into your regime.

And if you’re dealing with a situation where you’re trying to address damage to your CNS, since these cells take far longer to regenerate than skin cells, for example, one month may not be enough of a time trial to determine that Paleo doesn’t work.

I find with many clients that they’re really wrapped up in the idea of a quick fix and get really impatient with themselves.  They’d like to be fifty pounds lighter in a month or two, even though it’s been twenty years in the making, along with going through life’s hormonal changes, that ensued during the weight gain.

Or, they’ve grown frustrated with a far too punitive approach to Paleo, restricting their calories too much and sticking to bland foods, and still have had no relief from their constant migraine headaches.

Whatever your overall health goals may be, start with adopting a kind to yourself attitude, accepting that where  you are is OK and then creating a path to the endpoint which is your ultimate goal.

Be reasonable, set up smaller non-food rewards along the way and choose a method to measure progress that suits your individual needs.  Not everyone wants to (or needs to) hop on the scale every single day; nor does everybody want to implement regular fitness testing to prove to themselves they’re getting faster and stronger.

For some, it might be as simple as a feeling of being able to be more active with the kids all day or not get winded running up the stairs!

Create your own plan, work backwards from the destination and be pleasant to yourself along the way.

Approaching any big goal from an angry, self-depricating standpoint will only serve to get you one place, really fast: nowhere!