If you’ve been with Functional Lifestyles long enough you know how much we love data tracking.
Tracking Body Composition
Nutrition
Sleep
Hrv
Workout Metrics, etc.
With all this data it can be overwhelming for most, and to be honest most people are not using the data correctly. So, today I want to dive a little bit deeper into this on how to use your data and what to measure.
Tracking is something that should not be done for the rest of your life.
It’s a tool to help us progress in areas that we want improvement.
You want to lose weight…track body composition/weight.
You want to improve sleep…wear sleep tracking devices.
You want to improve strength…track your weights with your workouts.
(Ect. Ect.)
The biggest mistake made with tracking is not on how you are tracking but on how you are using the data to move forward.
Number ONE thing I want to remind you of, is that progress IS NOT LINEAR. So many people I talk to only like tracking when things are good, and then they stop tracking at the first sign of an unsuccessful number.
IT IS JUST A NUMBER.
Do not let the numbers run your life.
No one cares about how much you bench, how low your body fat is, how much money you have, it is only a tool to measure our progress.
So, when working towards your goals be prepared for the results and most importantly accept it. When you have 'bad' results, understand this is actually a good thing. This means you have information telling you that something needs attention and improvement.
When making changes, try to keep your changes in sync with your frequency of measurement.
Example: If I weigh myself weekly, make one change to your diet/lifestyle at a time.
If you change 10 things at once, it’s hard to figure out which will provide the result.
The goal is to become intuitive with your body and health, but we can't do that when you take that approach.
NO ONE wants to hear this, but slow progress is the BEST progress.
Stop trying to do it all at once because you will fail every time.
It takes time to change.
It takes time to build good habits.
It takes time to build consistency.
It takes time to learn how to become self-sustainable.
Hope this helps! One piece at a time, slow and steady!