Want to be healthier but don’t know where to start? Read this!
I am so directionally challenged. Before the days of Google Maps, my best friend used to joke that the way to find the right direction was to “ask Ashlee which way to go, and then go the opposite way.” It was actually a pretty effective strategy.
So this one time I was at the mall. I arrived 15 minutes before closing time and I really needed to get a gift from a specific store. The bad news was that I had NO CLUE where the store was. I finally found the big encased mall map and located the store but was DISMAYED to find that there was no big YOU ARE HERE marker on the map. Even though I did eventually find the store (I think it was like 5 minutes until close), it took so much longer without that helpful little marker.
The same thing applies to your (and my!) health journey. Even though it doesn’t sound super fun, assessing where you are, even before your fitness journey has begun, is so incredibly helpful and motivating because it:
1. Subconsciously gets your brain to start implementing healthy behaviors
2. Allows you to be in tune and realistic about where your health is at RIGHT now and better understand what factors you can control
3. Prompts you to notice why you engage in certain healthy or unhealthy behaviors
4. Gives a starting point so that you can assess progress. And seeing progress makes a behavior so much more attractive, ergo it is much more likely to stick.
5. Helps you make realistic goals. IE, If find that you are eating zero vegetables each day, a realistic goal might be to start with 2 a day, rather than 5.
6. Gives you metrics and data to see if the behaviors you implement are actually bringing you closer to your goals.
A couple of weeks ago, I announced that I was starting an exciting project, a year-long healthy living project for a healthier me. And I decided to start by assessing where I am right now, for all the reasons I described.
For the past two weeks, I have been tracking several factors and learned a lot about my body and mind and it has been so invaluable. So if you also are feeling a tug to get your health in order, feel better, and enjoy more energy, I invite you to follow along and join me as I post updates about the specific behaviors I am working on, how I am making those behaviors habits, and report back on my progress. I hope you can take the lessons I learn and create your own healthy living project!
But whether or not you decide to create a formal healthy living project for yourself, this post is going to show you how to assess where you are right now in your health journey. I’ll show you how to find your baseline and how to track your progress. By finding out where you are RIGHT NOW (even before making changes), it will be much easier for you to navigate to where you want to be and to stay motivated to implement healthy behaviors. Sound groovy?
Read on!
How to assess and track your current fitness level
Now listen, tracking can be painful. And it can be easy to shame yourself. But I want you to try to change that dialogue. I want you to think of it as a pre-test. This is a shame-free, educational activity to give you an understanding of where you are, not to beat yourself up over where you think you should be. Say it with me, okay? SHAME FREE.
Acknowledge it, accept it, and give yourself some love and grace. There are good and valid reasons for why you are where you are and I know you are dealing with a lot. So no shame, only love. Got it?
What to track
Here are some ideas of what you can track. No need to choose all of these, but choose ones that align with your goals. Also, choose some metrics that you will assess regularly and some that you will only assess at certain time periods (quarterly or annually). For example, I am going to assess my body measurements every two weeks, however, I will only assess my mile time at the beginning and end of my year-long project.
Body measurements
This is an extremely helpful metric for gauging progress, especially because the weight scale never tells the whole story. The most important measurement here is the waist-to-hip ratio.
The waist-to-hip ratio can tell you how much fat you are storing. We all need fat, but the waist-to-hip ratio tells you how much adipose fat (or unhealthy fat, to put it simply) we are storing primarily around our midsection, hips, and glutes.₁
It’s really easy to figure out. Simply get a flexible tape measure and measure (in inches) the circumference of the smallest part of your waist (somewhere around your belly button) and the widest part of your hips (all in inches). Then you divide the waist size by the hip size to get your ratio.
Verywell fit has a great resource to walk you through it here. That ratio will then let you assess your “health risk.” For women, if your ratio is lower than .8 (or .95 for men), your health risk from excess fat is low. If your ratio is between .81-.85 (or.96-1.0 for men), your health risk is moderate. If your ratio is .86 or higher (1.0 or higher for men) your health risk is high.₂
If you want a more holistic view (if you’re trying to gain muscle for example), you could measure much more of your body. Precision Nutrition has a great guide here (ignore the skinfold measurements unless you want to get really fancy and just focus on the circumference measurements instead).
Weight
Weight can also be a key indicator of health, however, it does not tell the full story. Keep in mind that gaining muscle can cause you to gain weight. So I would recommend using more than just the scale as a metric. If you have a history of body dysmorphia or eating disorders, I would suggest forgoing the scale altogether.
Sleep
Sleep affects pretty much every aspect of health. From stress to recovery to the immune system. You’re way more likely to overeat when sleep deprived as well!
I have found that tracking my sleep has made me WANT to go to sleep to improve my metric. At first, I simply used my Apple Watch health app to track my sleep, but I wanted more data. I wanted to see my REM cycles, sleep disruptions, etc. So I started using a free app called Sleepwatch and it’s worked great.
Physical activity
My smartwatch made this really easy. I was able to naturally see my steps each day, calorie burn, track workouts, etc. You could also use a pedometer, Fit Bit, or manually track workouts.
Menstrual Cycles
Dr. Lara Briden said it best, “Your period is your monthly report card.” I honestly never regularly tracked my periods except for when trying to get pregnant, until recently. It has been SUCH helpful data. The other week I was so fatigued. Even before my period started, I was able to see that it was my menstrual week which was likely the reason behind my fatigue. It was so helpful to have that data. I also highly recommend Lara Briden’s book called The Period Repair Manual.
Food
I would recommend tracking food for 3 days. For some people, tracking food alone is actually super beneficial. Without even making much of an effort or restricting themselves, they naturally start choosing healthy options simply because of the accountability and mindfulness that comes when you track your food. For me, however, a fixation on food actually leads me to overeat and make more unhealthy choices in general. But I do think it is helpful to get a snapshot of what you are eating, and what your go-tos are. I loved using MyFitnessPal for food tracking. If you only tracked two things, I would recommend tracking your fiber and added sugars.
Mood/ energy levels
There are several ways you could go about tracking your mood. You could do snapshots throughout the day, you could give a score of your overall mood on a scale of 1-10, or color (red, orange, yellow, green). You could also use a free app called Moodkit which I have used and really like.
Extra credit tracking
If you are feeling really fancy, you can also track these more technical items:
Push-up/pull-up test
See how many push-ups and pull-ups you can do. Have someone watch to make sure you don’t break form. You could also see how much you can squat, bench press, deadlift, etc. Just make sure you know what you are doing and have a spotter since you will be pushing yourself to fatigue.
VO2 Max
The VO2 max is basically a measure of how much oxygen your body is able to use during exercise. It is likely the best measure of your cardio fitness.₃
Most smartwatches will give you an estimated vo2max. You can also measure it yourself by doing the Rockport Walk Test.
Mile time
Run around the track or on a treadmill for a mile and see how fast you can do it! 4 times around the track is a mile. Make sure to warm up and be properly fueled. Since you’ll be going as fast as you can, this will push you! My favorite pre-run fuel is a simple banana about 20-30 minutes beforehand.
How to track
Tracking can be magic but it can also turn into a drag when it becomes too cumbersome. The trick is to automate, automate, automate. Use your smartwatch or phone as much as you can for tracking. There are so many free apps that will simply track your sleep, exercise, food, mood, etc.
I also use sticker charts because I am a child and I love them. I also like to show off my progress on the fridge. It also keeps me accountable, someone is sure to notice if I miss a day.
I also use the Notes app on my phone to track my body measurements, but there are apps for that as well!
Lessons learned from tracking
Here are the lessons learned from my last two weeks of assessing my own health
I’m doing better than I thought I was as far as measurements go. I’ve struggled with body dysmorphia in the past but it was really helpful to have metrics allow me to see clearly. Since I started weight training more rigorously, my weight has gone up, but my hip-to-waist ratio is healthy, as well as my other body circumference measurements so that was really helpful to have both metrics
Tracking food was helpful at first, but then I started thinking way too much about it. Thinking too much led me to overconsume because I felt restricted. So I will no longer be doing that (except for tracking specifics, like fruit and vegetable intake).
If desserts are around, I’m dead in the water. I love treats so much. So if they are around me, I will be in trouble. I realized that I need something at the end of the day to give me a little pat on the back. However, snacking and eating dessert at night is not helpful to me because it’s when I consume the most calories during the day and it’s not good stuff usually. And then I don’t sleep as well and I wake up bloated. My task is going to be to come up with something I can enjoy in the evenings (perhaps herbal tea if I can make it attractive) that won’t send me on a spiral of eating a bunch of desserts and to keep treats out of sight and out of mind so that I am only eating them when I really want them.
My VO2 max was in an active and healthy range but definitely has room for improvement, which was motivating.
My push-up max was 15 and pull-ups was 0 (however I can do 12 if they are assisted). Definitely will be working on muscular strength gains. I definitely am stronger in the endurance arena but am going to work on adding some specific strength gains as well.
Next up in my healthy living project: Designing workouts and regular workouts
In the next two weeks, I will be creating a solid workout plan for my upper and lower body as well as generating ideas for what I want to do with cardio. I’ve been exercising regularly for quite some time, but want to target specific strength gains for hypertrophy.
I’ll definitely be continuing with my sticker chart, and I’m going to keep my exercise equipment in my office! That way I see visual cues that remind me to exercise. If I hit 90% compliance, I am picking out a cute prize for myself (which makes the behavior satisfying). While I will be making specific workouts for myself, any form of deliberate exercise will count (thus making the behavior easy). I will plan to exercise in the mornings after the kids have breakfast. So stay tuned to learn about the workouts I created, successes, fails, and lessons learned in the next couple of weeks!
Well sister, here you are! Now you know how to figure out where you are in your fitness journey. You know what to track, how to track, and hopefully have gleaned something helfpul from the lessons I’ve learned while bushwacking my own trail. I hope you’ll join me on your own fitness journey and just start where you are, shame free!! Acknlowedge and accept yourself, give yourself some love, and get ready to start seeing some progress!
If you liked this post about my healthy living project, you may also like these posts:
Sources:
₁ healthline.com/health/waist-to-hip-ratio
₂ https://www.verywellfit.com/waist-to-hip-ratio-and-examples-3496140
₃ https://health.clevelandclinic.org/what-is-vo2-max-and-how-to-calculate-it/