Give It Six Months

If you are interested in growth, I can assume two things:

1. You are dissatisfied with SOMETHING 
2. You want some sort of proof that your effort is paying off.

In fitness, this often leads to over-checking. You weigh yourself after each meal. Constantly seeing if you have broken a PR. Comparing the speed of every run.

Now, should you track your progress?

Probably. But you are probably doing it far too often.

Lasting results in anything take time.

Here is the counterintuitive part:

If you check your results too often, you are bound to overcompensate and adjust prematurely. Keto isn't working? Ok Low carb. Ok South beach. OK Intermittent fasting... until you reach the inevitable conclusion that you've tried everything, nothing works for you, and you can't reach your goal.

I have been guilty of doing this with EVERYTHING. 

Growth involves plateaus, backward steps, and frustration. Checking the score too often and trying too many things makes progress impossible to to track.

It also means that if something does work, you don't know what did it.

Which brings me to MY current solution:

GIVE IT SIX MONTHS.

Want to cut out sugar? Try it for 6 months. The 5 days you caved and had a cookie are nothing compared to the 178 you didn't. And now, a habit is established.

Obviously, you will have to focus on your new habit every day. I'm just saying that measuring it; and more importantly JUDGING your progress, is an almost sure way to fail.

So get out there and go after something new. I'll check in with you one June first.

E