Don’t Stop Now! You’re Making Progress!
I know that sticking to your weight loss goals can be tough. I’ve been there. I’m still there. I’m just like you. I’m a vain guy and I get caught up in comparing myself to others. It’s so easy to ask “Why can’t I look like that?” question in your head when you see someone else pass you on the street.
My white whale has always been six pack abs and I’ve started calling it my Loch Ness, elusive and rarely seen. It’s my quintessential Holy Grail and I always come back to it as my gold standard of whether or not I’m fit. But why am I posting this picture? I’ve done some gnarly things to see those little puppies. The two outside shots are when I was at 9% body fat after doing the Insanity Max 30 test group (and after a few days of water depletion). The middle shot is of me just a couple of days ago at the gym.
As you can imagine, I was a little hard on myself for not being able to see my abs like I could before, but then I started thinking…what’s my body fat percentage? So I took my measurements first thing this morning and I’m sitting at 10.5% body fat on no water depletion or special dieting. That’s flipping awesome! (If you aren’t familiar with body fat percentages.)
So that got me thinking even more…
Looking at yourself in the mirror and seeing your progress day in and day out has a way of smoothing off your edges in your own eyes. We don’t see the gradual change and we still picture ourselves how we were before, not how we are right now. So I can’t see my abs right now. Big whoop!
I’ve been so focused on my stomach defining my level of fit that I forgot just how fit I actually am.
Make sure you’re taking your entire health into account, not just the vanity things. You’re not the number on the scale or how many abs pop out of your stomach when you flex in the mirror. Keying in too hard on these things can discourage us and cause us to do some unhealthy things to achieve our goals.