Words of Wisdom

"You manage what you measure."
                        


There have been different variations of this business management quote, I believe the original was closer to "you can't manage what you can't measure". 

You can't manage your weight, if you never weigh yourself. How will you know to get a grip on things if you have no idea you've gained 15 lbs.

Weight loss has been proven to be more affective if you simply keep a record of what  you are eating and your best guess of how much. Just being more mindful of your actions will help you make better choices.

 Keep track of how much time you spend exercising and how far you've gone as a great source of motivation. There are great websites and apps* that help you keep track of that so you can know "I've walked a total of 58 miles this year so far!" or "I ran that mile faster than I ever have before!"

The most powerful weight loss combination is when you know how many calories you need*, know how many calories you burn when you exercise, and know how many calories you've eaten and can see you are losing weight. This takes the mystery and hokus pokus out of weight loss and makes it a mathematical equation that you are in control of.

Happy measuring!

*Future posts on these topics to come.

Book Review: "Born to Run"

I loved this book. I'm not sure what I expected when I picked it up at the library--I just grabbed it because it was about running and I struggle to find books that can keep my attention. "Born to Run" is great because it's as equally entertaining as it is educational. It's full of history and geography, stories of runners and races, the most recent research on running, and without specifically trying, it's the greatest motivational book I've ever read.

 Every time I read, I couldn't wait to go running the next day. It's helped me psychologically in my running as I am more confident in my own abilities. It's helped me with my running form--I've made some changes to the way I strike my foot, and focused on some other mechanics of my running that has made me run smoother and quicker and prevent injury. I even tried some barefoot running since reading this book.

I told Colin he can buy me this book because I'm sure I could read it over and over which is saying a lot.