| “That which is measured improves. That which is measured AND reported improves exponentially.” -Karl Pearson This is true across the board – whether you’re at work (aren’t there so many things to measure!), trying to figure out your own custom plan for weight loss, or feeling better (how much of everything should you be eating or doing), or whether you’re building a house … Can you imagine the chaos of never measuring the dimensions of a house? Eyeballing the blueprint and just seeing how you roll? (I do that, hanging pictures while Mark measures and marks it all out first. Guess whose pictures hang correctly the first time … 🤪) Research shows our exercise productivity goes up 27% if we wear a pedometer. Measuring as a way of life may not be the best use of time, but it is only by measuring that we can truly understand what we’re doing (and if it’s way off) or if we’re wasting our time. When was the last time you said, “I’ll watch an hour of TV, then I need to go do something productive?” According to biohacker Nils Salzeber, there are two ways to measure your effectiveness and productivity: – Tracking your time (use our Time Blocking Sheet to figure out where your big chunks of time are going) – Assigning a value to your activities. How valuable is reading vs TV, for example? Exercising vs sitting? Meditating vs playing games on your phone? When it comes to weight loss, we have measuring devices too: 1. A scale and measuring tape. Want accuracy? Go with the measuring tape! 2. A food scale and measuring cups. On the one hand, we don’t measure in our programs. But on the other hand, do we truly know how much we’re eating? You may want to measure with cups in the beginning, but your hand also works well: • Fist = 1 cup liquid or vegetables • Handful = 1-2 oz nuts • Palm = 3 oz meat • Tennis ball = 1/2 cup veggies or liquid • Thumb = 1oz cheese • We loathe portion control – and for good reason, it’s NOT calories in vs calories out! It’s tons of things – your metabolism is affected by hormones, exercise, sleep, hydration, genetics, age, muscle-to-fat ratio, body size, and – DIET. Did you know too much food is too much and becomes inflammatory? Even if you’re Sprinting? This is why we MEASURE our hunger hormones and eat that way, and not by the clock. This is also how our bodies measure – through stomach stretch receptors. Everything in life that we want is MEASURED AND assigned a value – • A trip • A house • A dress • A package • A baby! Al Pacino played Coach D’Amato in Any Given Sunday and gave a riveting, motivational speech to his football players: “In either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small. I mean, one-half step too late or too early and you don’t quite make it. One-half second too slow, too fast, and you don’t quite catch it.” Life is a game of inches – Maybe you’re a little off? Maybe you keep missing? Maybe you keep not quite making it? Al Pacino said, “The inches we need are all around us … now what are you going to do?” Lovelies – I’m asking you the same thing. The game is won by inches, by ounces, by consistency, by MEASUREMENT! What are you going to do? Here are some thoughts: 1. Start now. Measure anything and everything. What you think isn’t necessarily the truth. 2. WRITE IT DOWN – hear me on this! Remember, what’s measured improves. What’s measured AND reported improves exponentially. 3. Report it – our Hot Melt Sprinters use the Sprint Group on Facebook. 4. Figure it out by keeping a food journal. 5. Ditto on the Time Blocking Sheet! 6. You’re part of a team! Watch Pacino’s speech on YouTube – it was about inches AND the team! 7. Challenge – Do this for a WEEK with the idea that you’re a student intent on learning. |
