Numbers and Data

I enjoy numbers.

Growing up, I never really thought I liked numbers. Definitely in middle school – numbers and I did not get along. 

It wasn’t until High School and three years of Ms. Buttolph that I realized that I wasn’t so bad at numbers.

Thanks Ms. Buttolph!

Ha. But this post is really not about math class or about if I’m good with numbers.

But it is about numbers and data and weight loss because I love seeing the numbers of things.

How many calories did I eat today? How many steps did I take? Did I take more steps today than yesterday? How many days did I workout? How many days did I hit my fitness goals? How do my overall steps this week compare to last week?

Sometimes tracking numbers can be helpful because you see patterns and you can make changes.

Sometimes, knowing the numbers can be --- less than helpful. For instance, how much do I weight today? How much did I weigh yesterday? What did I lose this week?

 

In the past, I’ve done the “weight myself every day” gig. 

You know what happens? 

OBSESSION!

OMG! I GAINED A POUND! END OF THE WORLD! NOTHING IS WORKING! Let me go be depressed all day about this.

I knew this time around that I wasn’t going to weigh myself every day. In fact, I don’t even own a scale. 

I do own a Wii Fit that I um.. liberated… from my mom because she wasn’t using it.

SHE WASN’T USING IT YO!

Even using that can be a bit depressing when you do something like hit a plateau. Or, OMG – I am one pound more than I was last week.

So, I try to stick to things that are more positive about what I’ve accomplished and not what I did poorly. Like that week I stepped 97,000 steps. That’s a lot of steps. I haven’t been able to achieve that goal again – yet. But now that I know it exists, I’m positive I can SMASH IT!

I also like checking out medical numbers. What is my Cholesterol. Is it in the good range? Is it better than it was last time? How can I make it lower (or higher)?

Also, those fancy bariatric scales tell you things like – how much muscle you have. Did I lose muscle? How much did I lose from my midsection?

And, OMG I moved from Morbidly obese to some category that says obese but not morbid. 

So MANY CHANGES!

Everytime I reach a goal, I set a new one. It might be more steps or a better balance of foods. A faster run time. It’s about keeping myself motivated to catching that new thing, hitting a new goal. 

Can I do it better than I did before?

I won't know until I try!