Are you jumping on that scale every morning hoping to see those numbers drop like a hot potato? Instead, the same old numbers keep staring back at you, leaving you feeling frustrated and defeated. You don’t need that scale to tell you you’re doing g…

How to Know You're Making Progress Without the Scale

When you begin a weight loss journey, you want to see progress along every step of the way. Are you looking for progress but just not seeing it? Before frustration sets in, let's take a step back and look at the many ways you're progressing and just not realizing it. Many get caught up in the trap of not seeing instant results with their hard work and efforts. Most quit before realizing just how far they've come.

If you're one to rely solely on the weight scale to give you the gratification of a fit and healthy lifestyle, you're missing out on so much. Yes, the scale will go down when you lose weight, but it can also go up for POSITIVE reasons as well. There's so much more to you than what that scale shows you and it can be a dangerous game to play with this metal object that sits on your floor. You can use the scale, but you have to learn to use it wisely.

The weight scale can become your best friend and then turn around and become your worst nightmare. You must learn to use the scale as one of many tools to measure your progress when it comes to weight loss and changing your body composition. If you get hooked on what the scale reflects back to you, you can quickly derail yourself from reaching all of your goals.

MEASUREMENTS

When you want to lose weight, inches will mean the world to you. You want to begin your weight loss journey by taking measurements so that you can gauge your progress. Don't forget to do this right away, or you'll never know your exact starting point. There's nothing more frustrating than taking your measurements months after you have already started and the scale isn't budging. You miss seeing changes happening right before your eyes, no matter how small.

When you begin losing weight, the scale will tell you that you're making progress, but after a while, as I said, the scale fails to change or stops changing altogether. Here is where the critical period of either sticking with it or quitting begins. Most walk away at this point feeling like they're incapable of losing weight and keeping it off or they were doing it all wrong and begin punishing themselves by binge eating and blowing off all exercising. Some start depriving themselves of food and doing over excessive exercising trying to get that scale to cooperate.

Measurements can be a savior when this phase begins, especially if you've been tracking them from the start. You see, when you start a fitness and nutrition program, you'll most likely begin to gain muscle mass, which is a good thing. Fat takes up more space in the body than muscle does. Fat goes side to side, while muscles are long and lean. You're merely swapping out fat for muscle which the scale does not recognize.

If you go by only what the scale says, you won't realize the progress you're making. However, measurements will show you exactly how your body is reacting to your efforts. Adding muscle mass is a sure way to lose weight and keep it off, so you need to know that your hard work is paying off, and that will help you stay motivated to keep moving forward.

Gauging your results by using only a scale, will rob you of seeing all the different ways your body is actually succeeding. In this article, I’ll show you the many different ways you can stay motivated by recognizing victories that you may be missin…

YOUR WARDROBE

There is nothing more exciting than putting on a pair of jeans that you thought you'd never get past your knees again and seeing that they fit and fit well. If that doesn't show you progress, I don't know what would. However, we all get caught up on significant changes, such as jeans, to tell us we are making progress.

Pay close attention to other articles of clothing as well, and don't dwell on the enormous differences. Take notice of how that shirt fits your arms or how your bra feels around the middle or how much your rings are sliding off and on. How about your watch? Are you changing holes on your watch straps?

Even the tiniest of changes are showing you that you're making progress, no matter how small. Progress is progress, and you need to give yourself credit where credit is due. By putting all of these tiny changes together, you're going to come up with one significant difference, so keep moving forward.

YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD

Before you started taking action to lose weight, what was your relationship like with food? Did you eat anything and everything you craved? Did you find yourself eating even when you were not hungry? If so, you obviously did not have a very good relationship with food, and that's how you began putting on weight in the first place.

Now that you've decided to lose weight, you need to recognize even the slightest of changes you're making when it comes to food. If you're skipping the usual dessert after dinner, you're making progress. If you're working hards towards staying within your allotted daily calorie amounts, you're making progress.

Every single time you decide against a negative food choice and choose to stick with your planned meal plan, you're taking more steps towards your weight loss. Give yourself kudos for that. Recognize this as making progress without using the weight scale.

MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL

When you gain weight, looking in the mirror can be excruciating. You want to cry when you're staring at the image looking back at you. You're riddled with anger and disappointment that you've allowed yourself to get this way. You avoid mirrors at all cost.

However, when you begin losing weight, you start seeing changes happening with your body, and you're filled with excitement to see where this weight loss journey will take you. You have hope that maybe the mirror can be your friend and you start allowing yourself to be ok with what you're seeing.

Again, this is progress, and the scale will not show you this. If you've looked in the mirror since beginning your weight loss efforts, and you didn't tear up or feel heartsick, be excited that you're moving in the right direction. Allow yourself to be happy and proud. You're doing it, and you don't need permission from the scale to be pleased with your progress.

CONSISTENCY

At the beginning of your weight loss journey, you probably struggled with hitting your fitness routine, and your eating habits were perhaps off and on again. It can be hard to nail down a routine that sticks. Some days you feel energized and ready to conquer the world and other days, you just want to crawl up in bed and do nothing. That's why gym memberships come and go, and there's a fad of yo-yo dieting.

If you feel you've finally settled into a rhythm with your workouts and dieting, then you've made progress — actually, a lot of improvement. Dieting and exercising can seem daunting, and even if you've made baby steps towards following some pattern with either dieting or exercising, you've come a long way. Getting into a routine is half the battle when it comes to losing weight.

Pat yourself on the back if you consistently show up to exercise and fuel your body with nutritious foods. Once you start craving a routine, you're making progress without the scale, and for that, I'm very proud of you. Again, take note of the small steps you take every single day to conquer your goals.

When you begin your weight loss journey, you’re desperate for that scale to go down. Without those numbers getting smaller, you slowly start losing momentum and the steam to keep you moving forward. We are our own worst critic, and the scale only am…

INNER VOICE

When you're overweight, and out of shape, you can tear yourself into a million pieces in a matter of twenty seconds. It's horrible the things we can say to ourselves when we feel down. We are awful with our inner voice, and the sad part is, we actually believe that internal dialogue. Our inner voices dictate everything in our external lives. We gravitate to this voice and depend on it to guide us to our truths, never realizing that this voice is not the actual truth.

After you start believing in yourself and start losing weight, that inner voice begins to ease up a bit and allow us to be excited and happy for our future selves. We start blocking out the negative feedback that inner voice is used to telling us from morning till night. We start lessening the power of the negative inner voice and welcome the new, upbeat words from our inner voice.

Here's another indicator that you're making progress and feeling the benefits of working hard at your weight loss. It's not easy to let that negative inner voice go, and even the slightest change can make a vast impact on your daily life. Welcome that change and recognize this as a win. That inner voice can hold you back from so many victories in life, so if you can get it to speak more positively, you've made great strides along the way.

STRENGTH

When you did your first set of exercises, did you feel like you were going to die? Or at least end up in the emergency room? You probably felt like jelly when you finished up and began to doubt your ability to stick with this new regimen. Trust me; I did too. You feel like a fish out of water, and there would be no way your body would ever adjust to this kind of torture. Are you with me?

Now that you've been exercising more, you really need to recognize the strength that you've gained along the way. Now, it doesn't need to be mountain size change, merely a few increased pounds or more reps with a bit more ease. Maybe you could only do ten jumping jacks when you began, and now you're busting out twenty and feeling pretty good afterward. That is progress, and it needs to be acknowledged.

To keep your weight loss happening, you need to continue building strength and gaining muscle mass. The only way to increase your muscle mass is to keep adding to your strength. You only need tiny changes in your amount of weight you're using or the number of reps to keep the body guessing and progressing. Keep pushing yourself daily out of your comfort zone, even if it's only one more rep a day. Your body will thank you for it.

If you're walking off the gym floor feeling better than you did on day one, you're gaining strength and endurance. The scale isn't going to tell you that. Progress is having better workouts and challenging yourself to new things you never thought possible. Be patient and kind as you're going through the growing pains of fitness. It'll never be a walk in the park, but it certainly won't feel like an imminent trip to the hospital either.

RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHERS

When we don't feel good in our own skin, we certainly don't feel good being around others. We feel like they see us how we see ourselves, so we automatically want to put up a barrier protecting ourselves from their negative thoughts about us, even if they feel the exact opposite. We are own worse critic, and we tend to think that's how the world views us.

After making progress with our weight loss goals, we begin opening up to loved ones and allowing relationships to begin. We feel less on guard and worthy of others love. We no longer feel the need to close off the outside world, just in case they warrant our low self-worth. We begin to trust others and feel at ease around them.

Again, here's another indicator that you're making progress. Allowing more love into your life is a direct reflection of you working on yourself and being proud of your efforts. When you feel better about yourself, you ease up on the negativity that you're unconsciously consumed by, freeing your heart to be happy and excited to be with others. Transforming your body has many powers internally, and you only gain more internal peace and happiness with every goal you reach.

“It’s not about getting to a number on a scale-it’s about creating a vision for how you want your life to look.”

— Oprah Winfrey

So, you can see that you don't need to depend on a weight scale to give you the results of hard work and staying on track. Your body rewards you in many different ways, both externally and internally, and you must take note of each sign. Your body will reward you with an abundance of happiness if you slow down and recognize them.

Many lose weight and still find themselves very unhappy and sometimes it's the mere fact that they are relying on a scale to show them the way and can't celebrate all the other results they're achieving. They drown in the fact that the scale is either staying stagnant or going up. They demand instant gratification from their workouts and healthy meals, even though their bodies are trying to tell them otherwise.

Don’t forget to Pin this your motivation boards! We all feel lost and defeated sometimes, and this post will remind you of just how far you’ve come!

There’s nothing worse than killing yourself with your diet and exercise regimen only to see that stubborn scale get stuck! There's a reason that scale may not be moving, and you might be super happy when you understand why! Dig into this article and… — There’s nothing worse than killing yourself with your diet and exercise regimen only to see that stubborn scale get stuck! There's a reason that scale may not be moving, and you might be super happy when you understand why! Dig into this article and see all the ways you *are* getting results that will make you happy! This article will definitely keep you moving forward!

Don't let yourself fall victim to this. Weight loss is a journey, and there will be ups and downs as you travel down this path. Stay true to your goals and take time to reflect on how many different ways the body is rewarding you for your new way of life. If you feel like you're not getting ahead, take a step back and really think about the ways you HAVE changed and how you actually feel, compared to when you began.

Has your energy increased? Do you feel happier? Are you sleeping better? If you are saying yes to any of these questions, you're making progress, period and you must keep working at it. Your body will react in a way that it feels it needs to. Weight loss may be third in line, but the first two reactions need to be acknowledged. Your body is a machine and works hard for you. Keep working hard for your body and use the scale lightly when gauging your progress. As long as you're consistent, your body will continue to transform.

If you need some fun, simple ways to keep you on track and inspired, please sign up below to be on the inside loop of tricks and tools to fast track you to all of your goals. I'd love to be a guiding light on your path to greatness.