If you’ve followed my work for any length of time, you probably know how I feel about the scale.

That opinion was largely developed from my first six months of working at a training gym, where a scale innocently sat in the corner of the bathroom.

We used the scale, along with a handheld device to measure body fat, as a way to help clients get a baseline of metrics for when they started with us.

But what I was seeing on a daily basis wasn’t people using the scale as a starting point to gauge progress. I started to see clients coming in, looking defeated. When I inquired further, I found that when they went in to the bathroom to change for the workout, they’d hop on the scale.

Because it was there.

And if the scale didn’t reflect the change their brains felt it should, based on the effort they were putting in, they were walking in for a workout wondering why they should even bother.

So that’s when I took the scale out of the bathroom and ran it over with my car, and took a sledge hammer to it.

What can I say? I had feelings.

But over the years, I’ve evolved a bit.

If there is one thing that I’ve come around to in my time as a trainer, it’s the understanding that people need a way to gauge progress on this journey. Without it, staying the course can become incredibly difficult. There is a part of our brain called the ventral striatum that kicks in during decision-making to weigh the costs versus the benefits of our physical efforts.

I'm going to re-name this part of our brain Judge Judy. We'll just call her Judy for short.

According to research from Emory University, Judy weighs in on three phases of effort-based decision-making — the anticipation of initiating an effort, the actual execution of the effort and the reward, or outcome, of the effort.

Have you ever started...well....anything and decided it wasn't worth the effort? Recently I did a Facebook post asking where people get stuck in the process. And here is one of the answers:

If this sounds familiar to you, it's not your fault. It's Judy's fault (with apologies to everyone on this list name Judy....)

So how do you get around Judy?

Going back to my comment on measuring progress, this is where I think it's incredibly helpful to differentiate between process goals and outcome goals. Losing weight is an outcome goal. Dropping two pant sizes is an outcome goal.

Making a commitment to walk 7,000 steps at least five days a week is a process goal. Going to the gym twice a week is a process goal. You have complete control (for the most part), over whether or not your process goals happen.

But if your goal is to lose 10lbs in a month, you have less control over whether or not that happens. Sleep, stress, and hormones, just to name a few, can have a dramatic effect on whether or not you lose those 10lbs. So even if you follow a nutrition plan to the letter, you might not hit that goal.

And that's when Judy's all like "FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY I WILL NOT EAT ANOTHER PACKAGE OF TUNA DUMPED IN COTTAGE CHEESE!"

I mean, that combination of food might gross you out just thinking about it, but it is jam-packed with protein.

In order to get around Judy, you need to trick her by changing the way you measure progress. So I highly encourage you to not only choose some process goals, but find a way to track that process. In order to hard wire a habit, our brains need a little hit of dopamine. That's where habit trackers can be helpful.

If you decide to set a step goal, perhaps your tracker is your watch. My Garmin First Avenger watch buzzes and gives me a giant Captain America sign when I hit my step goal, my weekly activity goal (minutes of activity), and as ridiculous as it sounds, I love getting my shout outs from the Captain.

I have my clients track their workouts through an app - they track everything, from walking, to stretching, to hitting their water goals. Sometimes just being able to check a box is all you need. Another popular habit tracker is the Jerry Seinfeld "don't break the chain" technique, of printing out a blank calendar and making an "X" every time you do your habit.

Whatever your technique is, just realize that it's not your fault if you hit a wall with progress and find it difficult to continue.

It's Judy's.

You're welcome.

I was given a t-shirt two weeks ago that said:

Stop Exercising. Start Training.

I don’t often agree with slogans on Nike t-shirts. With the exception of the Bo Knows series from the 90’s. I was always pretty sure that Bo knew everything.

Chasing a chicken to help you beat Apollo Creed is a version of training. 

Are you exercising? Or are you training? And what’s the difference? And why do I ask so many questions?

Good question. 

Before we talk about exercise or training, let's start with physical activity, which is described by the Center for Disease control as any activity that gets your body moving. Also according to the CDC, adults need at least two and a half hours every week of physical activity. So doing things like brisk walking everyday (to understand what brisk walking means, check out an earlier post I wrote here), hitting your Fitbit step goals, playing with your kids and grandkids - this is physical activity. 

If you are sedentary in your job then finding ways to be physically active after work and on weekends (or even during the workday with walking meetings or walks on lunch breaks) is an important place to start. But it's just that - a starting point. 

The next step is to add some type of exercise in to your weekly routine. 

Exercise is a physical activity performed for the effect that it produces today - right now. Mark Rippetoe describes it as “punching the physical clock.” When I take my basset hound out for a walk, we’re exercising. Or, lying on the sidewalk because it’s hot and he protests and then I carry him back to the house. So I’m exercising. As a kid, I went outside and threw a ball off of the wall over and over again. My adorable parents go to their local gym three times per week and use the elliptical and weight machines and bands. 

When you start to exercise with a particular performance goal in mind, your physical activity transforms from exercise to training. This is why we train for a 5K or a marathon - we train for a power lifting meet - we train to catch a chicken because it will help us defeat Apollo Creed....

Last night at the gym, I had a long conversation with a client who’s been with us for over a year. She’s lost a lot of weight, kept it off, and is starting to get antsy. I would argue that she has outgrown exercise - now she’s ready to train. She likes the idea of taking her fitness to the next level and is bored with exercise for the sake of exercise. She has built a strong base and is ready for more. That more might be a mud run or an obstacle race - it might be a push/pull meet (powerlifting meets that have only a bench and deadlift, no squat), or maybe running a 5K or 10K.

She doesn't have to sign up for an event like a run or power lifting meet to start training though. She might start training for a 1.5 times bodyweight deadlift. Once she sets a performance goal and gears her workouts towards hitting that goal, she is now training.

There is no one right place to be, depending on where you are in your personal journey. Physical activity might be the goal - and that’s ok - we all need to start somewhere. But if you have been exercising for a long time - going to the gym three times per week and riding the recumbent bike while watching t.v. and are frustrated that you aren't seeing any changes in terms of fat loss, then it perhaps it's time to stop just exercising and start training with a purpose. 

Quote from a client last week:

"I didn't gain 40 pounds overnight. So I'm not going to lose 40 pounds overnight."

I followed her statement with 17 high fives, a cha cha dance, and a bear hug. (It's okay, she was cool with it.) We were having a conversation about what it takes to stay focused on your fitness routine when you're not seeing the changes, especially on the scale, that you want to see after a few solid weeks or months of training.* 

And I thought her above statement was spot on. We put weight on for a variety of reasons over the years; stress, having children, slower metabolism, maintaining the same diet at 41 as we did at 21, and when we start the journey to take off some of those pounds, the process can feel maddeningly slow. 

So how do you find a way to keep on keeping on when you haven't seen immediate results? 

1. Focus on consistency

Are you getting to the gym three days a week? Have you been doing that for the past month, when you weren't going at all two months ago? That is progress. The saying that has been all over fitness websites recently is that your best rep scheme is 3x52. Show up three times a week, 52 times a year and you WILL see results. I promise. Are you going to see all of those results after only one month? No. 

I know that you want the needle on the scale to move. I know this. And I know you want the waist measurements to go down. And the body fat percentage to go down. But focus on building the routine. The results will follow. 

2. Throw the *^%%$*& measuring stick out the window.

What is your measuring stick? One of the other mom's at the soccer game? The woman next to you on the treadmill? Gwyneth Paltrow? Your scale? What is it? Who is it? 

Throw it out the window. Yes, I just said to throw Gwyneth Paltrow out the window. And I meant it. You've been lifting. You can take her. Comparison is one of our worst enemies. 

3. Focus on performance goals

I'm willing to bet 50 yard line seats to the Pittsburgh Steeler-Baltimore Ravens game that by the time you work your way up to a bodyweight deadlift, you will have seen the results I asked you not to obsess about in number one. 

Change the focus from losing to gaining. Yes you want to lose body fat, but place the focus on your performance - the number of push ups you can do - whether or not you can deadlift your bodyweight - whether or not you can do a chin up - I promise that if you focus on these numbers and not the other numbers, and if you don't eat like a tool** you will see results.

I mean I'm willing to bet Steelers' tickets on that.***

And speaking of results, let's do the math on progress. Say you've been doing 15lb dumbbells for three sets of 10. That's 900lbs your lifting. If you can up that to 20lbs, that means you're lifting 1,200lbs. That's 300lbs more. 

300. Pounds More. 

Don't worry about the scale not moving. Because you can now break it with your bare hands. 

4. Find good people for your corner of the ring

I went to my first cornfield party when I was 16 or 17 years old - we were somewhere in rural Western Pennsylvania, there was a keg, red solo cups, and it was November....Someone had the good sense to burn a tire for heat, and the gathering ended with someone yelling cops and us scattering all over the place.

But what I remember most about the party was people coming up to me and taking my one beer out of my hands (I didn't like the taste anyway). They asked what I was doing there. I remember one guy especially telling me that I was a great softball player, was going to get a scholarship, and that I shouldn't be messing around at parties and lose that opportunity. As he dumped my beer out.

Despite the fact that we were all teenagers with under-developed frontal lobes, most folks knew I wanted to be an athlete and they were encouraging me to stay true to that journey. 

You need to find those kind of people to support you on your journey. You need to find the people who remind you to focus on you and feeling better and that you matter and are important and that good things will happen.

Find these people. Keep these people. 

5. Have a "go to" workout

I'm laid back about most things in my life. I rarely have opinions on plans, restaurants or the organization of my closet. I'm so type B I'm almost a Z. Except with my workouts. I am obsessed with doing whatever routine my coach wrote for me that day. It's taken me a long time to come up with a secondary plan for days when I'm short on time or nursing some minor injuries.

What is plan B? Well, I have a movement day that I keep in my program. And my movement day means that I'm at least going to the gym and foam rolling, warming up, and then doing 3-5 exercises. On days when I'm not feeling up to it, I get to the gym just to do this 20 minute workout. What I've found is that sometimes I feel good enough after the warm up to do the original workout. The key for me is having something in my back pocket that I gives me permission to go easy, but still gets me to the gym.

It keeps me in the routine. 

*By now, most of you know how I feel about using the scale to measure your progress. 

**It's important not to overlook this piece. You can't out-train a really poor diet. But let's focus on building the habit of getting to the gym first. 

***If anyone has tickets to the Steelers-Ravens game....I can be free.