You can’t see your weight loss in the mirror

It’s third month of your weight loss journey.

You step on the scale. You feel you’ve for sure lost some weight. What was the number last time you checked, this has to be at least a kilo less right?

Then you look at the mirror. One part of your head says that there’s definitely some differences to last week. The other part says that you’re still as fat as you were three months ago when you started.

Now you’re thinking, that this feels like an endless grind with no reward.

But stop right there and take a breath.

Why do you think there’s no progress?

Well, you’re basing your evaluations on your memories which can be fuzzy at best.

Especially with changes that happen subtly over weeks or months, your memories smooth them out and they never seem drastic.

Here is a simple strategy that has worked for me to notice the slow weight loss progress over six years.

Don’t rely on your memories on how you have progressed

That’s right. Don’t rely on your memories of where you were previously. Rely on data about your progress that you’ve gathered.

🗓 Weigh yourself and measure your waist daily in similar conditions, and note the numbers down to e.g. Google Sheets or Excel.

📸 Take progress pictures from front and side every two weeks or every month, and store the pictures to e.g. Google Drive.

Result: You can reliably look at the progress over a larger time period with objective measurements. Now the subtle daily changes compound to a larger change that can be more drastic.

This hopefully helps with your motivation to keep going, rather than quit early.