In Defense of Measuring and Weight Training

Sometime in November 2006 when I started this journey, someone on the Weight Watchers boards told me to measure myself regularly. I had actually done that as far back as 2000, but very sporadically. Still I had the spreadsheet and continued to use it.

I've actually added to the measurements I take now (lower stomach and bust band), but I started with these, at 189 pounds:

• Hips: 42.5"
• Waist: 38"
• Bust: 44"
• Right/left arm: 13.5" (sometimes they are different)
  
• Thigh: 26.75"
• Calf: 15.8"
  
• Neck: 15"
• Wrist: 6.2"
  

It's amazing what kind of information these (more or less) monthly measurements give you. Back in April, I weighed 139.6 and measured myself (that was before all the summer associate nonsense this summer). What's interesting is that my measurements in April are still smaller than the measurements I took just this morning at 139. All by about 1/2 an inch. That is significant stuff. The only difference between my 139 of April and 139 of now is that I was doing a lot more weight training then. So here's an incentive to weight train

So today I weighed in at 139, and got the following measurements (the difference between the measurements I took today and my starting ones is in parentheses):

• Hips: 37.5" (5")
  
• Waist: 29" (9")
  
• Bust: 38.5" (5.5")
  
• Right/left arm: 11.5" (2")
• Thigh: 22.25" (4.5")
  
• Calf: 13.25" (2.5")
  
• Neck: 12.5" (2.5")
  
• Wrist: 5.6" (0.6")
  

I am so glad I heeded that suggestion to measure. I've now put it in my online calendar to remind me to do it on the 15th of every month. It is so awesome to see the difference (9 INCHES on my stomach!) in such hard numbers. Plus it's always interesting to see where I'm losing from the most, and how long it takes to lose from that part (in the past, it seems it takes 1 1/2 months of fully on program to lose 1" off my waist, not bad!).

So if you haven't measured yourself: do it! Write it down somewhere you can go back to and compare. Then start your weight training program, or kick it up a notch if you're doing it already. You'll be glad you did.