It may seem arbitrary to your health and somewhat superficial, but knowing where you’ve started (with the help of measurements) is a great way to keep motivated when all hope seems lost. Further, if you can look at how far you’ve come, it becomes pretty difficult to throw all your efforts out on a whim.

For me, taking measurements doesn’t mean simply weighing yourself and breaking out a measuring tape. I only ever advocate measuring oneself based on goals:

Want to lose weight? → Weigh yourself.
Want to reduce pain? → Compare your pain to a pain chart.
Want to have less stress in your life? → Rate your stress level compared to a stress level scale. Also, write down what’s stressing you out.
Want to eat healthier foods? → Write a list (or take a snapshot) of what you eat on a typical day. Write what you’d like to change.
Want your body to be bigger (or smaller)? → Whip out the measuring tape.

The Step:

With your health goals in mind, take your measurements and keep them in a place you’ll remember to use for reflection in the future.

How:

1. Commit to writing down a few “measurements” each day this week.
2. Choose how and where you will be recording your measurements (For example: In a spiral notebook, on a new blog, by taking pictures and uploading to Tumblr, in a word document, etc.)
3. Record a few measurements (and the goals they relate to). Here are a few examples of measurements to get you started:

• Take your measurements with a tape measure
• Weigh yourself
• Calculate your BMI
• Find out your body fat percentage
• Take pictures of meals
• Write down your stress level
• Write down any pain you feel on a regular basis
• Write about what you’re thinking about or working on this week
• Write down a few recent victories

Keep your measurements in a safe place (hopefully somewhere you’ll revisit again).

Are you participating in 52 weeks, 52 steps? How is it going? Let me know in the comments!

Also, If you’re just joining us, you can read all about 52 weeks, 52 steps and get caught up on all the steps here. If you’d like to your weekly step in your inbox sign up for a subscription to my blog here.