How To Measure Your Progress / by Stephen Cooper

To move forward towards your goals you need someway to measure your progress.

For my Boot Camp and personal training clients, there are basically 3 areas that I want you to pay attention to:

  1. Exercise

  2. Sleep

  3. Nutrition

My own system tends to be very simple.

It's very rare that I measure my calories. I'm used to what portion sizes are appropriate for me, and I have a daily goal of eating 2 servings of fruit and 3 servings of vegetables. (If you need an idea of which portion sizes are appropriate for your goals, I encourage you to check out this infographic from Precision Nutrition.)

For tracking sleep, once again there are many options. You can use an app, or you can use a device like a FitBit or an Oura Ring. I've used apps from time to time, but my general habit is to just get to bed early enough (8:50 PM), so I get 8 hours of sleep on most nights. Do what works best for you, but the main thing is to create your lifestyle that makes getting enough quality sleep a habit.

Lastly, exercise. You can Google to see if there is an app you like. My own approach is to just keep a Google document. It simply shows what I did, weights used, and some quick notes like how I felt (strong, tired, etc) It's fast for me as I can pull it up on my phone, and add and edit it as I train.

Note, there is a break here between dates as I was running for awhile.

Note, there is a break here between dates as I was running for awhile.

Keep it simple, and find what works best for you. The important part is making progress towards your goals, and not spending a lot of time fussing with tracking apps and complexity.