Evaluating your progress - Part 3

Getting my body back - Day 36

What is a progress report?

Remember when you were in school and you got a report card to take home to your parents? Perhaps you dreaded taking it home because you knew you really hadn't done your studies to warrant a good grade. If you did study, you'd be happy because you knew that you worked hard, understood the concepts taught and you expected good grades.

Your report card shows your progress during the school year in the same way a progress report tracks your progress at work, business or any project you're working on.

A progress report is a gauge to measuring how close you are to your goal.

Why do you need a progress report?

1) It keeps you focused on where you're going

2) It gets you back on track if you've gone off track

3) It shows where you're lacking and need to zoom in on a particular area

4) It tells you what's not working and what is

5) It helps you make decisions as to if you should continue with a segment of your goal or not or make adjustments or eliminate it altogether.

6) It tells you how far you've come

7) It shows you how far you have to go

A progress report can work for any aspect of your life; whether you're trying to get to your ideal body weight, running a business or be the best parent you could be. The method is transferable to all areas of your life.

Fuelling words: I'll track my progress to ensure that I stay focused and achieve my goal.

Routine: Warm-ups, stretches, aerobics, toning and strength exercises, cool down.

Visualization - keeping focus on my goal; healthy, strong and my ideal body weight and shape.

Deep breathing - relaxes the muscles and sends oxygen to the muscles where exercising alone would not reach.

Changing Inside Out Now! Getting my body back - Day 8

Evaluate your progress.

Evaluate is defined as 'to examine and judge carefully'.

On the journey to reaching your goal, pausing to evaluate where you are is imperative before continuing your activities for its attainment.

You need to take a look at the activities you've been engaged in; whether daily, weekly or monthly. Examine the progress you've made, if any.

- Is this where you expected to be? Providing that you've set small goals for yourself at the start of the journey, you need to match where you are now to where you expected to be.
- Are you on target?
- Are you behind schedule, or are you ahead of schedule?
- Are you completely off target?

Based on your activities, are you getting closer to your goals? Are you seeing changes, even though they may be small? Evaluate what changes or adjustments you need to make to get you closer to your goals. What can you do to enhance your activities that will position you in a better place to achieve your desired results?

This is where you start doing some trimming away, as well.

- Is this activity productive?
- Is it taking away time from things that I could be doing that are more productive?
- If you must perform the activity, are there other ways that it can done that is more time-efficient?

This is Day 8 of 'Getting my body back' journey. As I evaluate my activities, I reflect on the exercises that I've been engaged in.

What progress have I made, so far?
I feel my body taking form.
My muscles are tightening in those areas I've really focused on; abs, arms, butt, thighs (inner and outer).
I'm more flexible with my stretches.

Today, I challenged myself a bit more.

Now that I've looked at my exercise routine and see how far I've gone, I can look forward to the rest of this week. I'll continue to do my daily routine as it is proving to be working, no major outward changes, yet but small ones at a time.

I look at what I can improve on; perhaps taking it up a notch, adding some extra weight and variety. The future is promising as I keep my eyes focused on the prize.

Fueling words: I appreciate and I'm grateful for small changes as they are the starting pointing for growth to occur.

Routine: Warm-ups, stretches, aerobics, toning and strength exercises, cool down.

Visualization - keeping focus on my goal; healthy, strong and my ideal body weight and shape.

Deep breathing - relaxes the muscles and sends oxygen to the muscles where exercising alone would not reach.