The Importance Of Progress Pictures! Take Some!

This is especially for those of you that hate that darn scale because it doesn't always read what you think it should. Monthly pictures have reflected my progress better than the scale and the tape measurer put together if you ask me! OF COURSE it is a wonderful feeling when the number on the scale goes down and when I find out I lost a few inches but it just doesn't equate to the feeling I felt when I compared my first two progress pictures. My jaw dropped. Ok so lets back peddle a little bit. When I decided to start working out I hit the gym HARD, and when I say hard I mean it. I went 30 consecutive days. (which is bad, don't try it) Well I fully expected that a when person who hasn't worked out in six years starts exercising intensely all of the sudden and modifies their diet (a little bit) would lose weight! Right?! Well I didn't lose weight, in fact I GAINED weight! I felt horrible! I couldn't believe that I had just wasted so much time and effort and I wanted to give up. THEN . . . I took a new picture of myself and compared it to the before picture. WOW was all I could say as a huge Crest toothpaste commercial smile spread across my face. WOW! Then I ran with the computer to my husband so he could see. I vividly remember holding my breath as he sat up, set the computer on his lap, and then proceeded to push his unnecessary but sexy reading glasses up from his nose like an old man to get a good look at my pix. Then guess what? HE SAW IT TOO! I wasn't crazy and I wasn't seeing things! My body was actually changing! I was floating on cloud nine! All that exercise and salads turned out NOT to be a waste of time. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and it is true! The amount of encouragement and motivation that progress pictures can provide is off the charts! When the scale is pissing you off and the person staring back at you in the mirror looks unchanged, turn to your pictures. They don't lie, like the mirror can since we look at ourselves in it very often.

I challenge every one of you to start taking progress pictures of yourself if you haven't already. If you don't want to post them on this site then I understand completely. I was so embarrassed of my original before photo. I look worse than I thought I did starting out that I didn't even want my face to show. Take baby steps. Maybe you can not show your face as well, or maybe you can some how work up to posting your photo. No matter what you should be proud and if you don't feel proud now I bet money that you will once you see even the tiniest bit of progress in your second photo. One last thing, before and after pictures are great as well but it is in between that you need to record and see for yourself the most DURING your weight loss journey. It will give you an unimaginable boost even when it is unexpected because you think you didn't change or because you know you didn't lose weight. To those of you that don't know, I am the SAME weight in the majority of my progress pictures and then in the one photo I am only down a SINGLE pound. If I had only stuck with the scale then I wouldn't be where I am today. (like I am really somewhere far lol) I would have not only beaten myself up but I would have quit.

Go for it guys.

P.S - Measurements measurements measurements. You have to stop letting the number on the scale bother you so much people. I went and am still going through the same thing. We all want the number to go down, and IT WILL but everything doesn't happen on our time. Don't give up because of the scale like I almost did. Take your measurements because THAT is what is important. You might not have lost a pound but you could have lost 2 inches off of your waist. Good luck everyone and let me know if and when you post your pictures so I can check them out!

I forgot to mention that the March Challenge for my SparkTeam is to take a PROGRESS PHOTO! What a coincidence ;) You still have 5 more days!

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