It's 3:30 in the afternoon and I have only logged a measly 2,542 steps.Which means I have 7,458 to go to reach my daily goal of 10,000. Which means I'm going to have to get a "move on" to make it.
By this time yesterday, I had already logged nearly 12,000 steps.
Of course, yesterday looked a LOT different. Yesterday started out with a 2-mile run, followed by a 20-minute walk. 7,000 steps before 10 a.m.
Today, on the other hand, is a Monday. I stumbled out of bed, poured some coffee, showered and dressed then hopped in the car and drove into the office ... where I fired up my computer and sat down ... and have been sitting ever since.
Not much different than the 100 Monday work days before.
Except ...
Except today I am wearing a little gadget called a fitbit, which tracks my steps. Think of it as a pedometer on steroids. Because of fitbit, I now KNOW that I am sedentary (as in, not "stepping") for more than 8 hours most days; that I typically fall woefully short of the recommended 10,000 daily steps for good health; and that I can change all of this with approximately an hour's worth of exercise daily.
As a result, I took 72,459 steps last week, exceeding my weekly goal by four percent. I climbed 88 flights of stairs and traveled a self-propelled 31.27 miles!
Sadly, however, when I stepped on the scale this morning, I still had not achieved my goal weight.
Now -- you may be snickering at that comment, since we all know that one week of good behavior does not undo the damage of years of a sedentary lifestyle. No one REALLY expects to lose a pound a day, or 25 lbs in a week (unless you're on reality TV). Intellectually, we all know that it takes TIME to lose weight, lower your blood pressure, and reap the other good health benefits of a healthy lifestyle. The most important thing is that I am now tracking my diet and exercise in real, measurable ways that impact my behavior.
So it is with The Essential Solution®. We track every aspect of your Essential marketing system and deliver a monthly performance report, full of valuable feedback. We track things like number of blog postings, your website's rank on Google, unique visitors, and email distribution. We know that by watching these (and more) statistics, we can accurately predict results, even before they materialize.
Just as I know that increasing my activity level while decreasing my caloric intake WILL result in weight loss ... even when the scale refuses to budge.
The trick is to focus on the behaviors that lead to success. Measuring those behaviors is proven to be one of the most effective ways of changing them; as the adage goes: "What gets measured gets done."
Don't let yourself fall into a panic if your results are not as rapid or astounding as you had hoped. Watch the numbers, keep doing the right things right and you will achieve success.
As for me, I'm going to shut down my computer, lace up my running shoes, and get started on those 7,458 steps!