30 Days to healthy living: Day 16

Lets talk NSVs.

What are NSVs or Non-Scale Victories? These are the changes that you often see that may or may not be accompanied by movement on the scale when you change your diet and lifestyle.

Many people jump into a lifestyle change expecting immediate results. We want instant gratification. It’s rampant in everything else in our lives, so why not expect the same when you change your lifestyle? Hey, I ate healthy for 24 hours and parked farther away at Walmart so why haven’t I lost 10 pounds??? Yeeeaaaah…. It doesn’t work like that.

When I started changing my lifestyle this summer and went from being basically a slug to working out and eating well, it took a while for the scale to budge and for anyone else to notice. It was NSVs that kept me going and in the end I lost the weight I wanted to.

Non scale victories to look for :

(hint-these are good to journal every day to keep you motivated)

1. Less bloat-when you eat the right foods and keep yourself hydrated, your digestive process runs smoother and your belly usually deflates.
2. You can lift heavier things-muscle is hard to see when it’s still covered in extra fluff but you can certainly feel it when you can lift heavier objects than usual.
3. Your sleep improves. A funny thing that happens for a lot of people is that they start to sleep better, usually as a result of moving their body during the day. (This one is harder if you have little kids. They don’t care if you are getting healthy. They want a glass of water. )
4. Your clothes hang better and you might even go down a size even without a loss of weight. Muscle weighs more than fat of the same volume. In other words, a pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat. A pound is a pound but muscle is more compact. This happens best when you are exercising some and have adequate protein in your diet.
5. Less brain fog. Following a healthy lifestyle tends to give you a little clarity due to less overall inflammation.
6. More energy. Likely related to improved nutrition, better sleep and less inflammation. You actually WANT to get up off the couch. A body in motion stays in motion. This is physics.
7. Improved confidence. When you do hard things and stick to it, you gain confidence to do more hard things. The more confidence you gain, the easier it is to try even harder things and things you never thought you could do.
8. Greater self control. The longer you follow a healthy pattern of eating, the easier it gets to resist junk food and seconds. This is especially true for me.
9. No more cravings. When you fuel your body with adequate nutrition, exercise and sleep, you may find that your cravings for certain unhealthy foods go away. I certainly find that the thought of how I know I will feel if I eat junk, even gluten free junk, kills any cravings I may have. At this point the only thing I ever get a craving for is dark chocolate and one small square satisfies that. Bonus that dark chocolate is a healthy snack choice for a treat!

 

So, when you feel like you are literally working your butt off exercising and changing your eating patterns but the scale isn’t budging, look for the NSVs and journal them. They are there, I promise!

What NSVs are YOU seeing?

Here’s you our health!

Liz