Use Pictures & Video to Record Your Progress
I’m going to be short today because I realize that writing blogs ahead of time and batching them when writing daily is a better way to go. BUT I am writing daily and posting daily as part of my own procrastination to progress challenge and tonight I am just beat after a LONG day of meetings. Being an introvert, I feel like someone sapped me so even sitting here pretending to talk to others by blogging is a LOT.
As I thought about what I could write about quickly, since I’m not loving what the team I had hired picked out for all of the topics in this challenge, I realized that a really big miss was not yet covering the importance of tracking your progress tangibly. So let’s talk about that tonight.
First a real life example.
How Photos and Videos Can Help with Living a Proactive Lifestyle
When you take time to capture a moment in time with film, whether by video or in pictures, you allow yourself no room for making up how you’re doing. In the pictures above from May 2020, I was so thrilled with my life and how great I felt eating a ketogenic diet. By November 2020, due a shortage in meat, cheese, and fresh produce locally for several weeks in a row, I had stopped eating it and allowed excuses to take over when it came to my activity level and eating habits (tacos and guac daily, milkshake-like coffee drinks, and other unhealthy foods). I can’t lie when I see this pictures and say, “Oh it wasn’t that bad,” because I can SEE it. I have the proof of my “success” in gaining weight (as if the increased jeans size wasn’t enough). Seeing the pictures helped me start to work with a nutritionist and my health team to make some changes slowly until finally going back on Keto and going a little more slowly with the drastic changes this year.
The same way I can see my increase, you can see yours by documenting your journey with a camera. Are you accomplishing more in a day? Take pictures or screenshots of your To Do Lists. Show how you are completing things. Are you writing more? Take a picture of your completed notebook. Are you spending more time with your kids? Take a picture of you doing the same pose together on each trip to make memories for them you can scrapbook later.
For video, you can even just record a short video daily talking about how you feel, like a video journal. Save the videos to the same folder and then look back on them at planned intervals or when you need encouragement to keep going.
When I look at the picture above, I don’t JUST see the weight gain. I also see us having fun during a global shutdown and taking time with a friend who was willing to snap some pics so my daughter could be in the yearbook despite doing school virtually. I see a family who got closer during the pandemic, which was something I always wanted to work on but procrastinated on making the time.
Be Consistent
Whatever you choose, be consistent with it. Whether that means taking a photo once a week, or filming yourself once a month if the goal is a longer-term one. If you are procrastinating daily on many things, then take a quick picture of your lists at the end of each day to show that you are leaving less and less undone.
This doesn’t have to be hard. You just have to start. I am back eating a ketogenic diet since October 1, and the way I’ve done it alongside this blogging challenge is by taking pictures of my meals and encouraging myself to keep going. I also took a picture of my vitamins on day one of taking a new supplement that I used as the catalyst for finally taking the plunge, versus what I am on now, 25 days later. I am down 12 pounds, haven’t had a single flare up, am exercising and getting more active, and my brain feels better than it has since stopping eating a healthy keto diet. (Yes, I choose to eat a lot of salads because I don’t love eating a lot of meat. But this isn’t what keto looks like for everyone, and NOT EVERYONE with Chron’s will have the same results I’ve had on it. That’s why we need a health team.)
You’ve Got This
You are going to do great. We have a few more practical things you do, one that is my favorite and another way I’ve been going strong. I wanted to put this off tonight and instead I finished and hope it was worth your time. It took me longer than usual and longer than it should, but I did it. And you’re going to kick your procrastination habit too! Let’s go!
Shell Vera 