Previously on Take Fit I have talked about the advantages and disadvantages of tracking progress using the bathroom scales, and using the bathroom mirror (published later this week). Today I want to talk about one of my preferred progress tracking methods, before & after photographs.
Before/after photos are definitely nothing new. They have been around for decades now as people want to visually see how far they have come. Bodybuilders, and other fitness professionals will always take ’status photos’ every now and then so that they can see any improvements or deteriorations from where they were last month, last year, etc.
There is nothing more exciting than comparing your own before & after photos. Before you embark on your journey towards six pack abs, or larger msucles or just simply losing weight, make sure you take some before photos.
Some people avoid doing such a thing because they are embarrised by the way they look. This is understandable but now that you can buy digital cameras with self timers there is no reason why such an excuse can still be used. If you want, you can take the photos and upload them to your PC without ever letting anyone look at them. Once you’ve taken you’re ‘after’ photos though, you’ll probably find you won’t mind showing your ‘before’ photos as they’ll prove just how much you’ve achieved.
If you really want to motivate yourself though, why not post the ‘before’ photos up on an Internet forum or (in an even bolder move) show your friends and family. Whoever sees the before photos will want to know what the results are - that way you’re much more likely to treat your goal seriously. If all you do is upload the photos to a hidden folder on your PC, the motivation to succeed is significantly diminished.
Another advantage of taking photos is that you’ll have a reference from then on which you can refer back to at a later time. This can help with tracking your ongoing fitness goals a lot more than just using your memory. And it will ususally be a better reference than the family photo albums.
Look out for an article to be published later this week which will outline some tips to be followed when taking these kinds of photos.
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