The 12 Week Year

I just finished listening to The 12 Week Year and I found it pretty interesting. It's very hands-on, so I may have to get The 12 Week Year Field Guide, although I think some of the material might be on their website.

What I found interesting in the first listening was how you measure your leading and lagging indicators. As I wrote about on Monday, I'm trying to lose about 25 pounds before Memorial Day, which is 25 pounds in 20 weeks, so I can possibly do it by shedding one pound a week.

The lagging indicators are the results I'm looking for: weight loss or gain, BMI loss or gain, and percent body fat loss or gain. The leading indicators are the things I do to get those results: walking 10,000 steps per day, burning off 500 more calories per day than I take in, and drinking 3 liters of water a day. They said you should be able to achieve your results if you're at least 85% effective, which I wrote about here.

I wrote about a formula that I found somewhere (I can't find the post), that says Success = Strategy x Execution, and now you can give some numbers to the formula! If you met your goal (success) by doing at least 85% of your leading indicators (execution), then your strategy is effective.

Doing my 3 activities a day (steps, calories and water) for 7 days a week equals 21 activities a week and 85% of 21 is 18...so, if my strategy is effective, I should be able to lose a pound a week if I complete at least 18 of my activities a week.

Let's say I lose 1 1/4 pounds and I complete 19 activities a week (90%), then my success equation will look like this:

1.25 = strategy x .9

If I divide both sides by .9, I end up with 1.39 = strategy, which means that my strategy would be a 1.39 pound weekly weight loss if I can get my activity up to 100%, which is a 140% effective strategy!

If you do less than 85% of your activities, don't change your strategy! If you do complete 85% or more, and you don't reach your goal then you can consider changing your strategy.

Anyway, check out the book (or audiobook) and check out the website. I'll keep you posted on my success and whether my strategy is effective or not. (PS: I'm at 100% so far!)

Interesting days

Today - Bubble Bath Day, Earth’s Rotation Day, Argyle Day, Show & Tell At Work Day and Joy Germ Day

Tomorrow - Apricot Day, Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, Static Electricity Day, Play God Day and Balloon Ascension Day

Next Wednesday - Hat Day, Pothole Day, Museum Selfie Day and Strawberry Ice Cream Day

February 8 - Molasses Bar Day, Opera Day, Laugh And Get Rich Day and Kite Flying Day