A New Way to Measure Health

When health goals miss the mark.

Hello! A Saturday-inspired post fueled by caffeine, let’s get to it!

I had an honest moment the other day when I stepped on the scale.

Now, to be clear, I feel amazing. My energy is high, my mind is sharp, and most days I accomplish more before noon than most people tackle in an entire week. I get my steps in, eat my vegetables, weight train, drink water, meditate, pray, cook all my meals, journal, socialize (but not too much), get enough sleep… I’m in one of the healthiest rhythms imaginable—physically, emotionally, and professionally.

But in that split second when the number appeared, none of that seemed to matter. The flicker of irritation was immediate, irrational, and quietly unsettling. It was as if all the progress I’ve made, all the strength I feel, all the vitality I carry into my day—none of it counted in that moment. Just that one number, glowing back at me, as if it had the final say: You’re not good enough.

And that’s when it hit me: how easy it is to mistake the measure for the mission.

I often return to a quote from economist Charles Goodhart, especially when I’m helping others navigate their health: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” And this was that, playing out in my world in real time. The scale didn’t measure how I felt. It didn’t reflect my productivity, my mood, my resilience, or my joy. It didn’t account for the consistency in my habits or the fact that I now wake up before the alarm with energy to spare. It measured weight and weight alone. But because we so often elevate that number to “goal” status, it can trump all other signs of good health. What other numbers or measures are on our minds before our health and life status ever gets a say?

With our health, this happens all the time. A person sets a goal to lose twenty pounds, lower blood pressure, or drop their A1C blood sugar levels, not because those aren’t valuable markers, but because they’ve been told that they equal good health. They’re also highly visible, trackable, and culturally praised. The problem is, once that number becomes the focus, we start designing our behavior around moving it—regardless of whether those behaviors are sustainable, healthy, or even logical.

We cut out entire food groups not because our bodies need us to, but because we hope it’ll move the scale. We obsess over fasting windows, carb grams, or step counts, even if we’re exhausted, stressed, or burnt out in the process. Do you see the problem here?

The target becomes the obsession, and somewhere along the way, the actual goal—feeling better, living longer, thinking clearer, showing up stronger—gets lost in the shuffle.

But real, lasting health doesn’t come from manipulating the measure. It comes from changing the system that produced it.

Weight, for example, isn’t just a reflection of what you ate this week. It’s often the result of months—or years—of accumulated habits, stress patterns, sleep disruptions, hormonal shifts, and coping mechanisms we’ve leaned on during hard seasons. It’s not a standalone issue. It’s a signal. And when we treat it like a singular enemy to defeat, we miss the opportunity to understand what it’s trying to tell us.

There’s another quote I love—this one from John Foster Dulles: “The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it’s the same problem you had last year.” That one hits differently when you’ve been stuck in the same health cycle for years. If you’re still chasing the same number or battling the same symptom, it’s not a sign you’ve failed—it’s a sign the strategy, if you have one, isn’t working. Success isn’t about perfection, it’s about progress.

And that’s where perspective comes in.

In my upcoming book, Health Shift, there is a Health Spectrum Pyramid that maps out four general health levels:

• Not Healthy

• Not As Healthy

• Mostly Healthy

• Healthy

Each level reflects more than symptoms—it reflects how much support your body needs to function well, and how much intervention you rely on. The higher up the pyramid you go—into “Not Healthy” territory—the more you depend on external systems: medications, specialists, therapies. As you move down toward “Healthy,” you gain more autonomy and more room to heal through lifestyle, habits, and internal strategy.

It’s a powerful reminder that health isn’t binary. You’re not “sick” or “well.” You’re somewhere on a spectrum, and where you are now helps determine how long it might take to improve. If you’ve lived in a “Not So Healthy” state for years, you may feel “stuck” in your health, and because of that, it may take time and layered changes to rebuild momentum. And if you're “Mostly Healthy,” but feeling stuck, the pyramid can help you recognize the subtle shifts that matter before crisis forces your hand to move up, or you can gently move down back toward healthy again by using some small, manageable, nurturing health shifts. Regarding my weight, I haven’t been there for long - I’m not stuck. I’m just a little heavier than usual.

Can you start to see how health is now not just about weight, blood pressure, or lab results, but about the direction you're moving? Is it toward better health or away from it? Or are you attempting to “solve” the same metric problem year after year, or finally getting traction toward feeling better? We should focus on progress, not the metric.

Again, metrics matter, but they are not the point. The scale can offer information, but it doesn’t define the story. Energy, consistency, sleep quality, emotional balance, and clarity in health decisions are the daily actions that change our health and aid us in getting to a healthier level.

If you find yourself discouraged by a number, please don’t. Ask yourself what it is that you really should measure. Is it the metric, the progress, or the process? And is your current approach solving the right problem, or just dancing around it? Maybe part of your solution will be to shift something outside of health metrics, like your job, friends, and habits.

Shift the focus if you need to, and refine your system. Pay attention to the patterns that build health, not just meet a metric. When the system or process toward better health is on the right track, the results—yes, even the measurable ones—will tend to follow. Like for me, the weight will drop if I adjust and modify a few things in my day, and I have already done so, and the weight is slowly changing. But weight isn’t my focus; it’s just a number, and it certainly doesn’t measure if I’m good enough. That internal voice I heard saying so comes from our culture. It does not represent my reality. I am not only good enough, I’m a rockstar, and so are you.

Have a great rest of your weekend!

Dr. Alice

Health Shift: Your Strategic Guide to Making Strategic Health Decisions book will officially launch on May 17, 2025! Mark your calendars! And if you’re in Cheyenne, join us for our book launch party at Blacktooth Brewery. More information is coming soon.