“So, how are you feeling?” my trainer always asks me before we start any work out session.

“How are you?” We ask each other all the time.

Checking-in at Vistage, a CEO group that I belong to, we always rate our health and personal state from scale of 1 to 10 and then describe to the group what is happening in our lives for us to rate it that way

“So, how does one define health or wellness” is a question that frequently comes up when I get into such conversation with people.

Is it lack of aches or pains, becoming free of medicines, being not flagged for any biomarkers in the results of our blood work by being within the range, not huffing and puffing while going up the stairs at the office or home? Or, is it being in some higher state of vitality?

Some people are satisfied with answers like, “Okay”, “Pretty Good”, “Great”, or “Stressed”.

But that is not very satisfying, if you are like me and believe in the old adage, “You get what you measure”.

My personal goal is to physically and emotionally live in a state of 9 or 10 at least 90% of the time, 10 being the most desirable state.

So, is there a quick and easy way to quantify such subjective measures?

I will talk about two different methods.

The first is an observational evaluation based on a 9-Point Clinical Frailty Scale developed by the Canadian Study of Health and Aging. This scale, shown below, is actually used in geriatric evaluations and research in Canada. (In this scale 1 is most healthy and 9 is least healthy). I find the descriptions of various levels quite telling and fairly precise.

The second one is my favorite. I came across this method many years ago, when I was evaluating the impact of some super green algae based supplement. Along with the supplement, the company sent me a journal to daily record my physical and emotional state. And, then to see for myself, if the supplement did any good.

Here I have changed some of the labels slightly and recalibrated the scale to go from 10 to 1.

So, for me personally, if I want to check in with myself and see where I am, this is the scale I like to use.

If I am not at 9 or above, then I can quickly analyze the root cause, the solutions and then take action to get back to 9 or above.

This is also very useful to assess the impact of any lifestyle changes, exercise, yoga, dietary changes, supplements, etc., to track physical and emotional health over a certain period.

What about you, do you think it is a useful exercise to measure or calibrate where you are physically and emotionally and track it?

How do you measure where you are physically and emotionally?

I would love to hear from you.