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The scale can be a useful tool in keeping you on track to achieve your weight loss goals.  It can also be a hinderance.  It can become an obsession.  Many of us are obsessed with what number we see on the scale.  It’s not a healthy situation!

I haven’t owned a scale since I lived with my parents in high school.  The reason?  I have an unhealthy relationship with it!  We have agreed to disagree!!!  The reality is whatever number it comes back at me with, I never seem to be satisfied with it.  It  isn’t a rational relationship.  I am a fitness professional.  I know the importance of all the other measures of what being healthy is all about.  But, and yes, there is a big but…when I step on the scale it seems to erase all the other pieces of the puzzle. 

I have grown up with the scale typically showing a bigger number than “it’s supposed to”.  The reality is I have a lot of muscle on my body.  Having muscle on your body and stepping on a scale seem to be at odds with each other!  But for some reason we associate “success” with that number that appears on the scale.  It doesn’t matter how many inches we’ve lost, how much body fat has disappeared, how much better our skin looks, the incredible increase in our energy let alone the rise of our self esteem.  The scale has been the only measure of success.  THAT IS RIDICULOUS!

When you look in the mirror and like what you see.  When you like the way you fit into your clothes.  When you walk down the street  and like how you feel.  When you are amazed at how you can get up the stairs without panting.  THESE are all measures of what is important.  Not a number on a scale!

If looking at the scale helps keep you on track, then keep using it.  If looking at it sets you back and makes you second guess the strides you’re taking because it hasn’t moved the way you’d like it to, then gift it to someone else.

Pay attention to the way you feel and don’t get wrapped up in a number, that at the end of the day, is just a number.

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