I made the decision on Thursday night. I was eating dinner, thinking back on this past week and all the good things I had been doing when it comes to my health and fitness. Harder workouts, healthier meals, less snacking on processed sugar, more water, etc.
I came up with a long list of victories that could all vanish in a second if I were to step on the scale and it reads back to me a number I don’t like.
So that’s when I decided.
I was going to throw away my scale.
I feel like I’ve tried everything when it comes to losing weight. I haven’t followed any fad diets or gone on any crazy juicing fasts, but I’ve been doing it the old-fashioned way for so long. Eating less, moving more. Counting calories and points. Cutting out sugar and soda. Boot camps and gym memberships and spin classes. Stepping on the scale almost weekly. Up and down, up and down.
Nothing seems to work. Or perhaps it’s more appropriate to say, I haven’t been consistent with anything.
Weight Watchers works – if you use the program correctly.
Calorie counting works – if you’re honest about what you’re eating and consistent with it.
Right now, I’m not counting anything. I’m not even cutting anything out indefinitely. I am trying to eat intuitively and follow a 70/30 diet. (70% of the time, I eat healthy and 30% of the time I splurge.) While I have added soda back into my life after my 30-day fast, I only have it one or two times a week. I have drastically reduced how many sweets I have – limiting myself to 3 pieces of dark chocolate a day. I am trying to eat out less, make more healthy meals at home, and choose wisely when I do go out to eat. I am exercising on a consistent basis and trying to make each and every workout count. I want to sweat, I want to push my limits, I want sore muscles.
I feel good.
I feel really, really good.
I don’t feel deprived. I feel proud of my accomplishments. I feel like this is a sustainable way for me to live for a long, long time. I feel motivated and less inclined to “cheat”. And while it’s entirely possible I could step on the scale and it could show me a magical number that would motivate me even more, I don’t want my motivation to lie in a number. I want my motivation to come from a desire to be healthy.
I want to stop depending on the scale to tell me if I have had a good week or a bad week.
I do plan on taking my measurements on a monthly basis, especially as I go through another round of Best Body Bootcamp. But I want to use other measurements to define how I am improving with my health: the way my jeans fit, lifting heavier weights, being able to do more than 10 burpees at a time, the way I feel when I look in the mirror.
The scale has been such a big part of my life – such a motivator and a deterrent for me – that it’s going to be hard to let it go and just motivate myself through other means. But I also think it’s going to help me to stop focusing on eating better and exercising just to lose weight and be skinny, but to do it because it makes me feel good.
Do you have a healthy or unhealthy relationship with the scale?
I step on the scale every day or every other day, but I don’t take a lot of stock in the number. I’m not sure if that means a healthy relationship or not. I’m terribly inconsistent, and I would like to lose some weight but not at the expense of enjoying my life or my food. I do need to exercise more – I’m not consistent at all.
I’m not one to step on the scale more than once a week, but I get myself SO caught up and stressed out in what that number implies for my efforts. I like to use it as a measuring stick, but I think a few weeks/months off will help me to figure out to be healthy for the sake of being healthy and feeling good — not because I want to see a specific number on the scale.
I haven’t had a scale in my life since I moved out of my parents’ house to attend post-secondary – 13-ish years ago. I go by how I’m feeling, my own fitness progression (10 to 15 to 20 minutes on the terrible, terrible elliptical…so far) the fit of my clothes.
Congratulations Stephany! I love that you’re feeling good; really, really good. Love it! 🙂 Just keep feeling good.
Thank you, Kim! I think it’s important to be more aware of non-scale victories than put too much focus on the scale. As long as you’re trying to make healthy decisions on a daily basis, that’s all we can ask from ourselves! Keep up the good work!
I think I have a pretty healthy relationship with it. We own one but I only step on it every 2 – 3 weeks or so. Sometimes it makes me feel crappy but it doesn’t have the ability to ruin my day. I much prefer to base things on how I feel and how my clothes fit!
I have one and use it weekly. It doesn’t always show me a number I want, which is why I also look at NSV: Non Scale Victories. I can tell that I’m improving my running, and was able to hold a 12 min pace for 3/4 of a mile yesterday when normally my pace is around 13 minutes. I can tell that I’m getting stronger because it’s easier for me to use 10 lbs weights when I was using only 3-5 lbs weights a year ago. I can tell that I’m getting slimmer because my jeans, which are now a size smaller than they were at Christmas, require a belt.
In diabetes we have a saying: “It’s a number, not a measurement of my self-worth.” I think this could easily be applied to weight loss.
NSV’s are sometimes more exciting than scale victories. Don’t get me wrong: scale victories are VERY exciting and sometimes feel like “proof” of all your hard work but it doesn’t always show every side of the story. I really want to get my focus back on NSV’s for right now to see how that affects my weight AND how I see myself. Sometimes, I forget to be proud of all the good I am doing for myself because I’m too focused on the number on the scale.
Love the quote! Very appropriate for weight loss.
Keep up the incredible work, Allison. You are doing amazing!
I think throwing your scale away and focusing on measurements instead is a good idea. I know for me, if I step on my scale and see a number I don’t like after working so hard on my diet and exercise, I completely let it ruin my day and might even let myself eat something unhealthy AKA eat my feelings, which is totally counter-productive. 😛
I would LOVE to throw my scale out. I think it likes to spite me. One week I’m down a bunch of pounds, the next week it’s no change. I’m over it. Instead I’m focusing on how I feel, how I look (as in, muscle tone and feeling/looking slimmer) and the fact that I can do things I couldn’t do before, including really hard yoga poses, reps of squats, lunges, insane calisthenic workouts that I never could have made it through and the fact that when I went running I was able to run up and down all of the hills near me without stopping. I know I am stronger, that my lungs can handle more and that it’s doing me good. If the pounds don’t melt away then so be it. I’m doing all that I can right now!
That’s exactly how I feel. When I quit soda for 30 days, I never let myself fully embrace the fact that I did it and kept at something I had wanted to quit for so long because the pounds weren’t coming off. While the scale can be a good measuring stick, it can also be such a detriment when you base your emotions or whether you are succeeding or failing on it. I think taking a few months off constantly weighing myself can only help me to focus on the non-scale victories and be proud of all I am accomplishing, in spite of the number on the scale.
Jerry actually had to hide my scale this week! Even after 14 months and 102 pounds, I still obsess over it because I’m not at my goal yet. I got on the scale every day and it drove me nuts, so now he gets it out for me on Monday mornings and that’s it lol.
I don’t even use the scale because it usually only reminds me of the things I have failed at. I try to just feel good if I work out and eat right and if my pants fit better thats an added plus. Did you read Nilsa’s post today? She kind of talked about the same thing and if you read through the comments there are some inspiring ones out there! http://somispeaks.com/2013/03/18/accomplishment/
Good for you!!!
I was obsessive about my scale when I was losing weight…I finally limited myself to only weighing in once or twice a week.
Now I haven’t stepped on a scale for months, even though I do think there is value in checking in every once in awhile to make sure you’re still on track.
But seriously, if it’s becoming unhealthy for you, awesome work in recognizing that you need to make a change.
I don’t have a relationship with the scale, lol. I don’t even own a scale. :-/ I do sometimes use my cousin’s, though. Just to see if I’ve gained weight or lost any. It really depends for me. One day I could five pounds lighter and the next five pounds heavier. I guess it depends on when I eat. I always go by the measurement of my pants, though. I’ve gone up a size since high school, but then I stopped dancing and cheerleading and gymnastics and all that business. I’ve been pretty stagnant in my exercise since I was 18, but I really need to start again. My muscles have gotten tight and achey, and I just feel so sluggish all the time. I’d like to start making a schedule of when to do it, at least once or twice a week just to get myself started. I think it’s a good decision to throw away the scale, at least for now. Just follow the process you wrote about and focus on living a healthier lifestyle first, then worry about numbers later. 🙂
So happy to hear that you are feeling good! I think your 70/30 plan is very reasonable. I think that is what I am around too. I still want those three squares a day! I don’t want to feel deprived!
The scale motivates me and keeps me on track though, so I stick with it. I’d like to think I will use it less as I get over binge eating and to a healthy weight. I applaud you for getting rid of yours!
Hey Stephany,
Great post! I think this is a great move to make – when you eat healthy and work out you feel good. It’s not just something people say, it’s true. Having the way you feel as a reminder is much better than a scale that’s not showing you what you expect to see every time. You know your body, and you know what feels good and when you are happy with it – a scale can mean different things. You may become super fit, and the scale stay around the same, but yet, you have a glow, you’re lifting more, and you’ve got some tight muscles! The scale can’t tell us everything. Your body *knows*. Thanks for the great post! Rooting for you!
Dieting is the worst. Believe me, I have FELT like throwing away my scale… but my approach is to simply pretend it isn’t there. Because I don’t even wants to know!
I think as long as you’re happy with yourself and what you’re doing, you don’t need to torture yourself with crazy diets. I did the calorie counting thing last year… it helped for awhile, but I just couldn’t live like that forever. And as soon as I stopped, so did the progress. It’s crazy.
Power to you and your journey! Move forward… without the scale. 🙂
Good for you girl! Eating intuitively is tough, but if you’re constantly CONSCIOUS of what’s going into your body, that’s a very important first step. It’s easy to just ignore when you’re eating badly and pretend it’s not really happening. The scale is my worst enemy on those kinds of days, I’ve tried very hard to avoid mine too, and only check once in a while to make sure I’m not going totally crazy lol.
I don’t own a scale and haven’t for probably 4-5 years? Our weights fluctuate from day to day so much so I just decided it was not something I needed in my house. When I did WW the only time I weighed myself was when I went to the meetings, and now that I am not on the program anymore, I will weigh myself at the gym once a week, if that. It’s rare that I step on the scale and think – ‘wow, that is awesome’ so it’s just best for me to not have it around!!