Why You Need To Ditch The Scales ASAP
If you’re anything like me, you have gone through a period in your life
(or maybe are still currently stuck) when you have dreaded seeing the number on the scales,
yet you would continually weight yourself!?
What’s with that?? Why would we make ourselves feel bad by looking at the scales
(disappointed from weight gain or if the numbers didn’t budge),
OR either let the scales make us feel good
(like we were a better person because the numbers had dropped)?
For me, it was mostly in my teens and early 20’s, I became rather obsessed with that number,
I would even journal about it, comparing previous results. It became quite unhealthy.
If you are still torturing yourself with those silly numbers on the scales,
I hope I can help you to try to move past this & also understand the obsession.
Ditch Diet Culture
It’s time to ditch the diet culture, your weight does not define you.
It’s sad that diet culture (and some seriously powerful marketing) has got into our heads and made us so conscious of the number on the scales. When I was growing up, it was blasted in magazines, now it’s all over social media “how I reached my goal weight etc etc”
Weighing less does not mean you are healthy! Read that again. A number on a scale does not define who you are or your health status.
Okay how do we ditch the diet culture?
Shifting Your Mindset
It’s time to change your attitude to health. Now, comes the tough bit, ask yourself “how do you feel about weighing yourself and why so” “what do you define as healthy and why” and “how do you want to feel and why”.
Really narrow in on the “why’s”.
If your ‘whys’ are influenced by diet culture, I hope this is a little epiphany, that this is NOT you, but how you have been told to feel. That’s pretty crazy, that industry has influenced how you perceive YOUR body. Not cool.
Let’s refocus, shift your mindset, delve into your OWN insights and start focusing on adjusting your attitude towards your health.
The Scale Got It Wrong
One day you weigh this and the next day you weigh something completely different… We’ve all heard it before, scales really do fluctuate! There are so many reasons for these variations. Some of which include water weight, hormone levels, recent food consumption, bowel movements, clothing, mensuration, time of day, temperature, muscle… the list goes on! Weight loss and fat loss aren’t the same thing. So, why bother using a tool that clearly gets it wrong but almost guarantees to affect us mentally.
Change The Way You Measure
If you are driven by the scales and are currently on a weight loss journey. Please consider other useful tools, that can be used as fantastic motivators. Here’s some suggestions:
How your clothes are fitting
Using a tape measure
Taking a progress shot
Also, I must mention, the overuse of these tools will have the same effect as using the scales. Spread out your check ins, maybe once a month or every 3 months and so on. Plus, this can be more exciting as you are more likely to see a difference (again this is for people who have a weight loss goal).
More importantly, instead of focusing on pure measurements, how about shifting perspective and looking for alternate motivators.
Finding Motivation Elsewhere
Find different ways to measure success (remember your health is not constrained to weight loss). Shifting your focus can have amazing effects on your physical & mental health. Use different kinds of goals as motivators (here’s some ideas):
Running that little bit further
Lifting a certain weight
Signing up for a fun run
Feeling flexible
Waking up feeling energised
Even more powerful than these suggestions is purely viewing your health on how you are feeling in your body. Listening to your bodies unique cues and intuitively responding to them.
YOU GOT THIS
I hope this has made you realise that the scales and your weight does not determine yourself worth! You are so much more than a number on a metal box that gets it wrong anyway. Your first step is ditching them. Get rid of them today! This can be a difficult step but a liberating one at that. Once that’s done, time to find your personal motivators. Of course, I’m always here if you need additional support with this.
I would love to hear if you have ditched the scales or your thoughts on doing so,
Drop your thought below.
