Thursday, February 26, 2015

Scale Struggles


Rambling thoughts on the scale ..

I'll admit, the scale struggle is a real thing. 

I hate weighing myself. I allow the scale to dictate how I'm doing in my life. If I eat perfectly all week, exercise daily, drink all my water, have an A+ healthy week, and then weigh myself to see I've "only" maintained .. I'd get down. And frustrated. And start over-analyzing EVERYTHING. Maybe I had too much sodium one day. Maybe I accidentally underate against my activity so my body held on. Maybe my muscles are inflamed. 

That's not a fun or realistic way to go about a healthy lifestyle. 

And yet .. I can't resist. I need to weigh in weekly to see where I'm at. I love seeing those numbers drop to places they haven't been in years. Seeing that "goal" weight in those magical scale numbers was a big deal. And y'know, it is a big deal. It's a great reason to celebrate.

But.

At the end of the day .. My muscles COULD be inflamed from a strength workout. And maybe my lady friend Red is stopping in so I'm a bit bloaty one weigh-in. But the scale won't tell me those things. It's doesn't validate all my hard work that week. And it certainly doesn't measure how AmAzInG I'm feeling with my healthy, active lifestyle.

So why do I do it?! To see a stupid number?! 

I am lifting weights. I plan to lift heavier and heavier. I never plan to stop eating right. Not gonna happen. So in reality, I could possibly never see my goal number on the scale. Who knows? Maybe my in-progress quads and triceps won't allow that. 

My focus is on fat loss and muscle gain. Cardio endurance. Stamina. HEALTH. Again, a scale won't tell me those things. Yet I'll allow it to define my mood. Huh?! I must be nutty! (Ooo peanut butter .. Haha)

I'd like to say I'm done with the scale. Part of me is. Yet part of me needs to finally achieve my goal that I initially set out to achieve when I was a teenager: to lose 100 lbs. I'm almost there .. So maybe I'll stop the nuttiness at that. Once I hit that 100 lbs lost mark, I think I'm going to hang up the scale.

I'll still weigh-in at the end of my 21-Day Fix (Monday! This will be my first weigh-in in two weeks!) .. And every Saturday, as always, until I got that goal. And then .. It's time. Because in the grand scheme of things, that number means nothing. But how I feel means EVERYTHING. How much fun I'm having now. How much energy I have. How happy I am. How in love with this life I am! That's what matters!

Health wins. Scale loses! 

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