LISTEN UP!
The scales measure your WEIGHT not your WORTH.
The increasing volume of comments from people who are really anxious or impacted negatively by the scales is not OK. Is your head on straight when it comes to the scales and weighing in? Stick with me here for a few truths:
Truth #1: If you are overweight or obese then yes, losing weight is necessary if you want a healthy life now and into the future; to add life to your years and years to your life. In other words to have less disability from disease, less early death.
Truth #2: The scales are an important tool for measuring what you weigh and for a time during weight loss you do need to use that tool to track. *YOU* use IT, not become a slave to it. Not obsess over the scales. Not have your life run by the scales. Would you obsess around the clock over your last cholesterol reading from the doctor? (Hopefully not!!)
Truth #3: The scales are a device that can ONLY make a statement about the weight of whatever is put on the scales. The scales cannot even detect that you are human! Use the scales only for what they were designed for – to measure the WEIGHT of things…NOT to measure your worth as a human or give any other information.
That’s the extent of it. YOU need to stop making it more than it is.
YOU need to stop putting all that extra crap around the number that appears on the inanimate device!
YOU need to stop listening to other people, media stories and bullshit that does try to equate your worth to your weight.
Stop this bullshit roller coaster of all or nothing crap – one week you are throwing the scales out, the next you are obsessively weighing in daily or more! Stop it!
For some of you it even goes as far as dictating your emotional state for the day…. your performance at work… how you interact with others…some of you post updates on social media that are heart breaking with the crippling anxiety and sadness you are experiencing, the harshness you direct toward yourself ….. and some of you even become downright awful to be around, lashing out at others! Excuse my language, but that is F**KED.
Seriously – none of that is cool. Losing weight is about improving your health and well being…. it should NOT be creating additional harm or impacting negatively on your mental health!
It’s not OK. If I had had that response the scales, if I had been on that rollercoaster every week while I lost the 40kg I can tell you I would have gotten out of the whole weight loss ‘game’ after a couple of weeks and never ever lost the 40kg! That’s Truth #4. I treated (and still do treat) the scales as what they are: A device, a tool. Just like a measuring tape, and exercise bike, a mobile phone, a computer etc. All those things work for me, they assist me. They do not define me, they do not dictate my mood. I am not a slave to them.
Get your head straight about the scales: they are necessary but only give one bit of information. Don’t throw them out and don’t weigh in obsessively! The scales are an important tool in your health & well being toolbox however, they are just ONE tool and they do NOT define you as a person.
< Rant over >
I love a person who says it how it is! Thank you for putting this on paper so to speak and sharing it around. I get so sad when people react so badly to the scales. When I first started the 12wbt I was quite gutted and rather indignant about weighing in weekly as I’d only weighed myself from time to time in the past because I found it demoralising otherwise. I didn’t lose much compared to most, but I did lose a lot of centremetres which was much more exciting! I will be sharing this with other people if thats okay with you
Love it!