Ohhh the scale… I recently read a quote that really resonated with me, “Why weigh myself when I can light myself on fire and roll around in glass to feel the same way”… yessss, for me that could not be truer!
The scale and I go wayyy back and the relationship was not good. I based so much of my life on that stupid number. It was ridiculous and it had to go. To say I was obsessed would be a serious understatement; so breaking up was not easy.
I remember being at Mercy Ministries– the place I went for recovery from an eating disorder (You can read about that here), and reading the book You Are Not What You Weigh by Lisa Bevere and I was seriously confronted. After reading it, I knew I had a to make a decision… live in turmoil with my stupid scale or end things once and for all. That day, about nine years ago, the life- crippling relationship ended.
It was crazy-hard to not weight myself and lose the control, but that’s exactly what it was- control. I refused to live the rest of my life that way.
So, I stopped looking at the scale when they weighed us at Mercy and when I got home I avoided scales like the plague. When I went to the doctor, I asked them not to tell me the number, and when I stepped on the scale, I just closed my eyes. We were over and I was happy.
So, where am I now with all of this? Yes, many years have gone by, but I have not forgotten how difficult it was to give it up. The first year especially, I had a lot of moments that were tempting, but I did not give in. Those moments were especially apparent after the holidays when I knew I had gained weight and wanted to know how much, or could tell I had lost some weight and wanted to see that low number.
Now I am here to tell you as a recovering “scale-o-holic” (can I coin that?) that the scale does not affect me in the least bit. I seriously could care less. I am never tempted by one- and yes, I have one in my house. My husband uses it, but it does not even faze me. I truly measure my health by how I feel, and life is so much better because of it!
So, today I challenge you. If your scale is a life sucker, get rid of it! We have one life and so many other important things to spend our mental energy on. If you would like a way to measure your weight loss on your journey, base it on how your clothes fit and how you look because a scale is not even an accurate determiner anyway. For example, muscle weighs more than fat.
If this post is giving you serious anxiety, then why don’t you try a more gradual approach and buy a body fat percentage calculator or use a measuring tape to measure the areas you are working on… but I am telling you there is so much freedom on this end of it! Trust me!
