The scale. So dependable. So predictable. It always gives us an answer. And the answer it gives can make or break your day. With one small step we hand over our perception of self-worth and leave feeling victorious or defeated. Don’t get me wrong, the scale is a measuring tool and it can be useful to determine a baseline measurement, but that measurement is limited to our weight.
Scale worship goes astray when we put the judgment of this one-dimensional deity above all other measures. Checking in every once in a while to make sure you are on track is not a problem, but when we become obsessed with changing a number, we are tempted to try any tactic to make that change happen. It’s fraud. Pure and simple. We take drastic measures (against our own bodies) in every attempt to manipulate the scale. For example, many people go on unsustainable diets (like the “XYZ soup diet, the apple diet”), knowing that the outcome will result in number change on the scale (although temporary). This weight loss fraud fools no one, especially your body. And it’s not a victimless crime. Constant weight fluctuation, lack of diverse foods and mental anguish are not good for you.
But the problem isn’t the scale itself. It’s us. Our obsession with being thin over being healthy drives our insatiable desire to see that scale number go down. After all, incorporating new habits seems far harder than altering a number, as lifestyle change has no end date, no tangible goal, it’s abstract. The measurement on a scale seems far more changeable and the desired goal is solid, tangible, it will be an event.
The secret that no one tells you is that if you focus all of that scale obsessed energy on healthy habits, the weight will follow. No scale required. When you treat your body right, your body lets you know. And it doesn’t send you a number; it gives you an amazing, I-feel-great-in-and-out sensation. It sounds cliché, but when you listen to your body, you will rarely be lead astray. There is no scale for measuring happy and healthy, only the way that you feel. When you recalibrate your relationship with yourself, you learn how to listen. You create your own internal scale of happy and healthy. Your mind no longer overrides the messages from your body. You become one.
If you’ve been a victim of weight loss fraud and you’d like to make real change once and for all, contact me for a Health Coaching Consultation.
