How not to lose your soul to the scale

I may really dislike math – apologies to my math teacher friend Shoshannah – but I can’t imagine living in a world where we couldn’t quantify things. I budget my paycheck, I estimate how long a trip will take at certain rate of speed, I give grades to students, and I try to figure out how many packages of each I have to buy when hot dogs come 12 to a pack and buns come 8 to a pack (biggest manufacturer conspiracy ever!). When numbers rules our lives and we start eating better and exercising, is it any wonder that we quickly become obsessed with that instrument of torture: the bathroom scale?

I was no exception. I’ve mentioned before that I started exercising in an effort to get healthier and my starting weight was just a guesstimate. But when I started calorie counting a couple of months later, my online tracking program wanted me to input my weight in order to come up with a daily calorie level for me. 

[Side note – For those considering calorie counting, this isn’t really necessary or even the best way to do it. Looking back, I wish I’d tracked my calories for 2-3 weeks without changing my intake then just subtracted 300-500 calories a day from that. Calorie need/expenditure calculators are pretty notoriously inaccurate and I still would have seen progress without having such a drastic, sudden drop in calories.] 

So I trudged to Wal-Mart and bought a scale. I didn’t even know where the scales were located (near home improvement, which is odd to say the least as the phrase “big as a house” is hyperbole in all situations) and bought a middle-of-the-road model. I still have it: digital, measuring to the nearest 2/10ths of a pound, and cheap. My kind of purchase.

My initial weight from the scale is recorded, of course, but I’m sure I was heavier by 10-15 pounds when I first started. In any case, it’s not actual numbers I want to talk about, it’s my reaction to those numbers.

See, for people who are trying to lose weight, the scale can develop real power if you’re not super careful. It becomes both our reward and our punishment. A “good” reading on the scale evokes feelings of happiness, satisfaction, and often a little boost of motivation (“I must be doing something right, I’d better keep it up!”). A “bad” reading on the scale – not even necessarily a gain, FYI, sometimes just not as big of a loss as you’d hoped for – and a shame spiral begins the likes of which Cher Horowitz would be proud of (“Why am I even trying? I’m never going to lose weight. An Oatmeal Cream Pie sure would make me feel better right about now.”).

Right away dieters face crucial scale-related decisions: How often to weigh? When to weigh? When to record the weight? What’s a good rate of loss? Some of you will be nodding right now because you totally get it and some of you will think I need a shrink. Don’t hate the player, hate the game. :)

My system ended up being a daily weigh-in with the weight only actually being recorded once a week, on Mondays. I didn’t plan it that way, but this method of weighing myself was helpful on two fronts: First, the daily weighing taught me that, even when I was 100% consistent, my weight could fluctuate quite a bit from day to day, depending on sodium, my workouts (a lot of people retain water from strength training), the phases of the moon, the color of the sky over Rio . . . maybe nothing at all. Secondly, the Monday weigh-in was really key on weekends when I was tempted to overeat – no way was I risking a higher number on the scale the next day just because it was Sunday and thought I deserved to take the day off. Uh-uh.

It all sounds so logical and reasonable, doesn’t it? Not exactly. Scale obsession is a real thing. I’m so grateful for some weight loss buddies who, early on, introduced me to the concept of the “NSV” – Non Scale Victory. Things like smaller clothing sizes, sure, but also things like walking up stairs without getting winded, seeing your wrist and collarbones for the first time, or turning down dessert because you realize you don’t really want it (still working on this one!).

Basically, here's the deal. Our self-worth should never come from 3 numbers on a LED screen, right? As powerful as that number may feel, you and I are worth much more that. It's a lesson I had to learn along the way, and still sometimes find myself forgetting, so that's a reminder for both of us.

So that's a little bit about the scale. Next post up will (I think – still working on it) be about being an all-or-nothing thinker. Thanks for reading!