The Scale – Friend? Or Foe?
Does the thought of stepping on the scale send you into a panic?
Does your mood for the day (or week) depend on what number the scale reflects?
Or can you see the scale for exactly what it is – a tool that measures the numerical value of your gravitational pull on any given day?
Who would’ve thought a collection of metal and plastic with a spring, lever, sprocket, and dial could ever “make” us feel 1) triumphant or 2) worthless. The act of stepping on this contraption has been known to make people feel like they were the queen of the world, capable of accomplishing anything they set their mind to OR a horrible failure who can’t do anything right!
It’s sad to me when I reflect on how many times I’ve let my weight dictate whether I felt beautiful or unattractive, successful or a loser, capable or incompetent.
The scale is just a tool – it can be used in a way that helps you determine if you are losing weight, gaining weight or maintaining your weight. That’s it. Everything else is what YOU are making the scale mean!
Here’s a little test to determine if the story you create around the scale is friendly or not. For the next few weigh-ins (whether that’s daily, weekly, or monthly) – I want you to change the measurement on your scale from pounds to kilograms (or vice versa if you already measure in kilograms).
Weigh yourself as usual and see if your response to the number is different.
What thoughts come up for you? Does your mood change? Do you FEEL different than you did before you stepped on the scale?
If you are anything like me, I didn’t know the conversion metrics off of the top of my head – so the first time I did this experiment I had NO CLUE what that little kg number meant! What I found FASCINATING about this was there was no way for me to let my THOUGHTS dictate my feelings about that number – because I literally had no frame of reference!
The point of this experiment is not to change HOW you weigh yourself – the point is to make it clear to you what you are letting the number on the scale say about you. How you are letting that number define you. The role you are CHOOSING to let that piece of metal/plastic sitting in your bathroom floor play in your life.
I know that when weight loss is your goal – you define your success by that number going down. I get it! But what I’m challenging you to do is to make your goal about MORE than just weight loss. More than just weighing less on this planet.
Let the weight loss become secondary to addressing the things that you use food to distract yourself from.
Secondary to loving yourself as the beautifully unique creation that you are.
Secondary to owning God’s gifts to you of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)
You don’t need a scale to determine your worthiness of all of these things – God’s already done that for you! 🙂
This is perfect and I can’t wait to try the kilogram trick (if I can figure out how to change it on my scale!)! I’ve been journaling before and after my “scale experience” for the last 3 weeks and I’m shocked. Each week, I dig deeper and deeper into my feelings of anxiety or even panic, and I’m finding that just being conscious of my feelings and the thoughts behind them is a game changer for me. Every week the anxiety lessens and I’ve been able to reframe some thoughts. Just writing down those reframed thoughts and reading them multiple times throughout the week helps me. Our brain is lazy and remembers the things we think the most – if those things happen to be negative thoughts, the brain always defaults to negative thoughts. Instead, when I feel those negative thoughts trying to creep in, I put my brain on pause, dig out the reframed thought, and read it. Over and over and over. I’m finding that over time, I’m remembering that reframed thought more often than not, which makes it even more believable! Yesterday, my scale experience was almost emotionless. I fought the worst sinus headache of my life Monday night, so I dragged out of bed long enough to call in sick to work and step on the scale. It was just something to do because it’s part of my Tuesday routine, but I didn’t really have the time or energy to get myself worked up over it or wallow in the number when it’s was over. Maybe it also had to do with the fact that I lost 2.5 pounds so I was actually really excited/pleased with the number? Either way, I’m determined to use the scale as a data point and regain control of my success, regardless of the number. For me, I truly believe journaling is the only way.
Sorry to hear that you weren’t feeling well BUT I think it’s kinda awesome that it provided just enough of a distraction for you to recognize that you didn’t build yourself up with emotion before getting on the scale! Keep up the journaling my friend – it’s golden! 🙂 (ps – not sure if your scale is like mine, but there was a little switch on the side that changed the measurement on mine)