The Tale of Two Scales
Howdy all! Welcome back to the blog. I hope this most springy of months (here in the US) finds you hale, hearty, and able to spend some time outdoors. Weather permitting obviously. Spring in Pennsylvania is hard to dress for. One day it’s forty the next it’s seventy, the next it’s sunny, the day after that it’s snowing. The trick is to not put away your winter clothes until Memorial Day. It should be safe by then. Should being the key word.
Over the past month or so I’ve been sort of bouncing around with my weight. I gained two pounds last week and have no clue as to why. I’m going on the assumption that muscle weighs more than fat. I have been really pushing it on the treadmill as I work to build up my stamina for a Pride Walk here in my county this June. I’m now at 227 pounds which is 80 pounds total from the 307 I was at when I started this journey. Or that could be 317 when I started. Which is totally confusing and leads us to my topic this month…
Scales.
It’s a dirty word, I know, but they can play a large part in the mental aspect of losing weight though whether they should or not. Take my two scales. Please. Sorry, I channeled Henny Youngman there for a second. If you don’t know who Henny Youngman is that’s okay, I just feel so old now.
Right, enough about comedians. Onto scales. My tale of these two scales starts when I began my journey. We’d had owned our old mechanical bathroom scale forever and it was, or so we thought, pretty reliable. So, old scale – we’ll call it OS for short – was what I stepped on the first day I signed up for Noom. And it was the scale that I used month after month from August until Xmas when I asked for a new one. I’d begun to notice irregularities in the readings OS was giving me. Sometimes by up to 3-5 pounds when you would step off then step back on.
After getting my new scale which I did request (poor hubby got all kinds of flack from the female members of my family when they found out he bought me a scale the poor man) I jumped on as soon as the batteries were in. And was floored. According to the new scale there was a 10 pound discrepancy between OS and Digi (my name for the new scale please don’t judge me I name everything) that rocked me.
Silly as that sounds seeing that weight coming in ten pounds heavier than it had been really bummed me out. Yes, I know that the weight loss was the same no matter. Rationally I knew that. But seeing that scale reading ten pounds more than I’d thought I was at really stank. I mean stink, stank, and double stunk. We double and tripled checked Digi. There was no error. I was ten pounds heavier than I thought I’d been.
Bummer.
It took me ages to finally move past that disappointment. I wouldn’t use the new scale for the longest time. I couldn’t bear to see myself back to where I had been before. Finally I began using Digi – which is incredibly accurate – instead of OS which has now been retired. It served us well. RIP Old Scale
I guess where all of that lead us to was here:
Numbers on the scale do not mean you’re a loser, or a slacker, or a failure. What it means is that you’re human if you get upset over putting on a few pounds. As upbeat as I am generally it knocked the wind out of my sails. So what do we do when we gain during our weight loss journey?
Well, you can call you old scale dirty names. I did. It felt pretty damn good. Then you take a breath, or two or ten thousand, and give yourself a little grace. Forgive yourself, and that scale looking so downcast in the corner, and try to recall just how far you’ve come. If you’re near your goal, halfway there, or just started your journey you rock. You’re making the effort and that is huge!
Be patient with yourself. This isn’t a sprint. This is a long haul journey. And above all else – listen to yourself here Vicki – that scale will only tell you the numerical value of your gravitational pull. That’s it. It cannot tell you how incredible, kind, funny, talented you are or how much your friends and family love you. And just so you know, I love you as well you warrior you!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s post. I’ll be back again in May. Join me if you can!
Keep it up. You got this. We got this!
Vix
I’m so proud of you babe 🙂 X
*HUGS U*
I’ve been on a similar journey in regards to scales… Except my nemisis scales are those at my doctor’s office. In Jan 1, according to my (brand new digital) scales, I weighed in at 98.6kg (216 pounds). I’ve steadily knocked off between 500-800gms (1-1.7 pounds) each week, taking the slow approach and working on upping my steps and fitness rather than trying to rush towards an unrealistic,too quick, weight loss.
I’ve been to my doctor’s three times this year, and every time I’ve jumped on his scales those b*starts have shown me at anything between 3-5kgs heavier than what my home scales show (that’s between 6.6-11 pounds heavier). The first time it happened I literally cried because it meant that a) I was over 100kg (triple figures FML) when I started, and b) I was significantly behind where I had been celebrating just that morning.
I had to make a conscious decision to tell my doctor that I’m only going to pay attention to my scales and he can do what he likes with his. I’ve now lost 11.5kg (that’s 25 pounds), I’m fitter than I’ve been in years and happier too. I have gained back the control in my life that had been missing for what like felt forever and I’m almost halfway towards my goal of 75kgs (165 pounds).
One day at a time. No matter what the scales say, you know you’re winning at this.
That’s amazing! So happy for you. Yep, we have to make our decisions based on what works for us. Keep on keeping on with your weight loss!