Last week I published a post with the intent to disempower the scale. In it I told you another post was coming in which we'd touch on things we can use, other than weight, to gauge our health. This is that post.
When I suggested in Part 1 that we stay off the scale, I was by no means implying that we ignore our health. Let's be real, though, how many of us use the scale as any kind of health measurement as opposed to an appearance or self-worth measurement? So today we'll answer two questions: how can we kill our obsession with our weight, and what can we use to gauge our health instead?
FIRST - HOW CAN WE KILL OUR OBSESSION WITH WEIGHT?
1) Let's start with a simple science fact which you may not have thought of, but can be very freeing. The number on the scale isn't an absolute truth. Has it ever occurred to you that the number we call our weight is simply a measurement of how much gravity is pulling on us? Considering that, if we took our body and our scale somewhere else, say to the moon, the number would be quite different. If we went to Jupiter, something different again - to the sun, another number altogether. Appreciating this idea enables us to release the power that number has over us. Do we really weight 90, 225, 350 pounds, or whatever the scale says? Only on that scale on this planet, at that moment. So, yeah, the number on the scale isn't an absolute truth. Pretty liberating thought, huh?
2) The second fact which can help break the hold the number on the scale has on us is this - it changes. All. The. Time. Normally I advocate much less time on the scale (like almost never) than most people spend there. There is one way stepping on the scale ridiculously frequently can help; it opens our eyes to how much our "weight" fluctuates throughout the day. Becoming aware of this can have the same effect as pulling back the curtain on the wizard in The Wizard of Oz. It can leave us thinking, "Why did I let that little thing have so much impact on me?"
Try it sometime. Choose a day and weigh yourself when you get up, after you go to the bathroom, after you get dressed, before and after you exercise, eat a meal, or drink a bottle of water. Weigh yourself ten times throughout any given day and, if you have an accurate scale, you're very likely to get ten different numbers. The closest we can come to giving an accurate number to our weight isn't a single number, it's a range. It's harder to be upset about weighing some number of pounds that bothers us when we realize that number isn't "what we weigh," it's what we weighed the last time we checked. Even if that was less than an hour ago, it's probably inaccurate now.
3) The last truth for today on this topic is that body weight doesn't directly correspond with body size. Have you ever had this experience? You pick up a child expecting them to be certain weight based on their appearance and then practically throw them through the ceiling because they're so much lighter than you anticipated? Or maybe you grunted with effort because they were so much heavier than you thought they'd be. A friend of mine explained this by observing that it seems there are kids who are "lighter inside" and some who are "heavier inside."
That's a super simple explanation of a true principle. In the time I worked at Weight Watchers I got to the point of completely giving up on estimating a person's weight by looking at them. When someone weighs people that often you'd think they'd get pretty skilled at figuring another person's weight. Nope, just the opposite. Trust me on this one, two people with similar body sizes probably have quite a gap in their weights.
The point? Just because you weigh around a certain number doesn't mean you look like you weigh that. What does that weight look like? Completely depends on the person.
SECOND - WHAT CAN WE USE INSTEAD OF WEIGHT TO GAUGE OUR HEALTH?
1) The most obvious tools for gauging our health are medical lab results - cholesterol level, blood sugar, blood pressure, etc.. Even if you're not a person who sees your doctor regularly, you can learn online what healthy ranges are and monitor these numbers with tools you can get at any pharmacy.
2) Another indicator is whether you have illnesses which run in your family. If I mostly considered my weight I would have a much bleaker idea of my health than is reasonable. I don't have blood pressure or cholesterol issues, I don't have cancer or any signs of Alzheimer's or any other health challenges common to my family. If I hyper-focused on the number on the scale, I could easily overlook my good health. And what's more important, my weight or my overall health?
3) Other items the scale can't measure, but that deserve enormous consideration
when talking about health are: mental health, digestive health, energy level, stamina, how much stress/peace we live in, how much love and connection or lack of it we feel, how our clothes fit. Each of these, as well as other things play a big part in our well-being. The number on the scale tells us zero about any of them.
No, the scale isn't our friend or our enemy. Can we leave it alone and let it be just what it is - a tool that can provide one SMALL piece of information in the puzzle that makes up the picture of us as a whole person?
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