wOOt! wOOt! It was a gooooood day at Weight Watchers todaaaay. 😀
I wasn’t really looking forward to stepping on the scale, not for any specific reason, I just don’t like scales…but then again, who does?
What is weird though is by about Sunday I was actively looking forward to weigh-in day because I was feeling good about my choices and I wanted to see if the scale showed a positive change due to those choices. So when I woke up this morning not wanting to go to the meeting I was kinda confused about this swap in attitude.
But no matter how I was feeling I was still going to go and I’m so glad I did!
I lost 2 pounds this week which puts me at a total 5 pound loss! Yay!
I know in the grand scheme of how much weight I need to lose that is a drop in the bucket but hey, I’ve gotta start somewhere and at least I am moving in the right direction. 🙂
I got given two things at Weight Watchers this evening, a sticker in the shape of a star that says 5lbs to commemorate my five pound loss and a key ring with a little WW charm on it.
From what I can tell as I progress through the program I’ll earn other little charms to add to the key ring which I kinda think is brilliant. Visual representations of what you have achieved can only be a good thing and maybe if you’re being tempted by something super yummy looking but you really shouldn’t be eating the key ring showing you what you’ve managed to accomplish so far will help you make a healthier choice. shrug. I dunno, I could be way off base here but that is how I am looking at it.
This weeks theme is about Going Beyond The Scale.
What does that mean? It means that you are more than a number on a scale and you should try your best to remember that. So many people get caught up in what the scale says, they define themselves by that number. But why? What does that number mean? Does that number explain how you are good at playing an instrument? Does that number reflect how well you do in school? Does that number decide if people will love you or not? Of course not! That number is one thing that can be used to describe you and you know what? It is probably the least important descriptor that can be referenced when explaining who you are.
What answers do you give when asked to describe yourself? I know when I am asked the absolute last thing I would think to say is my weight. I talk about my career, about my dragon boat team, about my hobbies, about my friends, about my day job, about my family, about my cat, about how much I read…you get the idea. So how come, when describing myself to others I am a whole list of things but when I am thinking about myself, and lets be honest, judging myself, one of the first things I focus on is my weight.
I am not that number on the scale! And neither are you! Nobody is!
Is that number important? Sure. It helps us to know if we are living healthy lives, if we are taking care of ourselves, if what we are doing is creating change. But that shouldn’t be the only thing we use to gauge if we are living healthy lives and taking care of ourselves and creating change.
Which is why this week we are focusing on going beyond the scale, beyond that number, and learning to see our success in different ways.
So what is one way you can look beyond the scale?
For me I have come up with a little list:
- hiking a longer / tougher trail than before
- hiking a current trail faster than before
- feeling more comfortable in my clothes
- noticing when I make the healthier food choice
- I can take my measurements and track how those change as well
- taking note on how I feel after a meal, or a workout, enjoying how I feel better than I used to
By having more than one way to judge my success I put less pressure on that weigh-in number. There are so many reasons the number on the scale might not reflect the work you put in during the past week. The humidity could be crazy high and you could be retaining more water because of it, maybe you ate something salty the night before, maybe it is a different time of day than you normally weigh-in, maybe hormones are kicking your butt that day, who knows!
The point is that if I know I am getting faster on the trails, or my clothes are fitting looser, or my food choices are healthier, than that knowledge will help me to see my actions as successful even if the number on the scale doesn’t move as much as I would like, or even in the direction I would like. If I can shift my thinking I can avoid disappointment when my weigh-in result isn’t what I wish it to be.
Success can be tracked in all sorts of ways, and they are all valid. 🙂
Something else we talked about is forgiveness. Forgive yourself if you have a bad day, or a bad week, or a bad month. This journey isn’t a straight line from Point A to Point B and when you falter you have to be able to forgive yourself so you can move on. Weight loss doesn’t happen just on weigh-in day, it is constantly fluctuating – anybody that weighs themselves every day can tell you that! So when the number on the scale doesn’t go down, take a deep breath, forgive yourself, and remember all the things that will help you to move on.
Some of the suggestions from my meeting for what to keep in mind are:
- I can do better next time
- It is just one day
- Don’t put yourself down, positive self-talk!
Some of the suggested things we can do if we have a bad weigh-in are:
- Look back at your food tracker and search for triggers
- Keep track of your moods to see how that affects your journey
- If you’ve fallen off the tracking wagon get back on
So yeah, if you take anything away from this week it is to forgive yourself and find ways to measure success that don’t rely on the number on the scale. 🙂
The Amazing Shrinking Woman 
way to go! congrats on the 2lb loss. When you get your next charm, be careful of the little button that unscrews so you can add charms to the keyring – it’s fiddly trying to get it back on, and sometimes it unscrews by itself, and all your charms end up at the bottom of your purse, lol.
Thanks! 🙂 I’ll keep that in mind about the key ring!