Heather Frey
President and Founder
SmashFit.com
Ok. Let me clarify. Scales in and of themselves are not bad since they are just plastic and metal and they are just doing what scales do...weigh things. But what they don't do is take into account your feelings, like how hard you've been working out, and how great you've been eating, and how good you look today. They are just so insensitive.
They're just being honest you say? I disagree. They don't have the whole truth. They don't take into account your fat loss, your muscle gain, and how great you look in your jeans.
I, myself, have chosen to stay away from them. In fact I stayed off of them for almost 20 years. I even turned around at the doctors' office so I wouldn't know...even when I was pregnant. I knew those numbers weren't a true indication of my fitness and that knowing those numbers would only mess with my mind - so I abstained. But I had a relapse about eight months after I had Haylen (my 2 year old). I thought it would be fun to watch the little numbers get littler since I was already working out and I knew I was losing my baby weight (by the way my clothes fit). I had a target poundage I was shooting for and I was confident I would reach it since I was only a few numbers away. I mean, what harm could it do? And at first it was fun. Every week the numbers went down a little more, and a little more, until one day, it stopped. And it didn't budge. Week after week, same, same, SAME! I tried shifting my diet, upping my workout . . . nothing!! Meanwhile, back at the gym, friends and acquaintances where commenting, acknowledging and patting my back at my new shape. So that would make me feel good, right? But I'd go home, weigh myself and . . . %$!* SCALE! Never mind my clothes were getting looser, never mind strangers were asking me for workout tips, never mind I had to buy new clothes sizes. I allowed that scale to bully me for months. And then I stood up to it. "YOU will not control me anymore!", I said. "YOU, are a liar." And that was that.
If you have a significant amount of weight to lose, then use the scale as a guide because initially, the numbers should be going in the down direction (unless you are trying to gain weight/muscle than the numbers should be going up . . . duh). As I've mentioned before, get within 5 -10 lbs of your target weight, and discard the scale promptly.
Here are two good ways to judge your progress:
1. Try on your "little pants" or shorts, or jeans. Perhaps these are pants of yesteryear, or bought while you were on the grapefruit diet, either way they are a better indication of weight loss, or "reshapification," than the scale.
2. Feedback factor - if people are telling you that you look great, smaller, tighter, even more fabulous than you already are, believe them! Why else would they say it? Ok, some may have ulterior motives, but your friends don't. It gets hard to see your own gains after awhile and we generally aren't objective when judging our own body.
Have I gotten on the scale since then (approx . . . a year and a half ago)? I have, but only a few times to help me prepare for a competition. Emotionally, it has no hold on me anymore. But I have to tell you a very interesting story that actually surprised me. During the "blue period", while I was standing on the scale regularly, I stayed at a certain weight. Didn't budge. More than a year later, and right before my first Figure Competition, when I was the leanest and most muscular I had ever been in my life, when I stepped on the scale . . . I weighed the same as I did when I left it a year ago!
The moral of the story? Don't use the scale to measure your self-worth.
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