Your morning ritual can set the tone for your entire day. Getting up and immediately getting onto the scale can determine whether you will have a good day or a bad day. If you used to do that, or maybe you still do, I want to share five truths with you about the bathroom scale and why you should consider ditching or reducing that habit.
If You Are Ready To Get Real With Your Scale You Should:
Weight Does Not Equal Health
If you keep saying, ‘I just wanted to hop on the scale and see’, and there is an underlying sense of dread there, or the number you see is going to have the potential to wreck or elevate your day, wait.
You don't have to throw your scale out the window today. But, by taking baby steps of cutting back your reliance and focus on the scale, you will realize that the deep sense of self-worth you have always had is not reliant on the number you see on the scale. Having a full, healthy, and happy life is so much more important than the ‘ideal’ number we want to see on the scale, and when you are able to accept that, the whole world opens up.
You Can Only Control Your Habits, Not the Scale
Your health is so much more multifaceted than the number you see on the scale. Your mental, emotional, spiritual, and environmental health play just as important of a role in your overall health as your physical body does. Even though you may be doing things in a health-promoting way, such as eating more vegetables or getting more fresh air, focusing on the number on the scale changing is not what you should be relying on for ‘results’.
The truth is, we are not in control of the number on the scale. What we are in control of is health-promoting habits that can lead to a healthier life, regardless of what the scale says.
Have you ever considered your relationship with your bathroom scale? Share your thoughts with me in the comments on the episode page.
“We have been taught that weight causes health, and that is not the case.” (6:51)
“Weight loss is not a behavior. I will say that again, weight loss is not a behavior.” (16:04)
“If you want peace of mind, and you want your brain space back, focus on healthy habits. Focus on healthy-for-you habits. When you stay hyper-focused on weight loss, this is where you miss body signals; this is where you miss other indicators of your health, for example, your mental health. This is where you miss the consistency that is required to perhaps improve your health over a long period of time.” (17:41)
“It might take years of consistent healing and redefining your beliefs, getting to the root of your beliefs, finding other things to focus on. Really just going through the ebbs and the flows and the ups and the downs of your relationship with your body and food and body image, to get to the point where the scale is a ‘neutral tool’.” (23:34)
“It is very uncommon that someone can just snap their fingers and suddenly see the scale as a neutral tool.” (24:50)
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LTYB 314: How To Set Health Goals Beyond the Scale with Steph Dodier