Cut Me In Half

Scale Down

It’s a ritual of sorts, one that can be monthly, weekly, daily or even several times a day. It’s the equivalent of a Magic 8 Ball, telling us how well we’re doing or not doing on our weight loss journey.

It’s hopping on the scale.

Ask yourself: have you ever gotten on your scale, looked at the number staring back and had it affect you (good or bad) the rest of your day? Have you ever looked at your weight, then got off the scale and did it again two seconds later? Have you ever adjusted the scale so it’s in the exact same place in the bathroom every time you weigh yourself? (Hey, we have to be consistent, right?) Have you ever recalibrated it because it was “off?” If so, you may be hooked.

We make our scales out to be the be-all, end-all when it comes to our weight loss, and as a culture, it’s almost an obsession. (Think otherwise? Take a look at weight-loss shows like VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club, which puts its “celebrities” on giant scales at the end of each episode to determine which team is doing better.) But this is just not fair to ourselves or our program. After all, there are many ways that we can gauge how we’re doing.

Consider these other non-scale ways you could measure your success:

* Are your clothes fitting better?
* Do you have more energy and stamina?
* Are you happier?
* Do you have more confidence?
* Are you getting compliments from others?
* Are you more active?

Scales are indeed important tools—they’re able to quantify where you are with your pounds. Just remember, though, that they’re not the only one, so our expectations shouldn’t be completely dependent on them. So do yourself a favor and resist that age-old temptation to tie all of your weight loss-success to the scale. All that will do is “weigh” you down!

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