I realized something recently, and it has completely helped me to overcome how bad I have felt when the scale doesn't say what I want it to say....

Being on Nutrisystem, we naturally focus on the number on the scale. And in addition we focus on some time frame associated with that number. "I lost 5 pounds in 7 days." "I need to lose 2 pounds this week, because I didn't lose any last week." "I only lost 1/2 pound in the past month." Etc.

As I go through this journey, I'm thinking maybe some of us have been focusing on the wrong things, and this could be what causes our stress.... maybe we need to focus on the process of nutrisystem and eating/living healthy. That magical number is just a by-product of us living healthy. The time frame will be whatever time frame it takes our bodies to get to by us living healthy.

So what I mean is that.... I've stopped my unhealthy dietary habits, I now eat within an hour of waking, every 3 hours after, 6 times a day, with plenty of water, at least 4 servings of veggies. I exercise regularly, and get plenty of sleep. I'm doing so much better than I was before NS.

I'm not going to worry about getting healthy, because I'M ALREADY THERE. The scale numbers will follow as a side effect of me living healthy, and not the other way around.... Plenty of people lose the weight, have a great looking number on the scale but still aren't healthy... anorexia or bulemia for example. So the numbers don't mean much unless you're living healthy.

Now, there's also no time frame we can really put on this. I think it's really stressful to say, "I need to lose X pounds by summer." or "I need to lose Y pounds this week." Why do I need to lose it by then? What's going to happpen at X pounds? Am I going to be healthier? Am I going to look that much better if I lose 2 pounds or 1 pound?

This is supposed to be a lifelong change. One or two pounds is nothing in the entire scheme of it all. We're supposed to be learning how to be healthy. If it happens this week, or next. This month or next month. Does it really matter over the long run? It's not like I'm going to start behaving unhealthy once I reach my goal weight right? Or am I just lying to myself, and I plan on going right back to the bad habits I once had once I reach my goal weight? I had to be honest with myself.... I think I was planning that very thing.

So I think that we need to walk the walk... be healthy... and enjoy how much better we already feel, how our clothes already look on us, how much energy we are starting to have. We should still look at the scale, but feel comforted in the fact that if we are living healthy, the numbers will eventually follow. And we need to do this for the rest of our lives, or just fall right back to where we were before starting this journey.

My scale has gone flat or up plenty of times in my journey, but I no longer stress about it, because I know I have been living healthier than I've ever been, I know I am following the system, and I've seen the scale numbers drop over and over again.... eventually.

Maybe just change our focus.

Keep fighting!!