My Love Affair With The Scale

My Love Affair with the Scale!

When I was young I never cared much about dieting and indeed would see my parents do their ‘diets’ and eyeball the scale each day with fervour.

I didn’t understand... that is until I fell in love.

At first, my kinship to the scale started as a scrawny teenager desperately trying to build muscle so that the girls would like me. If only I could get to the magic number I had in my mind, “200 pounds”. If only I could be that weight I thought, I’d be muscular and ripped.

From a scrawny 165 lb, 6’3” young man I did reach my 200lb goal my senior year of college but like most fantasies it wasn’t what I had thought. Suffice to say the extra-curricular activities of drinking beer and pizza had manifested the small beginnings of a beer belly, of which I didn’t think too much about because I reached my 200 pounds and indeed I was no longer a tiny weakling.

*Skip ahead present day*

The scale glares back at me flashing an angry 240lbs. How could this happen? Don’t you love me?

Our love hate relationship has been that of ups and downs, and we've seen the good times and bad. I’m in a love affair with my scale. I know I should have left this relationship long ago.

I am not unique. Like many, my morning ritual includes absently stepping on the scale hoping that by some divine means I will have dropped a pound overnight only to rudely discover a weight increase despite eating right and working out.

Have you ever stepped on the scale, didn't like the reading so stepped on it again several times and took the lowest reading? I have, and I’m sure I’m not alone.

What is this obsession with weight? I’ve been an on again off again gym member, I’ve read countless fitness magazines and have experienced weight gain with a reduction in measurements and yet my mind has been conditioned. What does the scale tell me?

The scale is the benchmark by which we have a tendency to measure our success. That is to say, despite our gains in muscle due increased activity, or perhaps the pants fitting just a bit more loosely, can all be deflated with a simple increase on the scale.

I think it’s time to end this love affair. Next time your scale doesn’t tell you that it loves you by way of a weight reduction, pay no heed. Unless of course you ate junk food all week and didn't exercise.

And while I will resume my daily habit checking the scale, I will remind myself to only record its advice once every week on the same day. I will remind myself that if the scale is unkind that it isn’t because I’m getting fatter, it’s because I’m getting better. I will remind myself to take inventory of my diet and remember to take measurements. I will remind myself that I’m doing well.