When I started losing weight I began a love/hate relationship with my bathroom scale. I would weigh myself in the morning and when it showed I had lost weight I loved it! When it showed I gained even an ounce I hated it! I was convinced that weighing myself everyday was what kept me on top of my eating habits. For example, if I knew I was going to a cookout that day I knew to watch my potato salad intake because my scale will be waiting to punish me in the morning.
This love affair was going good for a while and then it happened! One morning I stepped on the scale and nothing. It just stopped working. No warning, no goodbyes. Just nothing. I was at a loss and felt a sense of betrayal. How would I know how much I could eat today? Did I have to run on the treadmill or could I get away with just a brisk walk?
So after trying every battery in the house and coming to the conclusion that the scale still wasn’t going to work, I realized that I had given too much power to this inanimate object. I had become dependent on numbers and waited for it to validate me by praising me for a job well done. So I made a conscientious decision not to let the scale determine my level of success. Only I know how hard I work at the gym. I know how many times I have said no thank you to that second helping of baked ziti, how many pants sizes I dropped and how good I felt both physically and emotionally! A scale can never measure my level of determination, self-worth and self-esteem.
Now don’t get me wrong, I did get another scale but now we have a different relationship because now I have a LOVE/LOVE relationship with ME!
