Day 12 of 100

Numbers.  They are helpful and hurtful.   I took my measurements today and found I've dropped 5 inches in the last 10 weeks.    That is motivating.   Seeing the scale stay the same can be depressing.   So how do we avoid the emotional rollercoaster that comes with the numbers?   

Evaluate your place.   Do you wish and hope and pray for a certain number as you stand on the scale?   Does your mood depend on what the numbers are?   If you begin to base your emotional life off of a number, it has too much control over you.   Don't get me wrong.   It is good to celebrate, and good to evaluate your actions based on a number....but don't berate yourself and bully yourself because of a number you ultimately have no control over.   Now wait you say...I have control over my weight.    To some extent. yes.   You control your actions and choices that show results on the scale.   You do not control how those results or when those results will show up.  

The scale is a reflection of your pull from gravity.   It doesn't tell you if you are retaining a little water, if you have gained muscle and it is burning more fat.  It doesn't tell you who you are as a person, a magnificent child of God.  All it says is gravity is pulling on you this much today.   No more no less.   

So what do you do if you take too much stock in what a piece of metal says?   First don't weigh in more than once a week.   If you are a daily weigher...unless it is for medical reasons.  Stop!   It is not worth the damage to your psyche to see if you are down any each morning...or every hour.   I admit I was once a person that weighed myself multiple times a day.   The scale can only show long term progress...there is a lot of give and take in your body that happens as you release fat.   

If once a week is still too much, try once a month, or try giving up the scale completely!  Could you do this??  Yes absolutely.   Give up the scale until it no longer has any pull on you mentally.  Until you can stand on it with no shame, guilt or judgement.   I had to give it up for a year.   It was absolutely worth it!

Now I can stand on it and not change my thoughts or actions, I am not praying to be down that two pounds, I accept who I was for the last week and move on.   The scale does not predict the future, it only tells us our past!

So now, use numbers as a guide.  That is all they are, guideposts in our journey to tell us where we came from....not how to get back but to show us progress.   That is all.   

How do you feel about numbers?