by Teri on March 14, 2010
Wow, I was blown away by the response to my post about the scale. I loved reading the comments and hearing what you had to say. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences. My readers and your comments are definitely what I love most about blogging so please keep speaking up.
If you haven’t already, I encourage you to read all the comments. So many people had such insightful things to share and I was inspired by many of your stories. I have more I want to say about this topic based on what I learned from all of you, so look for that soon.
It’s been a very busy (but fun!) weekend for me so I’m just barely catching up on emails, my Google Reader and my own blog! So, for today’s post, we’ll stick to The Weekender.
Enjoy these reads!
Alright kiddos, I’m off to make a playlist and am going to try to get a head start on some things for the week. I have lots of posts I want/need [blogging can be a need, right?] to do involving Kombucha, greek yogurt, Amano chocolate, sweet potato biscuits, my weekend, my favorite workout moves, and some more thoughts about the scale. So stay tuned!
Tagged as:
the weekender,
weight
by Teri on March 12, 2010
I used to weigh myself everyday. Sometimes a couple times a day. I would get upset with the number each day and especially frustrated when the number would be higher than the previous weigh-in. The scale dictated my self-esteem.
I wasn’t always so obsessive about my weight…in fact, the most I ever weighed was when I met my husband (my first week of college) and definitely didn’t lack any confidence, despite my larger jeans size. (You’d be confident too if Rob fell in love with you.
)
I unintentionally lost a lot of weight my first year of college and perhaps weighed a little too little by the time I got married a year later. The weight just came off; I was in love, happy with my major, found a new love for running and was just enjoying my relatively care-free life.
But after I graduated from college, got a desk job, blah blah blah the typical story, I started to put back on a little weight. Then a little more. Then a little more. I started to obsess over it and started weighing myself a lot.
Last year, I started meeting with a nutritionist for various reasons and she banned the scale. But…I still secretly weighed myself once in a while (sorry Barb!). However, I’ve done some good work with the good ol’ self esteem in the last year and have started focusing on being healthy instead of being skinny.
I’ve started eating better, I’ve developed a more balanced approach to exercise (no more two-a-days, adding more strength training, cutting back on cardio), and started doing more things for me: small things like taking time to read a book; doing yoga because I love it, not because it’s going to burn the most calories; or just sitting and looking out the window (seriously, it’s nice to just let your mind wander sometimes).
And guess what? My pants are looser. My clothes fit better. Barb was right – once I stopped focusing on losing weight, the weight would come off if it needed to. I have cut back on weighing myself…maybe just once every few weeks. But the real turning point came for me yesterday morning.
I thought, I should weigh myself. No good reason, just wanted to. And then I stopped and thought about what would happen. I’d step on the scale, a number would pop up and I’d either be upset (likely, considering my very indulgent eating in the past week…yum…) or I’d be in a good mood.
And I realized how stupid it was to let a number set my mood for the day. So instead, I left the scale untouched, got dressed, smiled as I slipped on my pants that used to be tight and felt how strong my core has become lately and thought about all the push-ups I’ve done this year.
I probably won’t throw out the scale anytime soon, but I also know that I won’t be getting on it anytime soon. No, I’m not at my lightest weight I’ve ever been. Not even close. I’m not at my heaviest either. But I’m definitely the healthiest I’ve ever been. I feel strong. I feel healthy. I feel balanced. And dammit, I feel sexy. And a number on the scale can’t beat sexy.
Do you own a scale? Do you use it? Do you use it too often?
Tagged as:
i.am.woman,
weight