Beating the scale addiction

"My name is Noelle, I am 27 years old... And I am addicted... to my scale."

Yeah, not anymore. I started this journey to healthy with one main goal: getting healthy. The fact that weight loss would be a part of that, was ay-ok with me, of course! I took a before picture, for myself, because I did not want to solely rely on the scale.

I started eating healthy, working out and weighing myself daily. Bad. Really bad. I educated myself a lot throughout the years about this topic - I know that the scale does not reflect fat loss. And it doesn't reflect how well you did the day before. It reflects how much you ate, water weight, muscle, fat. Everything! I would step on the scale and see a loss of one ounce, but I'd be disappointed, because I ate 100% clean and worked out the day before. The stupid thing is that, rationally, I knew very well that I built muscle, and that that extra glass of water also reflects back on the scale. So shouldn't I have had that glass of water? Uh, duh...

I wasn't losing weight as fast as I wanted to, but Jesus Christ, I was burning fat and building muscle like a mofo. What's not to like about that? My clothes became so loose, my body was changing (I had the pictures to prove it), I had so much energy, but still I would step on the scale every single morning and be disappointed to see the number (a lot of times I was also very happy!).

I had to change my way of thinking. I had to realize that losing 2 ounces, didn't mean losing 2 ounces of fat. Society is so incredibly hooked on weight and weight loss instead of fat loss. Isn't it more important to track weight loss over a few week's time, and as long as the number is going time, isn't that great?

My goals have shifted - I am now more interested to see how my body has changed, how I can't wear those jeans anymore because they are way too big for me (and I could barely get them past my hips 3 months ago!) and even better: when I started, I couldn't do a single pushup on my toes, and now? I can do 6 - 10. It is nuts, but this really showed me more important developments rather than weight.

My BMI? Fuck that shit, seriously. BMI is the most retarded invention of the 20th century. Because it does not take into consideration your muscle mass, your bone structure or your overall health. A "healthy weight"? Fuck you. According to your stupid calculator, 90% of the top athletes in the world are obese. Oh no, it's an epidemic!!!

I still weigh myself a few times a week, because I feel like overall it does reflect how you are doing (when you take muscle into consideration!) and it keeps me accountable and will tell me when to switch up my diet and/or workout but I don't focus on my goal weight anymore, but more on other changes: I still take pictures to see the change, I notice my endurance increasing more than I could have ever dreamed of. I do still have a goal weight in mind, and according to the BMI calculator, that is still considered "overweight". And if I feel like I am completely happy with where I am earlier on, I will stay at that weight. Do I care? No, not at all, because I know I will be healthy as shit :)