When people come to me with a target on the scale that they’re shooting for, I know my work as a coach is cut out for me.  It would be EASY if weight loss were the only goal they needed attain.  But as I’ve found out over the years, if they don’t shift their mindset, weight loss will neither be permanent nor be meaningful.  Quite truthfully, it’s easier to help someone who is 50 pounds overweight but in the right frame of mind than someone with 5 pounds to lose that hasn’t made the shift in their thinking.

My story goes back over two decades.  When I was in my 20s (pictured here), I weighed nearly ten pounds less than I do right now.  It doesn’t show it, does it?  My weight was almost ALWAYS between 104-107 pounds.  For YEARS.  Even though it rarely fluctuated outside of that 3-pound range, and by just about anyone’s standards I was totally thin; I felt compelled to weigh daily.  Sometimes, more than once a day.  The scale made me her bitch.  When it read 104, she told me I was a rockstar.  When it was 107 she said I was “fat”.  I struggled with that mental battle daily.   At the upper end of the scale, I skipped breakfast, my lunch at work consisted of Diet Coke and Wheat Thins from the vending machine.  When I felt like a “rockstar” I allowed myself to eat a somewhat normal dinner, but veggies were almost never present on my plate.  It was NOT a healthy lifestyle by any measure, unless you listened to the scale — which I did.  

Fast forward twenty years later.   I don’t measure my health and fitness by the scale alone anymore.   These days, I pay attention to things that matter much, much more– like what I put on my plate, where it came from, and what it will do to benefit my body.  The mental battle with the scale is gone now, and it’s incredibly liberating.  I’m not quite sure where along the line I lost the compulsive urge to weigh.  Perhaps I just got tired of playing that mental game because it was freaking EXHAUSTING.  It could have been when I was pregnant, knowing I couldn’t control my weight as much anyway, and placing more emphasis on being healthy for the sake of a healthy pregnancy.  I wasn’t motivated to get healthy for myself alone, but I was for the sake of my unborn children.  Regardless of when I made the shift, it happened and I am grateful.  I want to help others get there too.

Now, I also make exercise part of my daily routine.   Exercise was not something I felt I needed to do when I was younger.  I was ignorant and took my body for granted.  Now, I move my body because I CAN.  I appreciate what it can do.  I even think I look better now than I did then, even though I have a few more wrinkles and saggy skin from having two amazing kids ( hopefully I will be taking care of the wrinkles with some botox) .  I have never-ending endurance.  I weigh myself only sporadically (when I’m genuinely curious, or get my weight taken at the doctor’s office). But perhaps most importantly; I don’t let my weight define my worth anymore.   The scale is SO superficial. 

If you are not yet there yet with an addiction to the scale, don’t worry.  While shifting your mindset is the hardest part of your wellness journey, you can do it.  It takes work, but it’s totally WORTH IT.  Focus on the process of getting healthy, not the end result.  Reach out to me if you need help getting there, and we can do it together.