The Square Box in the Corner of the Gym

I have been losing and gaining the same three pounds for a month. It's very very frustrating.  Today before weigh in I could have put down a $100 and bet anyone that I would have lost 5 pounds.  That's how confident I felt about the work I've put in this week and the food choices I've made.   Nope. Up two pounds.   But I felt lighter, tighter, and emptier...so what was up with that? Marisa said what was likely going on was my body was holding on to the weight because of the anxiety and stress I've been experiencing this past week trying to wrap everything up with my old position at work so that I could start my new gig.

And I was okay.   I didn't get mad or emotional.  I stepped back outside of the situation and thought to myself, "what is a scale?"  It's a device that measures weight.   It's a square box that sits in the corner of my gym.  You step on it and it shows you a number.  Would I be as emotionally entangled with a magic 8 ball or a thermometer?  No I would not.  I was confident and felt great about myself 30 seconds before I stepped on that square box in the corner of my gym.   It showed me a number.  Was anything but my emotional outlook changed in those 30 seconds?  No.  

A scale is a device that weighs objects and people.  That is it and that is all.   What follows is a list of what a scale is not:

• A scale does not condemn or rejoice in me.  It does not see me as good when I lose or bad when I gain.
• A scale does not determine my happiness.   It has no vested interest in my mood.  
• A scale does not predict the future.   Just because I did not lose weight this week does not mean that I will never lose weight again.   It does not mean that I will gain weight and keep gaining until it's all back on.
• A scale cannot measure the persistence in my heart, the grit in my gut, or the iron in my spine.
• A scale cannot report on the many ways that my life is better for doing this.
• A scale cannot and will not determine my worth.