The Scale and You.. Not so Perfect Together

When I started taking Yoga a few years ago I sought out websites regarding Yoga, meditation etc. I found on my education journey that Tony Horton (creator of P90X) feels Yoga is a staple to everything you do.

He is right.

This inner reflection that happens with Yoga and meditation helps one see and understand things that people who do not practice will not. The one topic being weight.

Weight is just a number; though it is a tool to gauge your health, it should not be the only tool.

A while back Tony Horton blogged an article from the DailyOM that I would like to share with you to help you to understand the importance of not living by the number.

Throw Away Your Scale

Health is not a numerical concept and cannot be defined using statistics. Human beings, however, tend to want to quantify well-being into easily understandable figures. We feel compelled to ascribe numbers to every aspect of wellness, from the qualities of our food to our fitness levels to the physical space we occupy. 

As a consequence of social pressures, we turn our attention away from health and focus instead on the most contentious of these figures weight checking our scales to see how we measure up to our peers and role models. Yet each of us is equipped to gauge our relative healthfulness without any equipment whatsoever. 

When we have achieved a state of wellness, we feel buoyant and energetic. Some of us are naturally slim, while others will always be curvy. No matter what our weight, we can use the cues we receive from our physical and mental selves to judge how healthy we really are.

When you throw away your scale, you commit to a lifestyle that honors the innate wisdom that comes from within your body and within your mind. It is logical to examine how you feel while considering your health a strong, fit, and well-nourished individual will seldom feel heavy, bloated, or fatigued. If you have concerns regarding your weight, remind yourself that at its proper weight, your body will feel buoyant and agile. Movement becomes a source of joy. Sitting, standing, walking, and bending are all easy to do because your joints and organs are functioning as they were meant to. When you are physically healthy, your mind will also typically occupy a place of well-being. Mental clarity and an ability to focus are two natural traits of whole-self health. Surprisingly, promoting this type of easy-to-discern wellness within yourself takes no special effort outside of satisfying your hunger with nourishing, wholesome foods and moving your body.

The numbers you see on the scale, while nominally informative, can prevent you from reaching your healthful eating goals by giving you a false indicator of health. You will know when you have achieved true health because every fiber of your being will send you signals of wellness. When you choose to listen to these signals instead of relying on the scale, your definition of well-being will be uniquely adapted to the needs of your body and of your mind.

With that being said, another thing to remember (mostly for women) is depending on where you are in your menstrual cycle will also play a huge part on the scale weight. Hormones play a big roll in water retention and that means higher scale numbers, but other tools you can use to gauge your "weight" are:

Clothing size- are you going up, staying the same or going down? Are the clothes you are wearing getting baggier or tighter?

Take weekly pictures - Find a bathing suit or under garments and take a picture in the same place and same time every week wearing the same bathing suit or under garments. Don't be fooled by the mirror- we look in the mirror every single day and mostly we hone in on the spots that bother us the most. When you take a picture, you can put them side by side and you can physically see the entire difference. If you don't want to do it weekly do it bi-weekly or monthly, like I do.

Measuring tape - the numbers on the tape don't lie. Just make sure you are measuring the exact same spots weekly,bi-weekly or monthly.


Yours in Fitness,
T