Fuck The Scale

*I came across this blog post I wrote back in 2018. Other than I can’t squat or press the same weights I mention, everything else I 100% believe to be true. 

 “To better understand the Law of Attraction, see yourself as a magnet attracting unto you the essence of that which you are thinking and feeling. And so, if you are feeling fat, you cannot attract thin. If you feel poor, you cannot attract prosperity, and so on. It defies Law.”

― Esther Hicks, The Law of Attraction: The Basics of the Teachings of Abraham

This speaks so much to why I am all about #fuckthescale. Seeing a number, particularly when it is not a number we are happy with, puts us right back into feeling inadequate, imperfect, unworthy, unfit, etc etc. It takes us to a dark place where often we cannot get out of.  “If you are feeling fat, you cannot attract thin’. Or strong if you feel weak.  Or muscles if you feel flabby. You get the idea.

We can become so fixated on a number on a scale and let it define how we feel about ourselves and our confidence. It has for me in the past. I would weigh myself incessantly. It did not matter how much I was squatting or how many pull-ups I could string together. I would see the number and instantaneously feet fat and out of shape.

Fortunately, the scale broke (thank you, Universe), and I was forced to stop weighing myself all the damn time.

The only times over the last few years I have gotten weighed is when I involuntarily had to at doctors’ appointments. I usually close my eyes and tell the nurse not to say out loud my weight. It gave me anxiety to even think about it.

When I went to the doctor recently for my annual check-up, I peeked out while being weighed and was pleasantly surprised to see I had lost about six pounds.

But here’s the thing about that weight loss. My goal over the last year has not been about getting to a number. It has been about increasing my cardio capacity so I can move faster in workouts and get more reps in. It has been about trusting someone else’s programming and I all I had to do was show up and put in the work (hard as it is). I stopped looking at food as good versus bad. I stopped feeling guilty about having a glass of wine here or there. I stopped looking at every single part of my body as ugly or imperfect. I stopped looking at myself and feeling fat.

I had noticed a few months before that (involuntary) weigh-in I was looking leaner and more defined. My clothes started fitting differently, being looser and shirts hanging lower on me. I was curious at that number on the scale only because losing weight had not even a conscious decision.

I had read the Money and the Law of Attraction by Abraham and Esther Hicks earlier this year to help me handle the major career transition I was in. I was freaking out to say the least and scared to death about ‘what if” I can’t make any money doing what I love. It showed me the importance in of putting out into the universe what I want and how I want to feel. I discovered quickly how effective and how much I was given when I stayed positive. Constantly dwelling on how far I had to go with my business or the money I was not bringing in would never serve me. Acting or talking to prospects out of desperation was not something I wanted for myself.  I had to feel confident and optimistic to get what I want, which started happening.

Over time, I slowly and organically shifted my mindset not just about money and my business but about my confidence and fitness. It became about how I WANT to feel, not about how I currently felt or had in the past. I started thinking about the strength I wanted to gain. I focused on tangible goals like Bar Muscle Ups and moving with good form. I focused on wanting to continuously get buffer (call me egotistical but muscles are damn fucking sexy) which comes from constantly pushing myself and giving workouts more than I think I can do.

I used to immediately notice everything “wrong” with my body and now I can look at my physique and have an appreciation for it. My legs can squat 215 pounds. My arms can lift 140 pounds. I appreciate my body for what it can do for me.

And for the record, I do think the scale can be important. It’s a tool used to measure progress. The thing is though, goals should be around other things, like increased energy, improved cardio, and muscle and strength gain, even eating more mindfully. Anything really other than losing a set number of pounds.  Because when you set other goals, you WILL lose weight. It becomes a byproduct of all the hard work you are doing. It becomes the reward for what you are doing. But it should never be treated in a way that we have to punish ourselves for one damn number.

Because that is what happens. We see a number we do not like and we immediately start rattling off all the things we have to stop doing. Brunches with friends.  Drinking a glass of wine after a hard day at work. We can never have another piece of bread. We can’t skip a workout EVER.

The universe can only bring you happiness, contentment, muscles, strength, balanced nutrition when you speak to it in abundance and not lacking.

So, if like me, you are at all obsessive, FUCK THE SCALE. Throw it out. Focus on what you want and you will get it.