Step Away from the Scale

For the past couple weeks, the scale hasn't budged. At least, not in the right direction. I hit my lowest weight of 279 pounds on March 29, 2014. By March 31, 2014, I had skyrocketed back up 8 pounds. That 8 pounds did not want to budge. And, they didn't. It didn't matter how much I worked out that week, the 8 pounds hung around. Finally, after about four days, 3 pounds disappeared - I was thankful for that, but that meant that still at least 5 unwelcome pounds were hanging around. And, there they stayed. Throughout the course of that week and the following week, my weight only fluctuated by a half-pound. Seriously. Two hours of cardio a day, plus MetCon, Small Group Training, regular Training, Body Challenge workouts and seriously a half-pound difference?!? I didn't know what was going on.

I started to stress out. And by stress out, I mean freak out. I took it out on everyone - including Danny. I talked about it incessantly (sorry gym peeps), and became obsessed with that scale moving. Finally, last Thursday morning, I gave up - after a rather heated discussion with Danny. He pointed out that I can be lazy sometimes and slack off (even if I may not realize it). He told me I needed to bring my heart back into my workouts. I was angry. I'll admit it. I stewed about it until about lunch time. Then, I realized, there was some truth in what he was saying. He's looking at it from an outside perspective. (By the way, I HATE it when he's right!)

Thursday evening was the turning point. I determined I would not weigh in every day as I had been. It was just too much. Initially, weighing in every day was a motivator to keep my diet on track. Now that I'm on target for skin removal surgery, I was letting that scale be my guide. Unfortunately, I also let it guide my actions and emotions. When I let go of the scale being the guide, I felt an immediate sense of relief and freedom.

Friday morning, I felt free to attack my morning cardio with vigor. I had a renewed confidence. I still weighed in, but I truly didn't care that the scale was up another half-pound. Finally, on Saturday morning, for the official Body Challenge weigh-in, I was down one pound. We had Mt. Trashmore on Saturday morning. By the time we were done with that workout, my weight was down to 280.5. I told Danny that was it - I wasn't weighing in again until Wednesday.

It was easy to keep that promise yesterday as I did not go to the gym (I was sore from Saturday still). Today, it was also fairly easy to keep that promise because the power was out at the gym when I got there at 5:05 a.m. Everyone else that came by left - but I decided that I was up and not going back to sleep anytime soon (thanks to having taken my Prometalean already) - so I may as well workout. It was kinda nice working out alone in an empty parking lot - I'm sure I looked ridiculous doing suicides, lunges, squats, push-ups, crunches, dips, etc. outside in the 45 degree weather - in the rain! Oh, well! At any rate, I managed to work up a decent sweat despite the cold and rain. Finally, around 6 a.m. the gym's power came back on, so I dipped inside for a quick incline treadmill workout. The A/C obviously hadn't been on, so the couple people that showed up around that time really got a sweaty workout in!

What's the whole point of this long post? Don't rely on the scale for your results. Rely on the measurements. Rely on your capabilities being expanded. Rely on how you feel. Rely on your increased intensity. Just don't rely on the scale. By all means, use it as a guide, but don't become obsessed and captive to it like I did. It's part of the journey and one I won't forget anytime soon.

On a note to end this post, if I ever do this again, someone please slap me. I made too much ado about nothing. Thanks.