KEY INSIGHT: The bathroom scale measures total body weight, which includes water, food in your digestive system, muscle, bone, organs, and fat – but it can’t distinguish between them. This means the scale cannot tell you whether changes in weight represent health improvements or declines. More problematically, focusing on scale weight often leads people to make decisions that harm their health (crash dieting, over-exercising, under-eating protein) in pursuit of a lower number that doesn’t actually represent health.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Think about a time when the scale showed a number you didn’t like. How did it make you feel? How did it affect your decisions that day? Now ask yourself: If you felt energetic, strong, confident, and healthy, would the number on the scale actually matter? The scale has power over you only because you’ve given it that power.
TODAY’S EXERCISE:
Identify three ways to measure your health and progress that have nothing to do with weight:
Examples might include:
Write these down. These are your real goals. The scale’s number is just a distraction from what actually matters.