How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Scale
Some of us here at OVICX are naturally sporty. Some of us have always been into running, cycling, yoga, and every other kind of fitness you can think of. Some of us seem to eat whatever they want – all kinds of noodles, sweets, and snacks (I’m looking at you, Erin!) – and never put on weight. I, sadly, am not one of them. I was a fat kid growing up and some of my family members were not shy about telling me. From an early age, this made me resentful, even fearful of the scale. As I got older, I lost a lot of weight, but it took a lot longer to lose the feeling of being a fat little boy frightened to find out how the scale was going to judge me. But over the past few years, I’ve overcome this phobia and can honestly say that today I love my OVIX Body Fat Scale.
Here are a few changes of perspective that can help you do the same.
- Your Weight is Not Your Health
When I was a kid, the scale was a big, bulky thing with a dial that swung to the right to show me how heavy I was. As that number grew, so did the voice in my head telling me that I was somehow “less than” or undeserving in some way. So imagine how demoralizing it was for me when I started exercising regularly and that number went up bit by bit. It was nearly enough to have me brow-beaten into thinking that getting in shape was a hopeless endeavor. The problem, though, lay not in my new habits but in that number. Weight by itself is mostly meaningless. What’s important is what your body is made of: your body composition. Body composition includes things like water weight, bone density, how much muscle you have, and – of course – bodyfat. To get a picture of your health, rather than a sometimes deceptive number for your weight, you need to know your body composition. To know your body composition, you need a scale capable of telling you.
- The Smarter the Scale, the Smarter Your Fitness Journey
Having grown up with a lot of negative body image talk around me, I’m really sensitive to fluctuations I see on the scale even when I get a complete picture of 11 essential body measurements every day. With a smarter scale, though, I can avoid feelings of defeat because I can see the forest and the trees. With a smart scale that connects to an app like ScaleUp, I can see not only the data for my body on any given day, I can see the trends that are happening over time. This lets me know if I’m building muscle, if I’m trimming off the fat, whether I’m drinking enough water, and how my exercise routine is impacting my bones. I then use all that information to tweak my workouts, my diet, and my habits. It’s really supercharged my fitness journey.
- Positive Self-Talk Drives Positive Outcomes
Changing my bodyfat and keeping it lower over time has been a tough task, but it’s been a whole lot harder to change the way I talk to myself. I used to step on the scale and see things changing too slowly or worse, moving in the wrong direction, and I’d say to myself something like “God, this is just hopeless.” For me, that negative self-talk could be dangerous. It could cause me to give up on my goals. It may be natural for me to have those sorts of thoughts when my fitness journey doesn’t go as planned, but I have found that staying on track means changing the way I think. So when I catch myself in a moment like that, I’ve changed the script to something like, “OK, how did that happen? What can I learn? Maybe I need to make a change in…whatever.” Making this change has been way more challenging than developing a workout habit or transforming my diet. Changing to a more positive way of talking to myself is something I still have to work on a few times a week when I step on my OVICX Body Fat Scale in the morning, but doing it makes me feel more positive and that helps me be successful at keeping on the right path.
I hope these tips can help members of the OVICX community start to love their scales. The last thing I want to remind readers of is this: you’re not alone. If you’re ever feeling like you need some support, just drop us a message here on the OVICX blog, on our Facebook or Instagram, or log on to the OVIX App and get into a class with others who are on the same journey. We’re in this together!
Check out OVICX Body Fat Scale