Scale or No Scale

"To scale or not to scale, that is the question."

This is 100% a personal decision and really there is no wrong choice here.

This is why I SCALE!  I weigh myself every Monday morning, first thing in the morning.  I even write it down and keep track.

Why?  Doesn't that make me weight obsessed?  Let me explain.

I used to see all these transformation picture and think "that's amazing, but it'll never be me.  I will never let myself get to the point where a drastic weight-loss is necessary."  BOY WAS I WRONG!

I have been "blessed and cursed" with a good metabolism.  I can pretty much eat what I want and not gain weight.  I call this a blessing and a curse, a blessing for obvious reasons but a curse for maybe less obvious reasons.  It is a curse because it took me until I was nearly 32 to develop any sort of regular fitness regiment into my life.  32!  That's way too long to live life with essentially ZERO activity.  No, I wasn't sitting on my butt the whole 32 years prior, but I wasn't consistently active either, and I certainly NEVER watched what I ate...no need to.

Then I had a child.  I did NOTHING active during my pregnancy.  I gave myself permission to eat whatever I wanted and sit on my butt all day.  That was my right wasn't it?  I was entitled to be lazy because I was growing a human.  I was entitled to eat whatever I wanted, because it was for the baby.  I don't remember the exact number but I did gain a lot of weight and the ONLY weight I lost for the next 3-ish years was the weight of my child when he was born.

After my divorce and the stress that put me through and introducing some workouts to my schedule I did loose most of my baby weight.  Once it was off though I pretty much gave up on trying to make time for exercise.  I didn't need it anymore.

Fast forward to around 2013/2014.  I'm really struggling with my migraines and start on new medications.  I was NOT stepping on the scale.  I had gained nearly 30 lbs before I even knew it!  Just like that, overnight it seemed like.  I hadn't changed the way I ate.  I wasn't working out but that wasn't new.  I honestly had NO idea the scale was moving up because I wasn't stepping on it.

When I finally knew the extent of my weight gain it was from calling and asking my doctor's office for my weight over the years from appointments.

Last year I listened to Candace Cameron Bure's book "Reshaping It All" and in a lot of ways it was life changing!

She struggled a lot with weight and eating, especially being a child actress.  She described why she steps on the scale (I can't remember with what frequency she does).  She steps on the scale so that if it starts moving up she can catch it right away and do something about it.

**LIGHT BULB**  Had I only been doing that could I have avoided gaining those 30+ lbs?  To be honest I'm not sure...but this time I'm determined for that answer to be YES.  Never again will I let that scale number creep up without being totally aware of the situation.  I want to be in control of my life and destiny.  I don't want to have another drastic weight-loss story.  I want to have an AMAZING life story!  I don't want my life to revolve around the scale, but to use the scale to make sure I don't hold the wool over my own eyes.

THIS is why "I scale."

Jess Because...Fitness DOES Matter