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It's Not
About
the Scale
By Karen Preston
Karen
lives, plays, and works
in Portland. A member of TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly), she also founded
Pounders, a weight-loss support group focusing on being fit through
exercise and healthly lifestyle changes. Her story
was recently featured in Self magazine (September 2003).
I
still find each
day too short for
all the thoughts
I want to think,
all the walks I want
to take, all the books
I want to read and
all the friends
I want to see.
— John Burroughs |
It’s Not
About the Number on the Scale
Hi again, welcome to my second column of “It’s Not About the
Scale”! In the last issue I promised to explain why I picked that
title. In my opinion, it should actually read “It’s Not About
the Number on the Scale,” but I figured that was a bit cumbersome!
The scale is used
by most people to determine success or failure when trying to remove
excess weight. Many individuals allow the number on the scale to influence
their attitude about themselves on a particular day. However, the scale
isn’t the best way to measure progress. It’s normal for the
scale to fluctuate a tad from day to day because of water weight. Even
more important, muscle weighs more than fat, so it’s possible to
find your weight go up a bit while your clothes are fitting better.
One of the best things I did while losing was to begin weight training.
Experts inform us that lifting weights increases bone density and lean
muscle mass, thus bumping up your metabolism, which helps you lose weight
in the long run.
My philosophy is
that weight loss is about changing your lifestyle with the end goal
of becoming fit and feeling healthy. It seems to me that most people
focus on being thin. They want to see that needle on the weight scale
going down, down, down. But isn’t “fit” what you really
want to be? You want to have the energy to tackle your day with enthusiasm!
You want to feel stronger and healthier.
I can remember how
difficult it was for me when I weighed 350 pounds to walk up the two
flights of stairs in my split-level ranch. I needed to stop half way
up to rest. A few years ago, after I had removed most of my extra weight,
I was hurrying to run an errand at Lloyd Center Mall. I parked in the
lowest level of the garage and literally ran up the stairs to the third
floor. I was so distracted by how late I was that it didn’t hit
me until my foot struck the top step. I had just sprinted up three flights
of stairs without having to stop for a breath! Now that’s something
for a 43-year-old former couch potato to celebrate!
It’s easy to
become discouraged by how long it can take to remove excess weight.
It took me three years and four months to lose 184 pounds. That’s
an average of one pound per week. What I kept in mind is that I didn’t
gain all my extra weight overnight, thus it would be unrealistic to
expect to lose those pounds quickly if I wanted to lose them safely
and keep them off in the long run. Back when I lost weight originally,
my goal was to lose one pound a week. That adds up to 52 in a year —
not shabby by any means!
Later, when I was
at a lower weight, I focused on losing half a pound a week maximum.
Just after a Portland to Coast walking relay race, I struggled to lose
weight for a few weeks, but finally the scale dropped dramatically.
Plateaus are common, stay the course: and eventually you’ll see
progress! During my plateau I took comfort in a Jesse Jackson quote:
”You can’t plant a seed and pick the fruit the next morning.“
I’ll talk more
about attitude in future issues, but for now let me tell you that having
a positive attitude is one of the keys to losing and keeping off excess
weight. The real battle isn’t about the numbers on the scale; it’s
about the eight inches between your ears! |
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