It’s a new year and many people are interested in their body and their health, and want to make different choices.
Question #1 – Do you worry about your body weight?
Is it too much, is it too little, what can I do to be at the “perfect” weight?
Who gets to say what weight is perfect?
When I worked as a personal trainer, we were given charts to categorize a person’s weight and body fat percentage…normal, underweight, overweight, obese, even morbidly obese. I stopped using it almost immediately as it certainly didn’t empower anyone, in fact I felt it was dis-empowering.
I believe everyone has their own unique body size. To categorize us into a shape and a number has nothing to do with health and wellbeing. I’ve known “skinny” people who were over fat and unhealthy, I’ve known over weight people who were really healthy and happy.
Our weight depends on many factors….genetics, our bones and structure, our metabolic health, whether we take medication, and so much more.
So what is one to do? And I’ll give you a hint, it’s not just calories in and calories out, especially for women.
I believe the factors you need to focus on are…..
your health (how are your lab numbers or is there any dis-ease)
your vitality - do you feel strong and enjoy daily activities
your daily choices and habits (do they support your wellbeing)
your response or reaction to stress
your food and activity levels
If you are healthy, vital and strong, and have good lifestyle habits, what difference does it make what number the scale says you are?
We all fall into this trap. I know I do. But guess what? Unless you know your fat percentage and lean body mass (like muscle), the number on the scale is just that….a number. It has no reference to how “healthy and fit” you really are.
Question #2 – should you use a scale?
Maybe…..it is a tool to track how you’re doing. Sometimes we need to see numbers to pay attention to our choices and habits.
Here’s an example I can use…..
You may remember I used a consistent glucose monitor (CGM) a couple months back as I wanted to see how my food and stress levels affected my glucose numbers (for metabolic health). And if you didn’t see that blog, go back and read it, you can find it at the bottom of this post.
Well I kind of new I was eating more bread than usual, and that I wasn’t handling my stress well (why do we drop our meditation practice) but so what right?
Then I saw the glucose spikes and I realized I was kidding myself!
So I changed my habits….stopped eating bread, having the snack mid day that I knew wasn’t great anyway (Ayurveda teaches snacking is not optimal), and started meditating again. It all helped.
If you don’t have a way to check in with yourself about how your choices may be affecting you, well then you may also be in denial!
How does this relate to weight? Some people just know they feel pretty good, they have healthy habits over 80% of the time, they don’t have other symptoms of imbalance (like digestive issues) and their energy levels are balanced throughout the day. They may use their own understanding of their body to monitor how they’re doing. They don’t need a number on scale.
But some of us may need a tool to help us stay focused with our habits. (like my CGM) But that number on the scale should not be from a chart, it should be from your own knowing of who you are and how you’re feeling, and a realistic look at your daily choices and habits.
Most of us know our optimal weight intuitively. Not the number we were when we were teenagers, that’s unrealistic. But the number you know is best for you right now!
And in case you haven’t heard this phrase before…..we are not a culture of over fat, we are a culture of under muscled! You see, if we keep or build muscle as we age, then our body naturally finds its natural balanced state.
So here is another thing about numbers on the scale or body weight. If you weigh the same as you did say 20 years ago, do you have the same muscle/fat ratio? Most women do not. I just saw someone recently, her body was definitely different than it used to be, and she was bragging that she’s the same weight as she was in high school. She doesn’t exercise, and she doesn’t have the same muscle/fat ratio, so what good is the number?
Deceiving right?
Question #3 – are you in denial?
I know many women who won’t use a scale, they just don’t believe in it, but then they don’t hold themselves accountable for their daily actions in other ways. They ignore it. Well you know what happens when you do that? You start to get symptoms of dis-ease…..joint pain, inflammation, bloating & gas, lethargy, sleeplessness, and so on.
You see, weight imbalance (too much or too little) is a symptom of our daily choices and how we live our life, and our body not being in an optimal state. So if you know who you are and what you want, you’ll make choices toward that result. If you ignore what you do, you can end up with an imbalance.
Our bodies are really smart, and are communicating with us each and everyday. What is your body trying to tell you?
As women we have spent way too many hours, days, years thinking and worrying about the number on the scale, and it’s time to stop. Lets instead focus on our health, our energy levels, our daily choices and activities, and move away from guilt and shame toward acceptance and joy.
Chris and I help women focus on how they can live in balance and harmony toward their best life. What is that for you? Once you identify what that is, you can make daily choices toward your most amazing life. And if that means your body size isn’t optimal (or where you feel it needs to be) then we help you see different options…you can create a different story.
Let’s create a different story, one of freedom from worry about the number on the scale, and live a life of health and balance this year.