Pardon my inference of profanity there.
But seriously.
I’ve been in a sprint mode these past four weeks with my fitness and nutrition - I’ve been really focusing on my anchor habits - eating slowly, eating until I’m 80% full, and hitting at least 100 grams of protein every day.
I’ve been tracking my food, increasing my workouts, and yesterday I came in to the gym feeling pretty darn good about myself.
Then I got on the scale at the gym.
Before I go on about how I almost put a stick of dynamite on the scale and launched it into a 50th anniversary trip to the moon:
I am and have always been fairly lean and I’ve never struggled with my weight. But I still have my own goals with fitness, and I certainly still have body image struggles. I’d love to say that I’m immune, but I’m just not.
So yesterday……
The scale said I’d gained two pounds of fat and lost a pound of muscle.
I was seething. I mean if the scale didn’t cost thousands of dollars, I’d have taken it out to the parking lot and backed my car over it 10 times. Then I’d have taken a sledge hammer to it, danced a &^%$ polka with a moose on it, before throwing it on I95 for all of the summer traffic to drive over.
For the rest of the summer.
Because what the *^%*&?
It was really hard not to let the results ruin my day.
But then, as I was sitting in my corner in the gym lobby (no really, there’s a sign, I have my own corner), stewing on my scale results - I put my elbows on the bar and my head in my hands.
This process takes work.
And I’m not talking about the work it takes to get my nutrition on point or my workouts in for the week. That takes work too.
I’m talking about the work it takes every damn day to shift your perspective.
It is a daily practice to work on your mindset.
Accepting yourself, loving your body, and loving who you are is as much a daily practice as brushing your teeth.
It’s all good and fine for me to run over a scale with my car. And if your curious, I did that with the old scale from the gym - and yes, there is a YouTube video for it - and yes - I also used a sledge hammer on said scale and it was very cathartic.
But it takes daily reminders and practices for me to love and accept myself for who I am now, and not who I will be when I lose more body fat or add more muscle. It’s a daily commitment and a daily job to love ourselves.
And dammit, it’s hard. Really really hard.
But it’s a daily practice, and we have to hold one another accountable to the process. So I’ll hold you accountable, and the next time you see me….
Maybe check to see that I haven’t started a dumpster fire with the scale.
I mean, just in case.