What's In A Number?

Why so crazy pants?

So I decided to take off the crazy pants for a short time and put away the scale.  To say I lasted 48 hours was a great accomplishment for me... 


... and would, in fact, also be a lie; however, my brief "detox" (that's the popular term these days, detox, right?), I did take notice of something... Something that the scale makes me forget sometimes.


That something is this:  There are other things to notice.


If I'm worried I am eating too much, then why am I running towards a scale versus listening to my own body?  In an amazing turn of events, it turns out that if you listen, you will know when you are hungry.  


Your body will also tell you when you are full (provided you are not eating too fast, watching television, typing an email and blogging on the internet while doing so).  


It gets better... your body will even tell you... if you listen very, very closely... that the hunger you sometimes feel is not, in fact, hunger.  It is thirst.  It is boredom.  It is stress.  Food nor scale are devices used to solve these things.


If I'm worried I'm not getting enough exercise, what is a number going to tell me?  That the day has gone by, gravity has shifted, and I've eaten a few meals?  No... they are just numbers that cause the worry, stress and fake hunger.


What's my body telling me?  Am I low energy?  Do I need to go out and get my groove on?  What about the glow after a run.  There is no glow after stepping on a weighing device, no matter how "good" or "bad" the number may be... but there is glow after listening to an awesome song on a cloudless, mild autumn day as gold and red leaves dance about you as you run by.


Scales can never do that.


The number is only one indicator in a sea of many indicators... but ultimately, the best source to find out how well you are doing is within yourself.  One of the many flaws of language and communication... ultimately we are in our own little worlds, and have to pay attention to them instead of letting others (including other machines) tell us what we really already know.


So, yes.  I do have the scale.  And I've scaled back to my once a day in the morning at the same time.  I'll see what it has to say, but then I'll weigh it versus what my own body is telling me and ultimately let my body decide what we're doing that day.


What did I learn when I put the scale away?  That I feel good.  All systems are go and we're doing fine.  That's a message I can live with.

It's a new day, and I'm feeling good! (Yes,
thank you Weight Watchers and Jennifer Hudson)