Measuring vs. Scale

Photo credits: www.bike-bliss.com, www.mirror.co.uk


     Do you know how hard it was to find a photo of a normal looking girl measuring herself??  I had to sift through many photos of Skinny Chicks measuring themselves and I thought, there's no way I'm putting some model checking the size of her tiny mid section on this page.  So, granny panties and all, I was relieved to find Ms. Normal up there measuring her body.  

     Ok, off my soap box, let's get down to business...

     I know you all want that magic number on the scale to be (much) smaller than it is right now.  So, do I!  I'd love to step up on it just once and see it at 150lbs.  But, alas, it doesn't ... yet.  I use weighing myself as a form of accountability.  I only weigh myself once or twice a week at most.

     Why?

     Because, if you start weighing yourself every day, you will get addicted to it.  Am I crazy?  Nope.  It's addictive to see how your weight has changed in the morning, and also to see what the food from the night before has done to your weight.  But, keep in mind that (especially we women) we deal with fluctuation in weight due to water gain.  So, weighing once, at most twice, a week is more of a general number.

     But, there are rules, my fellow Fat Chicks!  Yes!  Weigh yourself first thing in the morning, completely naked!  No hair ties, wrist watches, towels ... nothing, but good ol' glorious YOU.  And, do it before you eat so that you don't have the weight of a meal in your tummy.  And, for god's sake, don't wear shoes.

     Also, if you know you are doing what you need to do with your weight, and you have to go to the doctor's, there's nothing more discouraging than stepping onto their scale fully dressed, in the middle of the day, wearing shoes, and hearing you weigh 5lbs more than you read in the morning.  Before you step up on the scale, tell the nurse that you are monitoring your weight and do not want to know what her scale says.  Then, don't look at it.  If you are losing, I guarantee, the doctor will make some sort of comment about it.

     The weight on the scale doesn't always indicate your loss however.  You may be tightening up, losing fat but gaining muscle and since muscle weighs more than fat, find that you've gained weight.  Don't get discouraged!  Once a month, take out a measuring tape and measure your body naked.  You can find the soft, measuring tape in any sewing section and sometimes at a grocery store.  I measure my neck, bicep, chest, upper stomach, waist, belly button, lower stomach (yeah, can you tell I'm a little stomach conscious?), hips, thighs and calves.

     Keep a journal of your measurements.  It's fun to see a loss and it stinks to see a gain, but at least you have an accurate understanding of where your body is at that moment.  I keep track of my measurements by month so I can see what I have lost over all.  So, far I'm just under 15" off my whole body.  Again, don't get addicted to measuring yourself either.  Once a month - that's it!

Challenge of the Day:
Buy yourself a digital scale and a measuring tape.  Take your measurements naked and weigh yourself.  Don't let yourself get discouraged over the numbers!  You are changing them!!  Record them in an Excel spreadsheet (my personal choice) or a journal.  Weigh yourself  once or twice a week and measure your body once a month.  Until next time ...