Letting go of the scale

When you are born, one of the first characteristics about you that is announced to the world is your weight. It is everywhere, even when you are a baby. Society has put so much pressure on both men and women to be a certain weight and it can be extremely destructive, especially for those of us who have had bariatric surgery.

I have always been the type of person that has to see my weight every day. I truly get obsessed with the scale if it is not going down. It consumes my mind and makes it hard for me to see my other victories. I have grown up like this. It was ingrained in my head that I had to be a certain weight, so I spent most of my life trying to get there. This is where so many of my bad habits were formed. I set unrealistic goals for myself and then punished myself when I could not achieve them. I would eat perfectly and be excited to step on the scale the next morning, but there were some days that the scale did not move. Even worse, sometimes the scale would go up. I would get so upset and then I would just give up and start eating badly again. It was a never-ending cycle.

As I am approaching my 7-year surgery anniversary, I feel like I am in a place where I can say what has worked for me and what has not worked for me. It has been extremely difficult for me, but I am learning that the more I stay away from the scale, the better I do. Now do not get me wrong, I think the scale has to be involved in a weight loss surgery journey because it helps you measure your success. However, I think you have to find what works for you. If you are weighing yourself every day like I was and it is causing your mood to suffer, you might want to step away from the scale for a little bit. If you are the type of person that needs that daily motivation, continue to weight yourself every day. Regardless, you must find something that works for you. For me, it was learning to let go of the scale.

There are so many other non-scale victories to be proud of on this journey. I recently went through a conversion surgery from gastric sleeve to gastric bypass, and I am trying something different this time. Going forward, I am only going to weigh myself once a week instead of every day. This has been a difficult transition, but I know I need to let go of the scale to focus on other victories. I do not like what it does to me when I focus so much on the scale. It truly does consume my mind and it makes me think I am always doing something wrong. By letting go of the scale, I know I can focus my mind on other things to continue to push towards a healthier lifestyle.

If you are struggling, try giving the scale a break. It might be what you needed all along to put you into overdrive!