The 30 Days 30 Reasons No Scale Challenge

Hi all, remember me?  Yeah, it's been a long time, so I'm jump-starting this blog back to life with a challenge to myself.

The scale.  Is there any love-hate relationship more painful or more powerful?  That stupid little square of plastic with a tiny little screen does nothing but display a number, a number that doesn't define who I am, what my life means, or what I am capable of.  And yet, every day I step onto that scale and either sigh or smile and set my mood for the day.

A few years back the scale was my friend.  I lost a lot of weight and was feeling great and looking fit.  But in the past year or so some of that weight has snuck back on in spite of my efforts, and the daily visit to the scale has been demoralizing.  But even though I dread it, there I go every morning, waiting while the number blinks up onto the screen to see whether I can feel good about myself or mentally chastise myself for not working out hard enough or eating something I shouldn't have.  What a sad way to start the day, by judging my daily worth by a number.

I've been thinking lately about how I felt when I had lost all that weight - yes it was great that all my friends commented that I was "skinny" and congratulated me on how much weight I had lost.  It felt good that random men would give me a second look on the street.  But really, what felt the best was how physically fantastic I felt, how strong and powerful and in control of my life I felt.  And I want to feel good like that again.  So I started to think about how I could switch gears and stop obsessing over my weight.

So here's the deal.  I'm tired of letting a number on the scale dictate how I feel about myself each day.  Instead, I'm going to put the scale away and focus on what really matters - the real reasons for eating right and exercising.  I'm going to remind myself that I am not a number, either on the scale or on the tag of my jeans.

For 30 days, starting September 1st, I will not step on my scale.  Instead, I will take each day to write one reason for exercising and eating right - and not one of those reasons will have to do with weight loss or with how I look.  It's time to refocus and to remind myself of what really matters - my health, my happiness, my strength - not my size.

I hope you'll come along with me and help me to find those 30 reasons, because I'm guessing by the end of the month I'll be struggling to find a new one.  But maybe, just maybe, I'll find it easier and easier to focus on the reasons that matter, and I'll care less and less about what the scale has to say.  And if nothing else, I'll get back to blogging again.

So join me September 1st for Day One, and hopefully together we can all inspire each other to feel good about ourselves for the right reasons and stop feeling bad about ourselves for the wrong reasons.