How are you measuring success for your health and Wellness goals? I
f it's exclusively by the number on the scale, you may be setting yourself up for failure and here's why.
Of course, a lot of our goals stem from a conversation with a doctor which ends with telling you that you have to lose weight, or you step on the scale at home and don't like the number on the scale and immediately label ourselves as "fat" or say "I am HUGE". It's hard to see something we don't like, especially when we didn't think we were doing bad at all in the first place with our exercise and nutrition.
Once we see that number we decided was "bad", we immediately try to change anything and everything and decide that we want to get back to the weight we were in college. HOWEVER, we quickly forget that we've had 3 kids, we can't get to the gym as regularly as we want to, and we are very reliant on take out and convenience foods more than we realize. When we settle on a number that's our goal, and then become so fixated on this number that we become blinded to the bigger accomplishments we may achieve throughout the process.
We cannot look at the number alone as the measure of success because that number will eventually, never be enough. We may hit that goal, and then still be dissatisfied because we lose sight of our own worth and success along the way.
No one is going to stand up at your funeral and say "She was such an amazing person, AND she only weighed 135 pounds! That was the best part of her!" That just does not happen. Actually, no one really cares what the number on the scale says for you besides you.
You can lose all the weight AND still be uncomfortable in your skin. You can still lose weight AND hate the way you like to look. You can still lose the weight AND not have a good relationship with food.
This is what happens when we just look at weight as a measure of success. Instead of looking at a number to determine your happiness and success, let's look at some other things like:
How well your clothes are fitting and if you can go down a size
how glowing your skin looks and if you can prevent breakouts
how well your stress is managed
how high your energy levels are
the consistency of your sex drive
the quality of your meals
The self talk you have (because you're the only one that's listening at the end of the day!)
your relationship with food
These are the things that matter. Weight does not determine happiness and health, it can be a measure of success, but not the singular key to success.
Next time you find yourself going down the weight only focused drain, step back and see how far you've come and how you're feeling in the moment