I ate a lot of brownies in two years.
Almost every week since 2003 until I ended up in the hospital completely burned out in 2005, I made brownies.
And ate them.
It wasn’t just eating brownies that caused me to gain almost forty pounds – it was a culmination of poor decisions: not exercising, eating poorly, working too many hours, not sleeping enough.
And enough was enough. After plateauing at 170-pounds (give or take) for a year, I lost forty pounds (give or take) and replaced those weekly brownies with a weekly weigh-in and weekly measurement taking.
It may seem a little compulsive, but it’s what helps keep me on track. Week by week for almost three years I’ve been journaling my weight, and measurements of my chest, arms, waist, abs, hips, and thighs.
When I started training a month ago, Brandon told me every four to six weeks we’d re-evaluate my fitness assessment. It’s a much more in depth assessment with more measurements, body fat percentages, weight, and how well I’m improving with my actual level of fitness.
I posted my first?assessment?here if you want to read it.
Now, something Brandon said when I told him I’ve been in the habit of taking weekly measurements was to not rely on my scale as a reputable source of effort.
But every week without fail, I’d still continue weighing and measuring myself hoping to see some kind of improvement. And despite my bi-weekly butt-whooping from Brandon, and saying no (most of the time, anyway) to the peppermint mochas, the numbers on my scale barely budged.
I was pretty disheartened…After all, I had been working SO hard…and evidently, had nothing to show for it.
Today was my first re-assessment. Brandon pulled out the body fat pinchers and I jumped on the scale.
One pound.
I had lost one-freaking-cuss-cuss-cuss-freaking pound.
Without saying much, Brandon measured and pinched and prodded at, as Bridget Jones would say, my jiggly parts. He typed in numbers on his computer, had me do sit ups and push ups and measured?and pinched and prodded more, and I started to feel guilty.
He had been working so hard with me – how could I let him down?
He began printing off my assessment and said something along the lines of “yep, this is what I thought would happen.”
I caught a glimpse of one of the sections as it came off the printer.
It was my body fat percentage.
“Wait. My body fat came down from 26.3% to 22.1%? In a month? Seriously?”
“Just wait…”
And so we went over my assessment.
(You can download the new one here if you’d like. It has a side-by-side comparison from when I started a month ago.)
As you’ll see, my weight hadn’t changed much. I did only lose one pound.
But that’s just what the scale said.
What the scale didn’t say is that I lost a little over six pounds of fat and gained five pounds of lean weight (muscle and water and good stuff). What the scale didn’t say is that my body fat decreased 16%. Or that I lost over seven inches. Or that my aerobic fitness is now in the “fit” category instead of the “fair” category. And remember my silly attempt at push ups last time? Remember that they ended up in the “needs work” category?
Now they jumped completely past “fair,” and?almost past “fit” into “excellent.”
I don’t say this to brag (ok, maybe I’m having this framed and hung up in our living room just a tiny bit proud at the moment), but to tell you this:
DON’T TRUST YOUR SCALE!
One of the things Brandon said to me is most people will attempt working out and eating better for about a month, and they won’t see a big difference on the scale, so they give up.
Truth be told, if you don’t see a big difference on the scale in your first month, it doesn’t mean much at all.
My scale said, “all this effort and you’ve only lost a pound” and if I would have believed it, I would have given up.
Don’t buy into what the scale says or doesn’t say.
Trust the effort you are putting into getting healthy.
And keep going!
Not only are there changes going on in your body that you can’t see, there are changes going on in your spirit – with your discipline, your courage, and your will power.
Keep going!
There are so many things I adore about?