Forget Your Weight

I had a cool moment this weekend. I weighed myself for the first time in about a year, expecting 145-150. For the past few months, I have been assuming I'm more like 150, and so I set my 2015 pull-ups goal based on that weight (6,667 pulls = ONE MEELLION pounds over the course of 2015) - but the scale showed me I was only 141.

That's not the cool part. The cool part is that I didn't have ANY emotional reaction whatsoever. Nothing.

This was my train of thought, in totality:

"Really? Huh, I wonder if that's right. Surprising. I guess then I'll have to do more pull-ups to hit a million pounds. Well, first I really should check whether that's accurate. I'll hop on another scale before I finalize that pull-ups goal."

That's it. I went on with my life. Zero emotion, good or bad, just the mental note to verify so that I make sure to hit a million pounds of pull-ups.

Whether 141, or 150, it's just a number, just a simple fact. It doesn't actually MEAN anything. (Of course it doesn't!)

Except then yesterday I had a REALLY COOL moment because that number DOES mean something else: "zOMG WAIT. If I weigh 141, then I'm only 6 pounds away from benching my bodyweight! YEAH BITCHEZ!!"

Ha.

Anyway, four years ago, my scale absolutely determined my emotion. I lived and died by that damn number. There were days I'd approach the pull-up bar thinking about how my weight was up and so these were going to be harder, or fewer - and BOOM they were harder and fewer. And I damn well know that my weight increase of 8 ounces didn't have a thing to do with it.

So to get here, not caring what I weigh, zero emotion relative to the scale...it's incredible. And a much better, healthier, happier way to live.

Today I read a fantabulous post by the wise Jen Comas Keck about the very same thing: your scale is a pretty stupid pointless thing to own.

The Scale: Not Worth Its Weight

... 

Who the hell cares what I weigh?  

Do my friends care what I weigh? My loved ones? The people at the DMV? No, no, and no.

People that love you care about two things: your health, and happiness, neither of which should require a scale to tell you, so why do so many of us put so much emphasis, day in and day out, on what is ultimately an insignificant number?

... 

Read it all. And throw out that stupid scale.
http://www.jencomaskeck.com/2014/04/the-scale-not-worth-its-weight.html