Please Weigh In...

Happy Friday, lovely readers.

Just a super quick post to get your opinions on the scale. Yes I am talking about the bathroom scale, the very device that has held the attention of women everywhere, often holding us hostage and making us do unthinkable things like eat purred sweet potato and a concoction called Choco-Chestnut pudding. Anyone remember those days?

In any case, as you know I have been trying to shed the last five pounds as thankfully everything over and above that has finally come off with the AHS. But the other day when I stepped on the scale and it had the nerve to say to me: Bitch PLEASE, one at a time! I was like whoa! What's going on here? How is it that I have suddenly shot up by seven pounds overnight, yet my trousers still fit? Something had to be amiss. 

Now I know Tracy Anderson asks us to step on the scale daily. This is especially helpful when we get to the maintenance phase because you can see if you're up by two or three pounds then course correct so you're never again in the unenviable position of having to shed ten or more pounds. But other schools of thought are no, never weigh in more than once a week or a couple of times a month. Obviously as women our weight is going to fluctuate around that time of the month as we retain water etc. but most of us have a general idea (or at least I hope we do) of our healthy weight set point and we can sort of float above or below that number by a few pounds without having to worry too much. 

So my first question is how often do you weigh in and what do you think is healthy or normal? I know there are going to be a few of you who have tossed the scale, never use it and just judge where you are by the fit of your clothing. I applaud you. I adore you. I will never be one of you. (sorry, not sorry?)

But my other question is a little more um... I dunno... odd maybe? And maybe you won't have the answer but I'd really like your thoughts, ideas and opinions on this.

So my mean scale that told me there were too many of us on it at one time (it didn't really, I was being funny, or at least I hope I was) did tell me that I'd put on all this extra weight. Then I stepped on it again and it told me I was a mere 4 pounds. Right... I wasn't even 4 pounds at birth, so I knew for sure my scale was having a nervous breakdown. Was I overworking her? Or were her batteries low? I don't know. But to be honest I have never really liked her because she has always told me I was "a little heavy". So what's a girl to do?

Why go out and get a new scale obviously. But I was sick to death of the ones that operate on battery because it's a pain to have to run around trying to locate the exact one for your scale (first world probs I know, don't judge) but I also don't want one that is going to read my BMI, body fat percentage, bone density, and keep track of today's weight compared to the last time I weighed in. Been there done that. How can a scale possibly know all of that crap anyway??

I just wanted a simple old school scale. So this is what I got.

It may not have been my wisest move as I can barely read the numbers on it. Oh the joys of middle age - your waist expands, your hair greys, and your eyesight goes. Boo.

Anyway, my thought was that this is a similar scale to what you weigh your produce on at the supermarket right? Simple. Its only task is to judge weight, it doesn't require a battery and should last forever.

But I was nervous. So I did what any smart woman would do, I had my beloved, He Who Shall Not Be Named, test it out first! So he got on and he hated it immediately. First for the obvious reason that he could barely see the number. But secondly because it told him he had gained weight. I chimed in helpfully with: "well dear, you did eat an awful lot of toast yesterday." Funny, not as helpful as you'd think. Anyway, he got on the old digital one and it said that his weight was the same as it was the day before. Hmmm. Interesting. Was this new scale going to kick me off like the last one did? 

To my shock, it said that not only had I NOT gained 7 new pounds, but that I had in fact lost 4. WTF? That's a total difference of 11 pounds. What gives?

I had to test both scales out to see who was telling the truth. So I gathered my two sets of dumbells, my 2's and my 3's that by my calculations should add up to 10 pounds. I put them on the old scale and it read 10. I put them on the new scale and it read 10. So according to both scales, my dumbells have neither lost nor gained an ounce. Well good for them, all they ever do is workout anyway. Boring. Some of us need a life you know!

But what about me? Even though I'd love to just "believe" that I have lost a magical 4 pounds and now quite literally only have a pound to go, I don't feel like that in my body and there is a voice in my head that says the old scale knows better.

It's such a stupid conundrum that I feel like a bit of an idiot even coming here to ask, because I know you're all likely going to say, go with the new scale! It tells you what you want to hear. But when you have a problem and you go to your friends, do you go to the friend who will call it like it is and just give it to you straight or do you go to the one who sugar-coats it for you? Frankly I'm sugar free and don't even have friends who know HOW to sugar coat and that's just the way I like them. But I am at a loss. It really is stuck in my craw, under my skin, on my last nerve. I'm tempted to dismantle the old scale find the freaking battery and replace it just to settle this. Geez, maybe I should have just done that in the first place.

Please weigh in. Yes, I know that there are fires in Fort McMurray, there are refugees fleeing from Syria, slaves in Nigeria, garment workers in India that are forced to work in unsafe working conditions and a third of Canada's indigenous communities are under a boil water advisory because the water where they live is unsafe to drink. I know all that. This is entirely and wholly insignificant compared to all of that. Our world is a mess. I ask you to consider this (not real) problem I'm having in order to forget all of that, if even just for a moment.

Big hugs.
Shan