I found this terrific article on Spark People, 55 Things the Scale Won’t Tell You.
It talks about the larger benifits of diet and exercise and, as I have expressed on many occasions here, that weight loss isn’t the only aspect of health and that self confidence, at any size, can go a long way. Which is not to say you should go eat as much of whatever you want, exercise as little as possible and still call it healthy. It means, take care of body as best you can and don’t hate yourself if you’re not a twenty year old, size two! After all, if you love something, generally speaking, aren’t you going to want to take better care of it?
It’s frustrating when you feel like all of your hard work and sacrifice isn’t paying off, believe me, I get that. But when you look at the bigger picture, you’ll see you’re getting so much more than lower numbers and skinny jeans.
Do yourself a favour and go read the whole article. I’ve cut and pasted my top ten from their list of fifty-five here to get you started.
What can’t the scale tell you? A whole lot:
- How fast you can run
- How far you can walk
- How many flights of stairs you can climb
- How much your blood pressure/cholesterol/blood glucose numbers have improved
- How much muscle mass you’ve put on in relation to fat lost
- How many times you’ve passed up a treat for a healthier option
- The status of your relationship with food
- The number of medications you’ve been able to stop taking since getting healthier
- How much better your clothes are fitting
- How you handle stress
