The only numbers that matter for true body love

So I’m heading into the shower this morning and we live in a house that’s over 100 years old. The pipes in the bathroom are old and the water takes a good 30 - 45secs to warm up. While I’m waiting for the water to warm up I think;

“you know, I haven’t jumped on the scales in a while, I wonder how much I weigh?”

What a stupid freaking idea!!!! I had actually lost a kilo since the last time I weighed myself (in another flash of stupidity) but was I pleased that the number had gone down? Not really. My instant response (in the voice of Debbie Downer, my Inner Bully) was;

“Gee that’s cool but how good would it be if you could just get it back down below 70kgs?”

That was when I realised for the 40,000th time that the scales are not only unnecessary, they're freaking damaging.

Why does that number even matter?? What is going to be better about my life at 69kgs than it would be at 70, 71, 72kgs? I spent a good chunk of my morning totally consumed by some numbers on a scale. It took me a little while but I gave myself a reality check, turned the negative self talk into a positive conversation and instantly felt better. The numbers didn’t change, by body didn’t change but the way I felt about myself changed. If you haven’t already checked it out, ep #5 on negative self talk & there’s a whole heap of tips on how to turn the volume down on our inner bully.

I teach group fitness at a gym and I have an awesome friend and mentor who teaches at a club where the scales are right outside the group fitness studio. She says she teaches classes where the women have just smashed out an awesome workout, they’re drenched in sweat, red in the face and completely exhilarated when they walk out of the class….

And the first thing they do is go and jump on the scales. She see’s their faces fall and their whole entire energy changes from one of exhilaration at completing an amazing class to one of utter defeat in a nanosecond.

They’ve just lifted their mood, moved their body and flooded their system with endorphins only to have it all completely unravelled by 2 or 3 insignificant numbers.

You’ve heard me speak about Lyndi Cohen, the Nude Nutritionist before. She co-wrote the BodyLove nutrition plan which is what we use in our Empower360 Teen Fitness Challenge. Her feed this week is all about not wasting 95% of your life just to be 5% smaller.

And she’s SO right! I used to waste so much time OBSESSING about the numbers on the scale and you know what, the only time I was happy with the number I saw was when I contracted Ghiardia and was so I’ll I couldn’t eat for a week. I weighed the same as I did in high school. How freaking stupid and not to mention dangerous is that!? I wasn’t happy, I was sick! And of course, when I got well gain, the numbers went back up to what is a healthy weight for me.

I also teach dance and I’ve been in a room with a group of girls all aged between 15 & 17 so not a broad spectrum of ages and the conversation turned to numbers and how much everyone weighed. Now not a single one of these girls was even what you might call chubby, they were all lean, athletic, muscular dancers. Do you want to know the variation between the lightest dancer and the heaviest?

40 freaking kilos!!! There was a tiny little short, wiry 15 year old who weighed around 45kilos and the spectrum went through to a 6ft glamazon with legs almost up to my waist that weighed over 80 kilos. All of them healthy, all of them strong and athletic and all of them perfectly normal.

The numbers. Don’t. Matter.

So what are the numbers that do matter? How you feel about yourself is all that matters. How you feel about your own perfectly beautiful, perfectly healthy perfectly normal body is all that matters. This can be done easily by rating how you feel about yourself on a scale of 1-10. 1 being really not great through to 10 being I freaking love myself!! And it’s totally ok to freaking love yourself. I want you to get to a 10. Now if you are anything under a 7, I’d love for you to start having a think about how you can get from a 7 to even a 7.5 and then to an 8. If you haven’t been following along with these weekly videos a great place to start is to go back and watch some of these videos for some tips on how you can start to love your body just a little bit more.

So today’s lesson. Ditch the scales! Ignore those numbers and start focusing on how you feel about yourself and how you can get your Body Love number to go higher.

This article was written by Kate Hickey for Empower360 Fitness. If you'd like more information on our online or teen bootcamp programs, head to our website www.empower360fitness.com.au or contact Kate: kate@empower360fitness.com.au