The Scale Isn’t the Only Proof You’re Changing

It is very easy to let one number decide whether you think you are doing well.

You step on the scale in the morning. If the number moved the way you wanted, you feel encouraged. If it did not, suddenly yesterday’s good choices seem less important. The water you drank, the meals you prepared, the walk you took, the earlier bedtime, the moment you stopped eating because you were satisfied - all of it can disappear behind one number.

That is what caught my attention in Dr. Glenn Livingston’s Psychology Today article, Weight Loss: Beating the Scale With Little Victories. He makes a simple point that I love: when the amount of weight you want to release feels enormous, looking at the entire distance can become discouraging. What matters today is the next choice that moves you in the direction you want to go.

This is something I want every Body Bella woman to remember.

You are not releasing 30 pounds today. Or 50. Or 80. You are living one Tuesday. You are eating this breakfast. Drinking this glass of water. Making this choice at dinner. Going to bed tonight. Then tomorrow, you get another day.

Sometimes we become so focused on getting to the finish line that we miss all the evidence that our lives are already changing along the way.

Maybe you have more energy in the afternoon. Maybe you walked past something in the kitchen without thinking twice about it. Maybe you went to a restaurant and enjoyed yourself without turning one meal into an entire weekend. Maybe your clothes feel different. Maybe you slept better. Maybe you carried the groceries upstairs without getting winded. Maybe you thought about food less today than you did a month ago.

Those things count.

Dr. Livingston calls attention to these non-scale victories because they help us recognize progress even when the scale is not giving us the immediate reward we wanted. He includes changes in energy, confidence, relationships, time, thoughts about food, work, and how we physically feel as victories worth noticing.

I would add one more.

Trusting yourself again.

That may be one of the biggest victories of all.

Every time you make a choice that matches the way you want to care for yourself, you are gathering evidence that you can depend on yourself. Not because every day will be perfect. Not because the scale will cooperate every morning. But because one imperfect moment no longer has to decide what happens next.

That is very different from the old all-or-nothing thinking many women have lived with for years.

So yes, we will keep paying attention to the scale in Body Bella. It gives us useful information. But it does not get to tell the entire story.

Look around at what else is changing.

Notice the little victories.

Because eventually, all of those ordinary choices become something much bigger: a woman living differently than she used to.

And remember, you are an example to everyone around you. When the people you love watch you acknowledge progress without demanding perfection, they learn something too. They see that taking care of yourself is not one dramatic decision. It is thousands of small ones.

You do not have to win the whole journey today. Just keep moving in the direction of the life you want.

Keep going,
Dr. Brookh Lyons
Founder, Body Bella

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To read the article that inspired this Body Bella observation: Weight Loss: Beating the Scale With Little Victories - Psychology Today