Let's focus on the trend, not on the day

Or on the week, or maybe even the month. If our weight is trending down over time, does it really matter what we weigh today? A lot of people, myself included, can have a tendency to get hung up on that number on the scale. It's my belief that it's actually counterproductive to our success to focus on our exact weight day to day, for a few reasons.

First thing's first - you'll go crazy if you weigh daily. As a Weight Watcher, I'm a big fan of the weekly weigh-in, but I think jumping up on the scale once a week can benefit just about everyone. If you have a scale at home, you may have found (as I have) that it's not easy to avoid it throughout the week, but I promise it's worth it: as soon as your poundage becomes an obsession, you've begun moving away from healthy weight loss towards something a little darker. I think that once weekly is a magical interval - its often enough to keep track of your meaningful progress, and it's a little more removed from the craziness that can happen with our weight day-to-day.

That's another thing I realized about the number on the scale - I'm not sure it's the best representation of our weight from the perspective that we care about. There are lots of factors that can effect our weigh in - what we've eaten, what we're wearing, how much water we've had, what time of day it is, how much salt we've ingested, and whether we've exercised recently, just to name a few. Any or all of these factors and others can cover up a great weight loss, discouraging and disappointing us in the process. If a salty cup of soup can obscure success from the scale, then why place so much stock in it?

On my journey to a thinner me, I've found the scale to be one great way to keep an eye on my progress, but it's only one of many: how my clothes fit, how I look, and how I feel are much more important to me than some number on a dial or a screen.