I am going to come to you with a real, real moment. This Easter, I woke up and was feeling really down about myself. I don’t normally share these things.
I try to stick to the positive. But there will be days, even when you’re maintaining a large weight loss, when you will wake up and see your wrinkly, saggy skin from all the weight loss.
You will see stretch marks or your deflated breasts from breastfeeding three children and losing 170 pounds. You will feel down about yourself; that’s going to happen.
I find that it helps to approach the day from a thankful place. I’ve really worked on body acceptance, and that’s helped. I still have those thoughts. I woke up on Easter feeling that way, and then, as I was getting dressed, I pulled out a dress that I hadn’t worn since the Easter before or even the one before that. I put it on and it zipped right up.
I had a moment of clarity.
Half Size Me Community members often ask, how do you stay motivated when the scale isn’t moving? In that moment, I realized no change is change. The fact that I’m going on four years of maintaining a 170-pound weight loss — that, in and of itself, is change.
When we wake up with those negative thoughts about our bodies, we want to change something. A lot of times we turn to diet, weight loss, more extreme things like that. I had that moment of clarity where I realized this is a change, but we don’t often see it that way. We see it as everything being stagnant, everything being status quo.
When you step on the scale and don’t see a change, I urge you to change your thinking about it. Think of it as practice for maintenance. In maintenance, there is no change. You get up and do all the things you’re doing right now for no change on the scale.
I wake up and go to the gym at 5:00 in the morning for me, for my health, to improve what I can do. It’s not about seeing the number on the scale change. How many of us have kept weight off for more than three years? I never could do that before. That, in and of itself, is change.
Maybe we should stop always looking at the numbers on the scale, or the tape measure, or whatever, and start looking at ourselves for the change. Are you currently doing things you never did before consistently? Drinking water, eating well, exercising? If you’re doing it consistently, and you’ve never done that before, that’s change. Try looking at other aspects of your life for that change.
Then, when you wake up with those body issues — which we all do — remind yourself of everything your body’s been through. Always start from a place of gratitude. What are you thankful for that your body provides you every day?
It clicked for me on Easter. It all culminated with the fact that this dress I hadn’t worn in two years fit, zipped up, no problems. All I was seeing were the things I didn’t like about my body in that moment. I wasn’t seeing the change in my life that has been going on all this time, which from the outside perspective looks stagnant, but really it’s not.
If you maintained your weight this week, awesome on you; that’s practice for maintenance. One day you’re going to be maintaining that weight loss for the long term, and nothing will change other than the fact that you’re maintaining that weight loss.
Comment below or on Facebook and share things about yourself or your journey that you’re thankful for even when the scale stays the same.