Freedom From Numbers

How would it feel to go for a walk without tracking steps? What about ditching the bathroom scale? It’s true that tracking the metrics of exercise and weight can feel motivating at first, but for most of us the numbers eventually become more like the shame police scolding us for what we’re doing wrong, and who wants that?

Intuitive eating cultivates an inner voice that reminds us to connect with what’s more important to us than the size of our bodies. It teaches us to be compassionate toward ourselves whether or not we exercise or eat in a way diet culture deems “good.”

If ditching your scale and fitness tracking device sounds too radical, try these two simple exercises.

1. If you regularly weigh yourself, notice how you feel before and after you step on a scale. Most of my clients tell me, Not good. Even if the scale hits the desired “target range,” the fear that the number could go up is always lurking. 

2. Take a vacation from a fitness tracking device one day this week and notice how your body feels before, during and after you exercise. Does your workout give you more energy or does it deplete you? Do you enjoy it?

With practice, the joy of NOT focusing on the numbers overcomes the impulse to control the numbers and that is mentally and emotionally freeing.

Dieting and diet culture wouldn’t make sense if we simply accepted that people come in all different sizes.

Virgie Tovar