Your Bathroom Scale: Friend or Foe?
For many people, the only time they get on a scale is during their annual doctor’s visit—and only because they’re made to. Even then, I’ve watched as patients tend to divert their gaze with apprehension as the nurse proceeds to slide the metal bar back and forth to come to the “grand total”.
For those who do not like what they see, year after year, the scale has become your foe—something to be avoided at all costs. But there’s a price to be paid for rarely darkening the dials of a scale. Gradual, continual weight gain is scientifically proven to be a health stealer. By staying in the dark the whole year through about how much you actually weigh, you are unable to bring into check escalating weight gain before it really begins to build. Then, when you do find out your body weight at the time of your physical, you are overwhelmed with shock, regret and discouragement.
I am all for disease prevention—if you haven’t figured that out by now. And in order to prevent illness and preserve health, you and I need to do our best keeping tabs on our “health markers”. Annual blood work, checkups and twice weekly weigh-ins are key to keeping your body in a breeding ground, if you would, for health and longevity.
So, please, make friends with your former enemy, the scale. It’s merely a truth telling machine—reflecting back to you the result of the lifestyle choices you’ve made recently, good or bad. Begin to think of it as a well-meaning warning system, much like a hurricane or tornado alert you might get on your phone. The knowledge it gives you can be step one in saving your life from a disastrous storm of disease.
Today, it’s time to get honest with yourself. Walk to wherever your scale is stashed and place it down on a solid surfaced floor. Strip down to your birthday suit and step up on it. Now open your eyes and look down. Take that number back to the computer with you and follow this link to my BMI calculator: http://lisamorrone.com/index.php/free-resources/bmi-calculator/ .
Allow this information to either be a wake up call for calculated action moving forward or a well-deserved pat on the back for being safely “in the zone” of a predictably health body mass index.