Thinking Differently About the Plateau...

In a recent post I complained that the effort I had put into exercise hadn't been generating the gains that I was hoping for. The scale wasn't telling me the numbers that I expected, and I was irritated by that fact. Over the last weeks, I have taken a different view of my progress. A view that probably makes more sense then the readout on a digital scale.
 
I've probably already explained why I started exercising, but in case you missed it...I started exercising because I quit smoking, and because I realized that I had hit certain age milestones.

As it turns out, I quit smoking without adding food as  a subliminal smoking replacement. Which is great, and played perfectly into the second reason I started. General health and weight loss.

So I started this process with a goal. I was going to be a certain weight. My Fitbit offered to monitor and provide status on weight as a fitness goal. Now I had targets and tracking tools. My plan was coming together.

When M. and I acquired the Fitbit scale I was thrilled. This device would continually inform me of my progress. What's not to love? Technology was going to help me keep on track and motivate me to meet my goals. The scale would be the ultimate judge of my success.

Wrong.

As it turned out, the scale was anything but motivational. The scale turned out to be practically sysiphusian. What was the point of all of this effort if the numbers never moved. It was downright disheartening.

That's when I began to notice something... Some change comes so gradually that you don't see it. It's like the tale of the frog in the kettle.

...That a frog will immediately jump out of a kettle of boiling water, but if the if the water is warmed slowly enough the frog won't jump out. And yes... I know it just an old cautionary tale and not true, but the message works...

I didn't notice, that while I was fretting over numbers, that other less obvious changes were occurring. That my mirrors were telling me a different story than my scale. I may not have been losing mass, but clearly I had been redistributing and transforming it. I can see the changes, and I can certainly feel them. What was frustration has become motivation.

The scale will be allowed to stay, but its role has been changed.

- ND