Scale woes

I used to weigh myself every morning.  It was a habit and one that usually ended in me being overjoyed or really let down.  After many years of this roller coaster, I decided to weigh myself once a week.  Not only that…I’d weigh myself on MONDAYS.  After the dreaded weekend.  I figured this would help keep me in check on Saturday & Sunday.

Today is Monday and I was really excited to jump on the scale.  After all the running I’ve been doing AND the strength training AND clean eating, I was confident that the number on the scale would reflect my hard work.

You know where this is going, don’t you?

Yep – I gained weight.  About 5 pounds over 2 weeks to be exact.  As I stood on that scale scratching my head, I gave myself the pep talk I give so many of my customers.  I know I’ve been building muscle because I FEEL so much stronger.  Now, I know that muscle does not weigh more than fat (1 lb of muscle weighs the same as 1 lb of fat), but I’m ready for that muscle to start burning the fat, darn it! My clothes fit just fine and I feel healthy.  We’ve been conditioned all our lives to give that number on the scale so much meaning.  Sure it’s important and is a good benchmark to measure your progress, BUT it’s only one component of a healthy body.

This coming week, I will be researching where I can go to get a hydrostatic body fat test done (where they dunk you in water).  I need to know where I’m starting from since one of my big goals for 2012 is to decrease my body fat by 50%. I also am going to be more religious about wearing my Bodybugg to figure out how many calories I’m burning per day.  I generally burn less calories running than I do with Insanity or TurboFire, which may be why I’m seeing a weight gain as well.

Happy Monday!  Have a healthy week!  Eat well, move daily, stay positive!

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