The scale is giving you information. It isn't giving you a grade.
- I was 189 one day and 190 the next, on the last day of my period with a tight wedding ring.
- A one pound change overnight isn't a failure, and it doesn't erase the week before.
- I'm done chasing one great week. I want small changes I can live with, and enough time to see if they work.
190.
That's what the scale said on a Sunday morning in September. The day before, it said 189. So yes, if I'm being honest, I would have liked to see 189 again.
But I wasn't mad about 190. And a year ago, I would have been.
If you weigh yourself often, you know exactly the feeling I'm talking about. You see a number go up by a pound and your brain immediately starts building a case against you. What did I eat? Was it the dinner out? Did I mess everything up?
So let's talk about that, because I think it's one of the biggest things that keeps us stuck.
What was actually going on that morning
It was the very last day of my period. And I could tell I was holding on to some water. My wedding ring was tight, and it normally isn't. That's one of those little clues I've learned to pay attention to. When my ring is tight, the scale is probably not giving me the whole picture.
That doesn't mean I ignore the number. It means I put it in context.
If you want to know more about how my cycle messes with the scale (and why I don't panic about it anymore), I wrote a whole post here: your period doesn't get the final say.
So I decided to let 190 be 190. I wrote it down. And I moved on with my day.
The number I was actually watching
Here's what mattered more to me than the difference between 189 and 190: I was still down from where I started when I began tracking my food again a couple of weeks before.
That's the number that tells me whether what I'm doing is working. Not one morning. The direction over a few weeks.
When you weigh in a lot, it's so easy to treat every single morning like a test you either pass or fail. But your body isn't a report card. It's holding water, digesting food, recovering from workouts, reacting to sleep and stress and hormones. A pound up overnight isn't fat. It's just a body being a body.
If this is something you struggle with, my post on standing too close to the scale walks through exactly how I zoom out now.
Why one number feels so loud
I think a lot of us learned to weigh in like it's a verdict. Good number, good person. Bad number, start over Monday.
And when you've been trying to lose weight for a long time, every number carries extra weight (no pun intended). It's not just 190. It's every time you tried before. It's the fear that this is the moment it stops working. It's the voice that says you knew this would happen.
That's a lot to put on one morning.
So here's what I try to do now when the number goes up:
- Ask what's going on in my body. Period? Salty dinner? Bad sleep? Hard workout? Usually there's an answer.
- Look at the last two or three weeks. Is the general direction still okay? Then one morning doesn't change anything.
- Write it down and leave it. I don't need to fix it today. I just need to keep going.
- Notice the non-scale stuff. How my clothes fit, my energy, whether I'm sticking with my habits.
I'm done chasing one perfect week
This is the bigger thing I've been thinking about.
I'm not interested anymore in having one really great week followed by a week where I completely fall apart because I couldn't keep up whatever extreme thing I was doing.
I've lived that cycle. Super strict for five days, see a big drop, feel amazing, then life gets busy and it all falls apart. Then I spend two weeks trying to get back to where I was, and I'm right back to feeling behind.
What I want now is different. I want to make small changes I can actually live with, and then give them enough time to tell me something. A week isn't always enough time. Sometimes it's three or four.
I wrote more about this in staying is the hard part, because honestly, it is. Starting is exciting. Staying is where the real work is.
What I'm changing this week
I'm not overhauling anything. That's kind of the whole point.
I'm making a few small shifts. Nothing dramatic. Just a little more awareness around a couple of things I know matter for me. And I'm going to give it a real week before I decide whether it's working.
The biggest one is about movement. Not a big new workout plan. Just figuring out how to actually fit my workouts into a normal week, the one I'm really living, with work and kids and everything else.
I'll share the details inside Girl Code Daily, but the idea is simple: change the circumstances a little, then watch what my body does with it.
What counted that week
When I looked back at the week, here's what I actually saw. I tracked most days, even the ones that weren't pretty. I ate foods I liked and didn't feel deprived. I moved my body more than the week before. And I didn't spiral over one number.
None of that shows up as a pound on the scale. But all of it is the stuff that makes the scale move eventually. That's the part I want you to start counting too, because if the only win you count is a lower number, you're going to feel like you're losing most weeks, even when you're not.
If you're staring at the scale right now
If you stepped on the scale today and the number went up, I want you to hear this: one morning doesn't get to decide how you feel about your whole week.
Write it down if you want. Look at the bigger picture. Then go live your day.
And if you're having one of those days where it all feels like too much, it still counts to just check in. I wrote about that here: check in, even on the bad days.
If you want help keeping your food simple while you're figuring this out, that's what Picky Girl HQ is for. It plans your week around foods you already like and keeps track of your weigh-ins and wins (with the GLP-1 Hub, the scale is always optional). You can see it right here. It's $57 on its own, or included with a yearly Girl Code Daily membership.
The rest of this weigh-in
The full Sunday Weigh In lives inside Girl Code Daily. Here's what's in it:
- The small changes I'm making this week, and why "a little more aware" is the goal.
- How I'm trying to get three workouts into a normal week, not a perfect one.
- Why I'm building this inside the life I already have, instead of waiting for an easier season.
- What I'm watching for by next Sunday, and how I'll know if it worked.
Yearly members also get Picky Girl HQ and the GLP-1 Hub included.
So tell me: what did the scale say this morning, and are you letting it grade you? Come tell me over on Girl Code Daily.
Quick note: I'm not a doctor. This is my personal experience, not medical advice. Talk to your provider about anything related to your medication, your dose, or your health.
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