some thoughts on weight

I thought of this after I heard myself, and a few others, complaining about being stuck at a certain weight. I'm beginning to think weight is just an indicator. It’s an important one, and it’s the one that usually gets us in the door, but it’s just one indicator.

I think that’s why the WW folks go on so about movement, healthy eating, healthy choices generally, and the like. I think we can be doing ALL THE RIGHT STUFF… and the weight may not go down (or may even go up!). So it’s important not to ONLY look at the weight (although it’s important not to ignore it).

This post has been percolating for a few weeks, and when I first started to think about it, I thought of the following story: Suppose you come upon the magic WW lantern. It’s blue, green, and purple, with the WW logo on the side. You polish it up for a minute to get the dust off, and WHOOOOSH! Out pops the genie, with the easy humor, blonde hair, and fashionable accessories; she looks just like my WW coach.

“Wow!” she says. “Good thing I’ve been in WW for all these years, or that space would have been even MORE cramped than it was! Look at this outfit; I’ll NEVER get these creases out!

“OK, listen. Here’s how it works: I can give you one of two wishes. I can make it all work for you. You’ll feel better, you’ll fit into all your clothes, you’ll be able to keep up with any activity, you’ll even be able to tire out your grandkids! And you’ll look great. You’ll be thin, healthy looking, in shape… wait; healthy LOOKING, did I say? Better than that; you’ll be HEALTHY! You’ll be off your meds, your doctor will be shaking his (or her) head about how great you’re doing. And you’ll have a long life, and when it’s time to die, you’ll have a quick, relatively painless death.

“Only one thing: if you get on the scale, you’re gonna weigh MORE than the weight when you started WW. It will only show on the scale; you’ll have all the energy and other good stuff you want, and you’ll be thin and strong, but your weight won’t line up with how you look and act. The scale will still show that high number.

“You other option is this: you get to be any weight you want. That’s what the scale will show. But you’ll be tired, in pain, out of breath; you’ll have low energy, you’ll look like your “before” pictures and worse. But the scale will show any number you like.

“So? Which is it? Which one are you going to choose?”

Now, given that choice, who would go for the weight? To me, the important stuff is the way I feel, what I can do, what my health is like. So within reason, I need to let go of what the scale says. I can’t ignore it entirely (because it IS an important indicator, like the gas gauge on the car), but I shouldn’t use it as the sole indicator – just like I shouldn’t try to manage the gas level in the car by gluing the gas gauge needle in place.

I work in addiction and mental health, and we have a name for folks who obsess solely on weight and trying to keep it off. They’re called anorectics; they have a condition called Anorexia Nervosa. Despite the fashion magazines, it’s not pretty. It can be fatal.

So I’m letting go of obsessing on the number, and I’m trying to remember all of the other factors that tell me how healthy I am and how I’m doing. Well, I’m trying to let go, anyway.