Week 11 The Scale

I get why people give up. Running, Capoeira, training with Fitness on the Go…. I’m friggin working hard here people! Tina took my measurements before today’s session. One was less than desirable for my expectations I am very happy with the rest of my results, but this 1 lingered on my mind. Could I have thrown in the towel, took of my runners, grabbed a big bag of Nachos and sat watching cartoons all morning? Yes… but did I? Hell NO! No way am I going to let 1 measurement throw all this hard work out the window. This is not a battle of me and my scale. If it were, the scale would have been the heavy weight champion and I would be in a scorpion death lock screaming uncle.


If I were to measure my success on this 1 aspect of my fitness goals alone, then I would be thinking all this hard work it not worth it, and give up. But this is so much more than the weight. I know my body is improving, I can feel the difference every week. My bra feels bigger (not sure if that is good or bad), I want to wear shirts that show off my arms and I can’t wait for summer. I can run further, do more leg lifts and abdominal work than I have ever done before. So why hasn’t my weight moved? Who cares I tell you. Who cares?! If I was doing this all on my own, with no support, no validation and no pounds coming off the scale I would be peeved, frustrated and depressed. Tina is there to talk me through it, help me see the improvements and tell me why it is so important not to base all my motivation on the pounds.

I also have it in my mind that because I am exercising that I MUST do more than I did last time. I must run further, I must increase the number of reps and I must speed up my time. This isn’t always reasonable. It doesn’t make sense and if I were to do more every time, then soon I’ll be training for 3 hours 6x a week. My exercise is supposed to be fitting into my life, not taking it over.

As Tina and I were jogging uphill last week she suggested something ‘fun’. I nearly died of laughter but couldn’t even laugh because I was already out of breath. She said ‘you know what’s really fun Michelle? Try sprints between running and walking.’

Oh, yah, fun.

Real fun Tina.

But you know what? We tried it. Remember running as a child? Running like your Dad was a monster coming to get you? Running because you were late for dinner? Running because you just hit your brother and he was going to get you back? This is what I felt like. Running so fast that my legs were going faster than my body, and in the end they might just fall off. It was fun and I did it on my own this week. I got rid of all my inhibitions and didn’t care what I looked to all the cars driving by. I darted from one street light to the next as fast as I could, took it down to a jog and walked it out till my heart rate came down. Then I did it all over again.

I did this until I couldn’t do it anymore. I didn’t measure my time, I didn’t measure my distance and I know this exercise will improve my overall condition and keep my body in constant state of waiting to take off. I can achieve many benefits by integrating this short exercise into my week instead of increasing my distance and time.

Every week I worry about what I am going to write about, and every week I have another realization. My lesson then becomes so easy to share. This week I’ve realized I can’t give up because something is not what I expect. I’ve got to measure my life in balance, pleasure and progress instead of measuring distance, amount and pounds.