The Scale. Help or Hinder? 5 Questions I Ask Before My Weekly Weigh-in

The scale is simply a tool for your weight loss journey, just like your fit tracker, workout bike or anything else, it does not define you. If the scale is an idol for you, throw it away, if you'd like to set a healthy boundary with your scale, here are 5 questions I ask myself before my weekly weigh-in. 

1. What does my scale record? It should give you measurements beyond just your weight. 

2. Did I push harder in my workouts? If the scale doesn't show my progress, my cardiovascular health will.

3. Did I eat enough? Did I follow my macro plan and give my body what she needs?

4. Did I get enough rest? 7-8 hours of sleep before your weekly weigh-in is ideal.

5. WATER. Did I drink 1/2 my weight in ounces this week? Am I hydrated?

These 5 questions will help you tune in to your body in a new way. Of course, prayer above all and seeking God's word is the ONLY way to truly reach and sustain any weight loss goal. Obey the Holy Spirit and you will achieve your Godly goals.

Are you sick of trying diet after diet and NOT losing weight?

Hey there friend, I'm Lindy Schlabach, Christian Fitness & Nutrition Coach. I gained 100 pounds in my late twenties and struggled for years to get it off. Seven years ago, I found a basic system that worked and has helped me lose 90 of those pounds. I’ve been working with women in online fitness and nutrition ever since to break chains of diet culture, embrace their bodies and fueling instead of dieting.

In this podcast, I'll teach you how to:

• • Lose Weight in a Way that honors God without obsessing about the scale
  • Meal Plan and Prep for Your Family
  • Follow a MACRO based plan that allows you to eat the foods you love.
  • Recognize and pray through triggers keeping you stuck.
  • I’ll help you Plan your week and schedule your self-care time.
  • Cultivate a spirit of self-discipline in your workouts you actually enjoy.
  
  It's time to give God your health journey and watch Him make you new, from the inside, OUT.

Join The Biblical Weight Loss Framework: https://bit.ly/JoinTheWeightLossFramework

Join my FREE Community + get a copy of my Free Weight Loss & Routine Guide: www.herweightlossmindset.com

Check out my FREE Nutrition & Fitness Masterclass: https://youtu.be/EqM9jfQMbBA

Transcript

Are you tired of weighing in week after week without seeing progress?

Oh, I know the frustration, seeing that number stay the same or even worse going up, even when you're doing all of the right things.

Today, I'm gonna give you five questions to ask yourself before you step on the scale.

Are you ready?

Grab your pen.

Hey sister, welcome to Her Weight Loss Mindset.

Are you sick of trying diet after diet and not losing weight?

Do you wish you could find easy meal prep ideas for your family so you're not standing in the kitchen yet again, wondering what everyone is going to eat for dinner that's in line with your goals?

Do you spend hours Googling easy workouts but then have no time to do them because your motivation only goes so far?

Hey there friend, I'm Lindy Schlabach, Christian Fitness & Nutrition Coach, encourager and friend.

I gained 100 pounds in my late 20s and struggled for years to get it off.

Seven years ago, I found a basic system that works and has helped me lose over 90 of those pounds.

I've been working with women in online fitness and nutrition ever since.

In this podcast, I'll teach you how to lose weight in a way that honors God without obsessing about the scale.

And meal plan and prep for your family.

And follow a macro based plan that allows you to eat the foods you love while you reach your goals.

It's time to give God your health journey and watch him make you new from the inside out.

You've got this, sister.

Now go grab your pre workout or your third coffee like me.

And let's chat.

I'd like to invite you to the Biblical Weight Loss Framework.

It is a five step proven method that I have created and been working with clients over the past, oh my gosh, seven and a half, almost eight years in online fitness and nutrition.

I take a biblical approach to working through traumas and triggers.

We create a specific for you macro plan, intentional movement plan.

It's just a really good place to connect with the Holy Spirit in a way that you probably haven't before and ask his will and guidance in your weight loss journey.

You can find the link to join us at herweightlossmindset.com.

I have also shared the link in my show notes, so be sure to check that out.

I remember a time when I first started on my weight loss journey, I was logging all the calories, I was exercising five days a week, sometimes doubling up, I would spend three days a week, I was doing lifting classes, I was going to my doctor's about 15 minutes away from my home to weigh in every week, and some days I may lose a half a pound.

I remember a couple of times losing like 1.2 pounds and feeling like I won the jackpot, and there were some times that I hadn't lost anything.

It was just so frustrating to put in all the work and not feel like I was seeing the progress.

One day, I just really felt like I needed to start asking myself a few questions, and they really helped me put things in perspective before I get on the scale.

So I want to encourage you before you step on the scale each week, if this is a tool that you are using, don't weigh in every day, pick one day through the week and you weigh in at the same time.

Before you drink anything, go to the bathroom, hop on the scale.

If that is a tool that is unhealthy for you, throw it in the trash.

This scale is not a determiner of your worth.

You're already enough in Christ.

But I know for me, I like to have that weekly measurement just to see where I'm going.

But these are five questions that I ask myself before I get on the scale.

What is my scale recording?

So I have a Fit Tracker.

I purchased a Hume tracker a few years ago.

I actually have a link to the one that I use.

And it records things like BMI, your water, etc.

It's much more specific deep dive into the actual what's going on in your body, instead of just putting a number there on the scale for you to obsess over.

So if you don't have your own Fit Tracker, I have one on my Amazon list.

Reach out to me.

I can send you the link for that.

But make sure that you are looking at the things that actually matter, and it's not the number on the scale.

We want to make sure that your water, that your protein, that your BMI, these are things that sometimes even BMI isn't necessarily important for you to look at.

It just depends on your medical history.

It depends on your specific workout plan.

I know for women who are really fit, but maybe have a bigger body frame, BMI doesn't read appropriately for them.

So just really putting to prayer, okay, Lord, I'm using this as a tool.

Help me to use it in the way that it's going to honor, allow me to honor you.

So what is your scale record?

That's the first question you're going to ask.

Then the second question is, have you been pushing harder in your workouts?

So a lot of times the scale isn't going to reflect your strength, but this week, were you able to do one more pushup?

Were you able to do a little bit more with your weight training or with your cardiovascular workout?

Are you finding yourself to be less winded?

These are things that will never show in the scale, but they are massive, massive reflections of the work that you're putting in, in your workouts.

So the scale is not going to reflect those, but your cardiovascular health will.

So the third question, did you eat enough?

Did you reach your macro goal for the day?

Why is this important?

Because if you're not properly fueling, you're not going to lose weight.

I know for me, when I was going to the doctor's office and I was seeing, you know,.

5 some days, some days no movement at all, I realized later, once I became a coach, that I was probably about 1,000 to 1,200 calories underfueled.

My body was constantly in starvation mode.

So the average woman weighing 200 pounds need an average of 2,000 calories to lose weight, and that's even if she's not exercising.

So the more weight you have to lose, the more food you need to eat.

And this is why in the Biblical Weight Loss Framework, we start with traumas and triggers in the mindset section, because there are so many fad diets habits and mindsets that we have to break.

Less is not more when it comes to food and weight loss.

How?

Find a macro coach, join the framework.

Let's create a custom for you plan that will help you reach your God given goals.

These are things that society has put into our minds about how we're supposed to diet, we're supposed to eliminate food groups, we're supposed to X, Y, Z.

That is not the case, more food.

Finding the things that are going to help you feel the way you want to feel.

Okay?

The fourth question, did you get enough rest?

If you want to see the skill move, you have got to prioritize your rest.

Seven hours of sleep, that can include a late afternoon nap and a solid six hours of sleep at night.

Listen, my husband and I just brought a baby home, we are in the process of adoption.

I am not getting necessarily straight through sleep.

So I am trying to sneak in like an afternoon nap while she is getting her afternoon nap.

Those count towards your rest.

So just make sure that you are getting good quality rest because that's when our bodies heal.

If you are exercising especially, if you are incorporating a macro plan, you are eating more food, your body is trying to process those things, your body is trying to heal from your workouts, you need more fuel.

Do not, or you need more rest.

Do not be afraid to rest.

You have to prioritize.

It's time to put our phones down.

Understand that social media is not serving us at all.

It's stealing our time.

The blue light is preventing us from getting good restful sleep.

It's time to read a book, get your Bible out.

I just bought a book, The 40 Day Sugar Fast.

Start putting something in your heart that is going to feed you and fuel you, and start asking God to give you Holy Spirit conviction, to lay the phone down and just rest in Him.

You can Sabbath every single day of the week.

I think that is key, and it is especially going to help you when you get on that weekly weigh-in at the scale.

So the fifth question, how much water are you drinking?

Water flushes the toxins, rehydrates our body.

This is key if you want to lose weight.

You need to drink half your body weight in ounces every single day.

I know this is like, and it doesn't really make sense to me, I would love to talk to an anatomy teacher.

So if our bodies are made up of what, like 90% water?

So when you start to feel dehydrated, like when you start to feel thirsty, you're already dehydrated.

So if you're not drinking half your weight in ounces of water every single day, your body's going to retain the water that's actually in there, but it's holding toxins and it needs to come out.

So if you're not putting fresh water in there to flush out the toxins, you're going to hold on to that water in your body that's holding on to toxins.

So you're not going to drop the weight if you're not drinking half your weight in ounces.

And for some of us, like drinking half of my weight in ounces when I was 250 pounds, that would have been really hard for me to start because I was not a water drinker back then.

Now half that is like my daily normal.

So one thing I would suggest is before you even have a first sip of coffee in the morning, start with 16 ounces of water every single day because your body's going to start to crave that.

It's going to start to look forward to that.

And what you put in, it's going to want, like it's going to want that goodness.

Every morning before I take one sip of coffee, I drink 32 ounces of water.

It's a natural detox.

It wakes up my body.

It tells me, hey, I'm here.

Let's get the day started.

And it's going to flush out those toxins from my day before, from overnight, what my body processed and healed through.

And so drinking those first, start with 16 ounces, first thing, that is going to make a huge difference before you get on the scale.

So again, what are we going to do?

We're going to ask ourselves five questions.

What kind of a scale are we using?

What kind of numbers is it actually recording?

Is it just recording your weight?

Because if so, invest in a smart scale.

It's time to start seeing ourselves beyond the numbers.

Okay?

Did you push harder in your workouts?

That's the second question.

Did you eat enough?

Are you following that macro based plan?

And did you get enough rest?

And did you drink enough water?

These are tips that are going to help you every week before you get on the scale.

And ask yourself this.

Did I honor God with my choices this week?

Did I align my goals with him?

Did I touch base with God every single day and seek his will above my own for my meal plan, for my movement, for my rest, for the way I spend my time, for how I hydrate, fuel, and speak to my body?

Because when we start to operate in a Holy Spirit led manner, instead of focusing on the scale, we are going to, we're just going to be in such a better headspace because we realize that we're not a number.

There was a time where I just wouldn't weigh myself because I knew I had gained like 20 pounds after my now husband and I got together.

One day he was like, you weigh what you weigh, just get on the scale and then you know.

So then I had a starting point and I could start fresh.

Every week, I would say to myself, I am not a number on the scale.

I am simply stepping on here to monitor my progress.

It still didn't define me if I gained or if I didn't lose anything, it didn't matter, but at least I knew.

So we're not giving the power scale, the power to our scale.

The scale is not allowed to become an idol in our lives.

It's simply a tool, just like your fit watch, just like your workout, it's a tool.

So if it's a tool that doesn't work for you, that's okay, put it away.

Have a measuring tool for yourself.

Maybe it's measuring inches, maybe it's taking pictures.

There are lots of different ways to measure progress.

Prayerfully discern what works best for you, where God is leading you, and you will always win.

I hope this blessed you.

Hey, sweets, I hope you enjoyed today's episode.

If so, would you take 30 seconds and share it with a friend who may also want to lose weight without all the dieting and restriction?

Also, please leave a quick review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

It lights me up to know this podcast is helping you.

Okay, it's time to go make a protein shake and get my sweat on.

No more standing in the kitchen waiting for motivation to appear.

I'll meet you back next week for another episode.

Be blessed!