The Scale + Adura != Friends!

After I reached my goal with Weight Watchers in 2002, I'm glad to say I didn't get obsessed with my weight.

But I'll admit I weighed myself at least once a week. I kept this routine for a few years, even after I took up running in 2005 - this was a very good way for me to maintain my weight.... until I totally changed my training routine.

A little more on my running - I used to run at least 3 times a week for a little over 2 years. To improve on my running, and also to add a little variety to my main form of exercise, I did regular interval training sessions and hill runs. I did no strength training so I wasn't building any significant muscle mass.
I mainted my weight with this routine for a long while until I hit a wall... There was no more improvement in my running, I slowly noticed a gradual increase in my weight almost every week (as proved by my scale). I joined Weight Watchers again to lose a little under a stone (14lbs) and with healthy eating, I was back down to my "healthy" weight.

Due to a lot of things that happened in my personal life, I had many important things on my mind so weighing myself was on the back burner. After a while, I forgot about it and didn't for months.

Later in 2008 I included strength training, at least once a week, to my routine. Then it went up to twice a week... I started attending classes which involved a lot of bodyweight training and the changes in my body were amazing. I finally got the muscle definition I'd seen other women achieve but had seemed unattainable for years. I was so happy until...

I weighed myself - I was 8 pounds heavier!

My clothes fit me better, I knew I looked slimmer but the scale said otherwise. My friends kept reminding me about muscle being heavier than fat, did I listen? Nope... I started eating a little healthier, I stepped on the scale every week but my weight didn't budge! Good thing was it stayed the same so I knew I was definitely doing something right.

After doing a lot of reading, especially for my training course, I finally accepted the obvious fact - Muscle is denser than fat i.e. if you take one pound of fat and one pound of muscle, the muscle will occupy less space than the fat.
In my case - I was gaining muscle from my weight training and I did lose some body fat (probably not enough as I was still at my phase of eating as hard as I trained) => I was slimmer but heavier.

After the unneccessary stress I put myself through because of the d**n scale, I stopped weighing myself!

How do I ensure I maintain my current size? As a fitness professional, I should say - I measure my body fat often, use a tape measure to keep track of my measurements or something along those lines but I don't (haha!)

• I eat healthy from Monday to Friday. Saturday and Sunday I eat almost whatever I want and it all starts again on Monday morning :)
• My "skinny" jeans. Every woman should have a pair of jeans that fit like a second skin, any little sin will mean you'd have a lot of difficulty putting them on ;-)
• And working out often (ofcourse). I train 3-4 times a week, I would do more but I instruct a few classes which are physical enough for me... that's my excuse ;-)

I'm not sending out a message here that you shouldn't weigh yourself, if you have a substantial amount to lose to be at a healthy size - weighing yourself is an easy and very encouraging way to track your progress.

If you are at, or are very close to, a healthy size - try not to be obsessed with your weight. We have enough to worry about as women :)

Photo Credit: www.petsugar.com