Happy Monday, I had a wonderful weekend with my family and am safely back home now! To start the week off I thought a guest post would be fun. I actually did my first and only guest post on Kayla’s blog back in early February and I wanted to introduce you guys : ) She is pretty spectacular and a total fitness inspiration to me. Well with out further ado I will pass the mic over to Kayla!
Hi everyone!
I’m Kayla, blogger from Variety by Vashti! I’m so blessed to have this opportunity and want to thank the wonderful Megan for allowing me to connect with all of you!
I have been following her blog for a while now and admire her passion for running. I am soooo not a runner. I have found my soul mate workout in volleyball, heavy strength training and TurboFire. About a year and a half ago, I became a Beachbody Coach so that I could help other people become healthier since I had recently lost 18 pounds by changing my nutrition and exercising regularly.
I also started my blog as a way to hold myself accountable and create a “journal” for my progress. I love to post about anything from food, crafts, and now…pregnancy! This is where I met Megan!
I love to surround myself with other bloggers for an extra PUSH and Megan always has good advice for us to stay on track. Her ideas are always so great that when she asked me what I would like to share, I was challenged with finding something not pregnancy related and worthwhile. I finally had an “A-HA!” moment!
As a Beachbody coach, I host challenges for people who are in search of a healthier lifestyle. One of the first things we talk about is goals; weight loss is almost always an area of focus. Any magazine you pick up, commercial you watch, or ad banner online has some sort of headline on how to lose weight once and for all. While it is important for you to maintain a healthy weight, many people obsesses over the numbers on the scale when they aren’t dropping as quickly as hoped. There are many ways you can troubleshoot when the scale isn’t budging and determine what a healthy weight loss number is but there is one thing you must do first. Break up with your scale.
Friend or foe
Focusing on the scale can be really deceiving for a few reasons. You might be gaining weight because you are putting on muscle mass and/or losing fat at the same time. Just take a look at the density of muscle versus fat. One pound of muscle is so much smaller than one pound of fat, so remember that you might be toning and getting a lean figure even though your weight stays the same or increases.
Source: Bamboocorefitness.com
Water, Aunt Flow, time of day, different scales, etc can make your number fluctuate. This is normal. The problem is that if you are weighing yourself daily or weekly, you see all the little ups and downs versus an average. Just look at what my weight was like this week.
What to do instead
- Weigh yourself and take pictures every 30 days. This will give you a good average and you will see changes in your pictures that the scale might not accurately reflect. Here is an example of my own weight with pictures as well as one from online. (Of course, I look nothing like that currently… baby bump is in full swing!)
- Measure your inches or BMI- by measuring your progress in other ways, you can pin point exactly what is going on in your body. Remember, that muscle is going to take up less space than the wretched fat!
Pay attention to how you feel inside and how your clothes fit. Ultimately, if you are feeling great, sleeping well at night, have energy, get sick less often, and your clothes fit better then you are on your way to the best version of you!
I hope these simple tips help as you work toward a healthier life! Thanks for allowing me to be a part of your journey!
-Kayla
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Great post, Kayla! Thanks so much for sharing! I think I find it hard to break away from the scale because it’s sort of a lazy person’s way to measure where I am at. But, as you point out, it’s not really a good measurement anyway. It’s time to kick my laziness to the curb!
I’m totally with you on that. I love the small victories of the scale and have actually measured myself recently but it is such a hassle haha, the scale is so easy!
Awesome post, thank you for sharing! It fall victim to the scale way too often & it should not be anyone’s source of measurements! It does not define me as a person, as an overall way to track things, it’s fine. I do enjoy going by how clothes fit, that tells me a lot 🙂
Hows clothes fit is definitely my favorite measurement tool! If my scale wanted to tell me I weighed 300lbs but my jeans were falling off I’d be totally fine with that!
You are very welcome! I certainly don’t think the scale is evil, but some people get really stuck on what it says. Especially after a large amount of weight lost, it can be hard to stop looking at the numbers and start to see the shape of your body changing. I know I used to be scared of the numbers going up because I associated it with “fat.” Not the always the case! Keep up the hard work!
WOW those photos are amazing!! What a difference and with MORE weight. YUP I need to ditch the scale and hit the weights!
That was an awesome guest post! You are Megan are two inspirational bloggers! I definitely need to figure out how to get abs like you (need some help!) and I LOVE the idea of posting an inspirational note on the scale to keep things in perspective!
Isn’t she great!!
Awesome post! Love the picture idea… definitely a better motivator than the scale! Thanks for sharing!