Opinion: The Numbers Game

Read this article if you meet any of the following criteria:

You've gone on/are on a diet
You've lost/are trying to lose weight
You use a set of bathroom scales

I'll take a wild guess and say that's most women.

Here's a great piece of advice you might not want to hear: get off the damn scales and forget how much you weigh.

I don't understand why people torment themselves on a daily basis by letting a number on a machine the size of a dinner plate dictate how they feel about themselves on that particular day. So what if you've gained 100 grams overnight - your knickers are no longer cutting into your hip flesh and your body con dress no longer makes you look like an over-filled sausage!

Hell, I've gained an entire kilo overnight, but that's not going to make me panic that I've miraculously put on a kilo of that blasphemous word...FAT (gasp, shock horror etc)! It's not even possible, folks.

I agree that having a goal, a realistic goal, is a great motivator when you're making changes in your lifestyle to improve your health and/or self-esteem. That's why my goals look a little like this:

Increase the weights I lift each week
Drop a dress size
Feel confident in a bikini

Instead of being depressed that you've only lost a few hundred grams in a week, or even put weight on (building lean mass, ladies), forget what a battery-operated mood-buster is telling you and find things you can celebrate instead. Maybe you don't have to jump around your bedroom to get your jeans on anymore, maybe you need to use the next set of hooks on your bra, maybe you no longer stick your head forward in photos to avoid the disastrous double chin.

Here's some food for thought - these women are all 69kg (154lbs). Everyone carries weight differently, and you are not an exception to the rule.