Why Life Can't be Measured According to a Number on a Scale
Have you ever felt like throwing your scale across the room?
With summer now upon us, along with fears of fitting into last year's bathing suit, scales that may have been hidden during colder months are suddenly being dusted off and carefully monitored.
In my book, Keeper of the Scale, three friends and diet buddies relegate their "weigh-ins" to once a week. Between their weekly check-in they are not allowed to step on a scale. (Or see one another--but that's another story!)
In real life, I think scale usage should be even less. Otherwise we can drive ourselves crazy, allowing a number on a scale to dictate how we feel. I once vowed never to step on a scale again, but have come to realize that that isn't realistic either. We can step on a scale, but it's not worth obsessing over the number it reveals.
A writer friend of mine once pointed out that he thought the three main characters in my book were really all one in the same, just at different stages of their lives. The one thing they all had in common, at every age, was a driving ambition to lose weight. Thinking that being thin would make their life perfect. Would make all their problems go away.
Because women of all life stages feel the societal pressure to be thin, it is ageless. When my friend shared his thoughts about my characters being one and the same, I instantly went into denial mode. Of course they are different people, I insisted.
On later reflection, I realized that I had written short stories about each of the women at different stages of my own life, long before I decided to tie them together in a novel. I still think of them as three unique individuals, but they do represent distinct life stages.
And they fit into different book categories as well, from mom-lit, to new adult, to middle age-lit (OK, the first two women's fiction categories are real, the middle age one I made up, but, hey, there should be more contemporary fiction about middle aged women!)
Dieting is the thing that initially binds these three unlikely pals, women of different ages and life stages, and drew them to one another. So, in that respect, for them at least, the scale wasn't all bad.
But for most of us, I believe, taking a break from the scale every now and then wouldn't be such a bad thing. Because life cant be measured according to a number on a scale...
With summer now upon us, along with fears of fitting into last year's bathing suit, scales that may have been hidden during colder months are suddenly being dusted off and carefully monitored.
In my book, Keeper of the Scale, three friends and diet buddies relegate their "weigh-ins" to once a week. Between their weekly check-in they are not allowed to step on a scale. (Or see one another--but that's another story!)
In real life, I think scale usage should be even less. Otherwise we can drive ourselves crazy, allowing a number on a scale to dictate how we feel. I once vowed never to step on a scale again, but have come to realize that that isn't realistic either. We can step on a scale, but it's not worth obsessing over the number it reveals.
A writer friend of mine once pointed out that he thought the three main characters in my book were really all one in the same, just at different stages of their lives. The one thing they all had in common, at every age, was a driving ambition to lose weight. Thinking that being thin would make their life perfect. Would make all their problems go away.
Because women of all life stages feel the societal pressure to be thin, it is ageless. When my friend shared his thoughts about my characters being one and the same, I instantly went into denial mode. Of course they are different people, I insisted.
On later reflection, I realized that I had written short stories about each of the women at different stages of my own life, long before I decided to tie them together in a novel. I still think of them as three unique individuals, but they do represent distinct life stages.
And they fit into different book categories as well, from mom-lit, to new adult, to middle age-lit (OK, the first two women's fiction categories are real, the middle age one I made up, but, hey, there should be more contemporary fiction about middle aged women!)
Dieting is the thing that initially binds these three unlikely pals, women of different ages and life stages, and drew them to one another. So, in that respect, for them at least, the scale wasn't all bad.
But for most of us, I believe, taking a break from the scale every now and then wouldn't be such a bad thing. Because life cant be measured according to a number on a scale...
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