Attention Scale Addicts, part 2

Latest blog post from Jason Seib of Primitive Stimulus!

Brace yourself. I’m coming at you with all guns blazing on this one and you aren’t going to believe what you’re about to see. First things first, if you haven’t read my diatribe condemning your bathroom scale, please begin there.

Alright, now that you are caught up, let’s revisit Deb from my last post. Deb has been kind enough to let me exploit her for your education on these here interwebs and I am very grateful. Showing the world where she started isn’t easy, but she is a kind person who wants to help you and she has accomplished some remarkable things in her health and fitness.

So here is Deb at the beginning of a contest we held at my gym in January of last year.

Here she is at a size zero with her nutrition dialed. For the full effect of this picture, place your thumb on your screen directly over the ugly guy on the right.

And here she is a couple of weeks ago after a lot of hard work that has dramatically increased her fitness capacity. I didn’t actually intend for this post to be all about Deb’s accomplishments, so I won’t repeat her numbers here. Suffice it to say, my money would be on Deb versus the average American girl half her age in a contest of any exercise I have ever convinced her to perform. Now for the really good part.

I spent my entire career waiting patiently for the right situation that would produce the picture below.

Now that you are done staring in amazement, eyes darting back and forth between the two Debs and down to “155lbs” to make sure you read it right, let this information really sink in. Let it change your perspective to something healthier. Forever!

Now go throw away your scale.

Faced with the facts above, basing your goals – or even worse, your happiness – on the number on your scale is absolutely ridiculous. I’ll give you an example of why weight is useless information in all but extreme cases. Let’s pretend Deb came to me at a weight of 200 lbs and told me she wanted to get down to 155 lbs. Which side of the picture above do you think she would prefer? Do you think she would have been satisfied with the left side? Look at her face. She is ecstatic with her body on the right, but on the left she can hardly stand to have her picture taken. We can glean from this that goals based on weight are too vague to be useful. If I had only given you her circumference measurements (waist, hips, thighs, bust, etc.) and no photos, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind which 155 lb Deb you would have chosen as the more aesthetically appealing. But when you look in the mirror and see a body like the Deb on the left you probably say, “Damn, I need to lose some weight.” Now you have undeniable evidence that defies that thought. Losing weight is not what you want and pursuing a number on your scale is not the path to success. It will drive you insane, though. But that’s probably not your goal.

Change your perspective to something healthier. Forever!

For those of you that may be having a hard time believing how all this can possibly be true, click here and hit Deb up on Facebook. She will be happy to befriend you and answer your questions, but please be reasonable. She has not volunteered to coach you, just to be your motivation.