Taco'bout it Tuesday: Does the scale lie?

I'm writing this post on the heels of publishing my previous post about "right sizing" my body.  I'm not going to hit publish on this post yet, because I want it to marinate for a week or so and see if anything changes.

I know I shouldn't, but I can't stop stressing about the number I see on the scale each morning.  For seven straight days while I was doing the BLE 14 day challenge, the number went down or stayed exactly the same, to the decimal point.  For the seven days after I finished the 14dc here's what happened:


day 1) up 0.6
day 2) up 0.4
day 3) down 0.8
day 4) down 0.2
day 5) up 0.8
day 6) down 1.0
day 7) down 0.8

This represents a mere one pound loss in the last 7 days. I swear on all that is good and holy that I have not been blurring my bright lines: no sugar, no flour, no snacking between meals, and eating only what I have planned. I was hoping to average a 2 lb loss each week, which seems a little low, but I'm trying to manage expectations, so 1 pound in 7 days is.... frustrating, pathetic, not worth it, disappointing, all of the above.

I've been reading all sorts of articles about what might be happening physiologically, but none of it is satisfying.  Everything I read tells me to keep at it, the weight loss will come.  The articles urge that even though the weight isn't changing, I'm probably losing body fat, which is the goal, but there's no easy way for me to assess that right now, other than weighing myself.

These same articles encourage readers who are frustrated with the scale to assess weight loss using different bench marks, for example taking measurements or progress photos or assessing progress at the gym. Given my back issues, I can't really use the gym bench mark, but I have noticed that I can hold a plank longer and stronger than before at Yoga, so there's that.  I've never been a fan of taking measurements, it seems like a tedious task, but I think I have to try it.  Tomorrow morning I'm going to measure each of my thighs (top and bottom), hips, waist and chest, and I'll commit to doing that once a week. Hopefully I'll see some progress there if the scale still isn't moving.

On a final note... I will sign off with a bit of positivity:  Though I've been frustrated with the fluctuation on the scale, I will say that some of my pants are fitting better.  I slid into a pair of pants this morning that late last year I couldn't button, so for now, I will take that non-scale victory. 💖