Happy January Wellness Warriors! Let’s leave the madness of 2020 behind and start off strong shall we? In that vein, I want to chat today about non-scale, non-vanity related victories. These are actually some of the most important, yet under celebrated health and wellness milestones one can have.
Yes, I am totally serious, too. I have worked in the health and fitness world for a hot minute hour now and I know what the first week of January means. It means dramatic weight loss goals and promises of working out every single day. It means looking in the mirror and disparaging holiday weight gain. This year it probably means negative self talk about missed opportunities during quarantine.
And this is why I am dead serious about needing to talk about non-scale victories. I have seen it every year for a lot of years. People start gung-ho gangbusters the first couple of weeks of the year. Then life happens, scale goals aren’t met perfectly on schedule and the downward spiral starts again. By March, the overwhelming majority have abandoned their January plans.
Yes, going full bore sprint out of the gate will set you up for burnout. No, trying to maintain a five pound per week weight loss is not sustainable. Yes, trying to get healthy (however you are choosing to define that) without a long term plan is going to eventually fail.
But do you know what else is sabotaging your progress? Focusing only on the outcomes. If you are judging yourself only by the numbers on the scale or the tag on the inside of your pants, you are missing a much bigger picture. And being able to step back and view that bigger picture can actually keep you moving towards your goals.
So, what are non-scale, or non-vanity, victories? Non scale related victories are achievements you make that don’t necessarily reflect changes to body size, shape, or weight loss. Things that a scale or pair of pants aren’t going to be able to measure.
Being able to lift a heavier weight on a given exercise or add an extra half mile to a run/walk/bike are non scale victories. These are indicators that your body is able to do something that it wasn’t previously able to do. You have gained strength and/or endurance. Those are really amazing things!
Finding a new exercise that you love is a non scale victory. Any time you discover a way your body moves that helps you feel good is super awesome. Whether that’s an exercise that helps you feel stronger physically or something that gives you a mental boost or emotional release. Double bonus if the exercise in question was something you were afraid or nervous to try.
Figuring out that a certain food doesn’t hold power over you any more is a non scale victory. We all have those foods that we don’t allow ourselves because we are afraid of bingeing or trigger feelings of guilt or shame. Working on healing your relationship with food is one of the biggest non vanity victories you can achieve.
In that same vein, reframing your attitude about your body and how it relates to movement is a major non scale victory. We all say to ourselves that we aren’t fast enough to run or flexible enough for yoga. What if you could get to a point where you said, screw it, that looks like fun so Imma do it! Bam, major win there!
My point here is this: My biggest success stories from my time personal training are not the clients who lost the most weight or dropped the most number of inches. I have those, as most trainers do. My biggest success stories are those clients that found their non scale, non vanity victories, and kept moving their bodies. They made exercise and movement something they enjoyed and looked forward to. They made it part of their routine by routinely looking for new ways to achieve.
So I urge you as you are setting your goals and intentions for health and wellness this January, include a few non scale victories in your plans. These may end up being the victories that help you keep exercising long after March.
What is a non scale victory you plan to use? Tell us in the comments!
