get off the scale!

“Get off the scale!
I have yet to see a scale that can tell you how enchanting your eyes are.
I have yet to see a scale that can show you how wonderful your hair looks when the sun shines its glorious rays on it.
I have yet to see a scale that can thank you for your compassion, sense of humor, and contagious smile.
Get off the scale because I have yet to see one that can admire you for your perseverance when challenged in life.”

The Christmas festivities are slowly winding down. The winter party season of good food and good company is coming to an end. Our bellies are  already full with mince pies, cranberry jelly, glühwein, chocolates... and more.

As we fast approach the new year, a time often seen as a time to reflect, is the guilt of gluttony beginning to kick in?

As we get ready to enter a new decade, it seems that every advertisement we see, be it on TV, in the newspaper or magazine, wherever, is all about getting back to the gym, getting fit, losing those extra kilos, reducing your expanded festive waistline.

The onset of the new year is a time when we re-evaluate so much, make great new resolutions about the year ahead... and buy into those guilt-filled gym memberships and diet fads that are in our face everywhere we turn.

Even though we see them every year, we still get sucked into thinking: "Did I eat too much?" "Did I binge on too much junk?" "Did I have a few too many glasses of wine?" And we start to buy into all the pressure surrounding us about how we should look, how skinny our thighs should be, how flat our tummy should be.

And that's exactly when I want you to remember this quote from Steve Maraboli. Because a scale is just an attempt to place a meaningless number on what people perceive to be beauty.

As Steve so beautifully puts it, a scale cannot "tell you how enchanting your eyes are" nor can it measure "your perseverance when challenged in life"

So I invite you to do something different this year.

I invite you to step away from the scale and stand in front of the mirror and begin to fall back in love with the wonderful soul you truly are.

Rather than find fault in your imperfections, find beauty of a life lived.

Rather than feeling any shame about your less-than-flat tummy or the invisible gap between your thighs, look at them in admiration as part of a strong and beautiful body that carries you through all of life's challenges.

Rather than focusing on lines and wrinkles around your eyes, see them as a reflection of a happy and fulfilled life, steeped in love.

Step away from the scale, lovely soul, because you are so much more than a number.

Viv xx