The other day, as happens frequently in my profession, a woman that I work with regularly inquired as to my weight.
When I responded with "I never check my weight," she gasped, disbelieving.
"Are you serious?" She gasped.
I nodded my response and went into a diatribe about how unfortunate it is that we would rely on a number to determine our happiness with our physical appearance. The fallacy that weight is a reflection of health is absolutely incorrect.
"How much do you think I weigh?"
She guessed maybe 108 at the most. I replied that my average adult weight hovered somewhere between 118-122 lbs. She stared in disbelief. Reminding her that muscle weighs more than fat, and that I once was quite the gym rat, I told her that I monitor my weight by feel, clothes and by intuition. When you're in touch with your body, you know instinctively when you are actually hungry, when you've consumed too much, when you need something more, when you should lay off the calories and when you need more movement to thrive.
The unfortunate fact that most of us are so bound up in other distractions that we've forgotten how to tune into our body's most vital signals supporting our optimal health is a national tragedy. So bound by our addictions to food and media sources for comfort -- material, external noise that distort anything our body is trying to tell us with this mythic sense that one could master their intrinsic needs with an explanation (or worse, a pill), that we've lost our sense of trusting our bodies to guide us through the maze of overly available food in great abundance.
Our intake abilities in a 24 hour period are virtually endless. The nature of caloric consumption in excess is a billion dollar business. It results in inexplicable obesity and other health issues that are entirely avoidable, if we would just return to our internal thermostat which knows for sure what our intake should be. It's only when you forget how to move in your body, to tune into your sense of body, mind and spirit as one, not separate entities, that you will over consume.
When you become enough and calm, kind enough to nourish your body with real foods that forge life rather than disease, you may will no longer want that scale. You will return to a happy, healthy and vital weight. You will learn to listen to your body and become, as part of that body, the best body to suit your needs. It is a matter of quietly seeking internal spaces that we too often forgo in favor of a quicker fix.
There is no quick fix to this problem. There is only honest effort to release the construct of a collective psyche that is misleading us all. It is leading us down the road to ruined health and detachment from not only our bodies, but from our earth, our instincts and one another.