How to Stay Motivated on Your Health Journey Despite the Numbers on the Scale

Have you ever tried to get healthy but been discouraged by the numbers on your scale? 

This was something that plagued me for an awfully long time, and truthfully it does pop up for me every so often even now. We become so trained to equate weight loss with success and health but, health is so much more complex than just the numbers on that scale, and we all have so much more to celebrate than those numbers moving in one direction or the other.

• Why won’t these numbers move?
• Why am I failing?
• Am I just doing everything wrong?
• Will I ever actually be healthy?

These questions and so many more like them ran through my head on a loop. Do they ever run through yours?

If they have or are currently doing so, please don’t beat yourself up over that. They are quite common thoughts that many people have had, me included. Unfortunately for so many of us, we are conditioned by society and our medical system to believe that the best measure of health has to do with our overall weight. 

While weight, and being overweight, is an important metric to look at when it comes to health, it is not the only one that matters. When it comes to overall health, and I mean all aspects of health – mental, physical, and spiritual – the numbers on your scale aren’t telling you the whole story and when looked at in isolation, are doing you more harm than good.

Your health and wellbeing are so much more than just a number on a scale

For a really, really long time, all I ever did was chase those numbers. I weighed myself constantly, every day sometimes, in hopes to see those pounds just drop off my weight. When I didn’t see a change, whether it was for a single day or over the course of a few days to a week, I would get frustrated, sad even.

I would start to question myself with those same questions that I listed at the start of this article and, since I didn’t have a relationship with God for a long time, I would truly see myself as a failure, a hopeless, inept, failure. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt that way. Knowing who I am through God has played a huge role changing how I see myself, despite what the scale tells me. Another big driver in my change of outlook, has been my focus on “non-scale” victories.

What is a “non-scale” victory and why is that even important to the concepts of health and wellness?

So, when I say non-scale victory, what I really mean is looking at those things that are wins, little or big, that have nothing to do with the numbers you see when you step on a scale. They play into your understanding of why you are pursuing this new path towards better health, whether it’s physical, mental, or spiritual. Non-scale victories are critically important to the success of a change in lifestyle, especially one that’s geared towards changing the nutrition or changing exercise habits. 

What do these non-scale victories even look like? 

If you’re just starting down your new path of improved health, or even if you’ve been walking down this new path for a little while, it’s important to identify and look at those wins that you’ve had because of changing your diet, working out, or turning your heart more towards God. I really struggled with doing this, even after I started lifting weights, cutting out sugar and processed carbs, and re-starting my relationship with God. It took a Christian coach to help me with this the first time. 

I was frustrated, struggling with lack of progress, in this case, it was with my faith, and she very compassionately said to me, “You need to stop looking at how much of the mountain you have left to climb. Stop for a moment, turn around, and appreciate just how far you’ve climbed up the mountain.” I don’t think I’m alone in doing this. I would get so focused on how much more I needed to do that I would not take the time to appreciate how far I had come and that focus on the remainder of the climb would be demoralizing at times. 

My non-scale victories in my journey of faith were that I was writing a letter to God every day and reading it aloud to Him. It was something that I had never focused on in the past but was a critical aspect of my attempts at rebuilding my relationship with God. My non-scale victories in my physical health were that I could walk half a mile in less than 10 minutes whereas when I first started trying to work out, I couldn’t walk a quarter of a mile in 30 minutes.

 I could climb a flight of stairs without stopping because I couldn’t breathe or catch my breath. I could play with my kids when they wanted to play instead of just watching them play. Those were amazing, motivating, accomplishments that I lost sight of and didn’t see because I was focused on what a scale said to me. 

Losing sight of your victories in all aspects of your life while you are on your health and wellness journey can be disastrous and demotivating, it almost was for me.

My Christian coach’s advice to me changed my perspective. Granted, she was specifically talking about my walk with God, but her words rang true for every aspect of my wellness journey. She helped me to re-evaluate my definition of success to something that was far more focused on the big picture versus just a singular facet of health, and not a great singular facet at that. 

Health is so complex that you really need to look at the bigger picture to understand how well you are progressing. Whether it’s looking at how strong you’re getting, how your body composition is changing, or how your energy levels and mental clarity are improving, you need to identify what success looks like to you for all those facets. You could be losing weight, but that weight may not actually be beneficial weight loss. 

You may be losing weight, but it may be muscle mass that you’re losing because you’re not eating enough protein or food to support muscle growth and physical healing. I know that kind of unhealthy weight loss far too personally. If you’re not losing weight, but your clothes fit better, that’s an indication that your body composition is improving and that is a far better indicator of health than those pesky pounds you see reflected on the scale.

These simple tips can help you get started on identifying your non-scale victories.

Figuring out what success looks like to you can be difficult, however, identifying those non-scale victories are the key to keeping yourself motivated and encouraged to keep moving forward on your path to improved health and wellness. 

Truly understand your “why’s” for being on your journey.

1. Pray. 

Turn your heart to God and ask him for guidance. Ask Him for wisdom and understanding to help you figure out why you are embarking on this new journey. Ask him for strength and courage because change is difficult and there will be many times when you might get discouraged or frustrated. It’s through God’s strength that you will find the strength to keep moving forward.

2. Take 15-30 minutes to write down different strength or wellness victories. 

They can be small, but you want to be specific. What would success look like for you when it comes to improving muscular strength? Cardiovascular endurance? Initially, for me, it was walking a quarter-mile in less than 30 minutes and walking up a single flight of stairs without stopping for air. You can update these as you go, but it’s important to write these down so that you can stop and look at how far you have come. These become especially important so that you can stay motivated when things get hard, or you start to feel discouraged. 

3. Take some “Before” pictures, even if you don’t want to.

These are just for you and are so helpful. I didn’t do this, and I really wish that I did. It’s so difficult for you to see your own progress because most people, myself included, are far more critical of themselves and can’t see those minor changes that happen day over day, and week over week. However, pictures don’t lie, and taking “before” pictures and then taking monthly progress pictures can show you how much your body has changed even if the scale hasn’t moved much for you.

4. Take your body measurements. 

These are so important because they will truly show you the magnitude of your changes in body composition. This is something that I did, and they were helpful, even now. I changed my diet in the last 6 months to be more animal protein-based but haven’t seen a lot of change in the numbers on my scale.

However, I’ve seen a huge change in my overall body measurements. I’ve seen reductions in my waist, hip, thigh, and neck measurements and improvements in my overall waist to hip ratio, which is a good indicator of metabolic health. So, while my weight hasn’t changed, my overall body fat is reducing while my lean muscle mass is increasing, both of which are positive indicators of improved health.

5. Track your workouts. 

By that I mean, write down how long it takes you to do certain workouts, how much weight you lift for certain movements, and how many repetitions of a certain exercise you can do. 

These are really important because as you get faster in repeated workouts, as you start to lift more weight while maintaining form quality, and as you increase the number of reps that you can do of a certain exercise you have the ability to quantify how much stronger you are physically getting day over day and week over week. 

These improvements in strength should never, ever be overlooked. At the end of the day, strength helps with increased longevity as well as the ability to stay physically independent for longer. One cool example of this is from a woman that participated in a class that I held at my church over the course of 10-12 weeks. She started about halfway through the class so only had the chance to do 4-5 classes with me but did the workouts that I sent out via email. 

On the last day of class, she told me that before she started coming to my functional fitness class, she could not get off the floor on her own. She always needed help from someone or something. However, because of my class, she had built the strength and balance to get up off the floor on her own. That increase in strength in functional movements resulted in increased physical independence for this woman. That is an enormous victory that has nothing to do with a scale but has a huge positive impact on her life. That is the power of celebrating a non-scale victory.

6. Figure out ways to celebrate your non-scale victories. 

It’s so important to celebrate your wins, regardless of how big or small you think they are. Bring your loved ones into your celebration, let them understand what you consider a win with your strength and health. Try to focus your celebrations on spending quality time with your loved ones or even spending time with yourself versus celebrating with a reward of food. Shifting your focus away from seeing food as a reward is a crucial step in changing your relationship with food. Food is something that you eat to nourish and heal your body not something that you should view as a reward for doing something well.

Changing your lifestyle is hard but focusing on establishing and celebrating non-scale victories will help get you through those tough times.

Non-scale victories are those tangible improvements that you can feel and experience that have nothing to do with what you see reflected on the scale. Those numbers can be influenced by things like water retention, stress, or any number of things throughout the course of the day or week. 

I’m not saying that weight doesn’t matter when it comes to health, because in a lot of ways, it does. What I am saying is that it is not the only thing that matters nor is it the most important thing to look at when it comes to whether you are getting healthier or are truly healing your body. Don’t make the numbers on the scale your holy grail. 

Don’t let it become a false idol to you when it comes to determining your success or failures on your journey to wellness. Focus on the improvements in your strength, body composition, your physical independence, endurance, mental health, clarity, and how you are physically feeling. Make those things the priority in your wellness journey. Your weight will move eventually but shifting your mindset to focus on all those other aspects of health, those non-scale victories will help you on the path to long-term success.