The Sad Step!
The Sad Step Hands up if you've ever come to class feeling awesome after a great week, taken off your shoes jumped on the scales only to be left feeling deflated by the number staring back at you?
We've all been there, it's time to ditch the scales once and for all or at least the ones at home and become more obsessed with health than the number on the “sad step”
We hear it all the time – your scales weigh different to mine at home, how you move them round the floor because they weigh differently in different places- what does this teach you.. Well what it should say to you is they can’t be relied on!
One of the biggest challenges when it comes to health and fitness is motivation and there’s no bigger motivational killer than scales. That is why we call the scales the ‘sad step’, because they will almost always leave you feeling disappointed.
But the truth is, when it comes to hitting your health and fitness goals, the sad step is just a smallest measurement of success you can possible get and it’s time you stopped getting so worked up over them. Because no matter how hard you train, or how well you eat, the scales cannot measure some of the most important things when it comes your body, health and wellbeing.
Things the sad step CANNOT measure:
- Your fitness levels
- Your energy levels
- Your strength
- Changes in your body composition
- Your sense of achievement
- Your confidence
- Your happiness
One of the major aspects of fitness is gaining lean muscle, so the number on the scales is completely irrelevant. It’s all about burning fat as well as adding lean mass to your body.
We have seen people in classes who have completely transformed their bodies and yet the scales have only dropped by 2lb. In some cases, your body can be burning fat while the scales are going up! This can be hard for some people to comprehend because we’ve become so used to measuring our bodies on the sad step. But if you’re training and eating right, those extra numbers on the scales do not mean you are gaining extra fat. You will actually be building lean muscle.
We hear it all the time, people who wake up and weigh themselves every single morning. More often than not, this leads to instant negative feelings and this can set the mood for the rest of the day. It’s massively disheartening and can kill your motivation. This isn't the way to live and that’s why we encourage you all to use progress pictures and a tape measure rather than the sad step to measure your success.
When you start any new programme or challenge, take photos of yourself and do your measurements and repeat this at the end of each month. If you work hard, stay motivated and are consistent with your training and nutrition, you will see positive changes in your body that the scales will never show.
Progress photos are also more reliable than the mirror, because our minds can play tricks on us, especially when we’re feeling low, and tell us that we are not making progress. So I say throw away your scales at home or hit them really hard with a hammer, if you must weigh do it weekly in class. Focus on yourself and your journey to getting fitter and stronger. You ARE making progress everyday and you are melting fat even when the sad step tells you otherwise. So be consistent, work hard and don't give up.
