Numbers-Do-Not-Define-You

Numbers Do Not Define You

How many pounds should I weigh? What size should I be? How many calories should I eat? How many hours should I work out?

Numbers, numbers, numbers, we easily can be consumed with them and ultimately let them define who we are and how we are doing.

I was sharing with my class this morning about a trip I took to California a year after I lost most of my weight. We needed to find a tank top to wear for the infomerical we were shooting and walked into a store in Beverly Hills. I walked in and was greeted by a man who quickly let me know that they did not offer plus size clothing and only went to size 14 there. I thought I was going to throw up. I was so crushed he thought I was a plus size. I told him I was a size 8 and said thank you anyway and left. It took me a long time to shake that off. Here I had lost so much weight, was at a great size, and yet he assumed I was a plus size. I was allowing his comments to define me. I was also questioning if size 8 was too big.

The next year I returned to California for Tae Bo and the local gym was selling workout clothes. I was now at a size 4-6 and feeling pretty happy there. Some clothes fit good at 4, some at 5, some at 6, just depended and I wasn't too focused on size anymore as I was pretty comfortable in my skin. I went to grab a size small and saw that the size said 0. Went to the medium it said size 2. Went to the large and it said size 4. What? I had two options at this point. I could freak out that I was a size large or I could realize that clothing brands do this on purpose. Maybe a girl from Texas thinks a 4 is small, but a girl from California may think a size 4 is large. It really woke me up in realizing we cannot put our faith in a size of clothing to define our progress. The scale is for sure the worst determination, and now we know what size clothes is not accurate either.

So how do we get out of this madness? Kick the numbers to the curb. Know that we are unique individuals that cannot be put in a box. That if you are 5'4" and the world says you should weigh 128lbs, you should be a size 4, you should eat no more than 1200 calories a day and workout at least 8 hours a week, the world is LYING. Nobody on this earth knows what works for you better than you. Nobody knows what size and weight you should be.

Each day, make sustainable choices, consistently, for not just a month, 6 months or a year, but for life, and know that you know that you know that, in faith, all that you are doing is taking you to a place where you are comfortable in your skin, where your inside matches your outside (and if your inside needs help, work on that first!

We walk by faith, not by sight, not by what the scale says, what the clothes tag says, but by FAITH. This is how you become Fit By Faith