I fight with my weight sometimes. I want to weigh under 160 lbs, but it hasn’t happened since I was about 20. I am pretty fit at about 12%  body fat (according to measurements; admittedly, not determined by immersion), but I weight a lot for my size. People are always surprised I’m as heavy as I am.

Try as I do, 165 lbs seems to be about my lowest without starving, and my weight typically hovers between 168 and 170 lbs regardless of how hard I work out, how well I eat, etc. It’s maddening, but it’s also something I’ve had to learn that isn’t going to change unless I were to make drastic and unhealthy changes that I’m unwilling to undertake.

I have to be content with a low bodyfat percentage, with being able to fit into the same size clothes as I did when I was 19, and feeling much more energetic and youthful. I have to be happy that I can run 3x a week, that I am in the National Guard, and that I am healthier than most 50 year old men. I have to take solace in the fact that eating well allows my body to be healthier, and in turn, may give me a longer life. It may help me avoid some health problems I was headed right into.

They call those NSV’s, or Non Scale Victories. I have to focus on those now as the scale pretty much has stopped giving me any sort of victory. I still weigh myself daily because I monitor my weight due to Army requirements, but I more closely monitor how I feel in my clothing, how well it fits, and how energetic I feel. Those, to me, are more important feedback data points than the scale. I have felt amazing and my rings are falling off my fingers all while the scale says my weight is up. PHEW! I spit on you, scale!

Don’t use the scale as your only measure of success. Use it as one of many, and try to find other matrices by which to measure your health and success in your healthy lifestyle. In so doing, you will find yourself much happier and less stressed out about progress or the lack thereof.