10 Lessons I’ve Learned That No Scale Could Measure
By: Katie O'Malley
Tags: Fat Positive, Weight, Body, Recovery, Body Positive

10 Lessons I’ve Learned That No Scale Could Measure

Gaining 50 pounds taught me about my body, myself, and the world

Photo by Jennifer Enujiugha from Pexels

In recovering from my marred relationship with food, health, and my body, I was faced with the choice between life and death (quite literally); as the incredible poet Blythe Baird says: “If you aren’t recovering, you are dying.” So in my journey to life, in choosing recovery from my broken relationship with myself, weight gain was inevitable.

To my past self, who was intoxicated by diet culture, this was a thing to be feared. But in this journey I have gained so much more than a beautiful, healthy body… here are the ten lessons I learned that no scale can measure:

1. It really doesn’t have to be this hard.

The dieting, the over-exercising, the self-hatred, the constant criticism: it all seems unfortunately essential to maintain this false sense of security that society prescribes to avoid fatness. But in truth, I found my greatest sense of security in abundance of food and joy.

2. Nobody cares!

While harsh, this perspective is also incredibly liberating. The world is so absorbed in its own presentation that you — and everyone else — are simply background blur in 7 billion world-views focused on the self. Find freedom in this release from an obligation to the world.

3. And the people who do probably don’t share your values.

There will always be people who superficially “care”; those fatphobic, transphobic, homophobic, humanphobic people will opinionate on how they think you should live your experience in your body.

“Don’t listen to criticism from someone you wouldn’t seek advice from.” — Melissa Bolton

Thankfully, these people do not share your values, and you can be confident that you are an accepting, embracing, living soul.

Graphic created by Fattitude

4. The scale is given more weight than it carries

What is that obscure number, really? It is almost funny to consider how fallible the construct of weight stigma is. The scale is a magnet. It’s number is a measure of gravity acting on a being. And still, numbers are no more perfect: they are abstract symbols assigned relatively to inanimate quantities. It is almost laughable that our society has centered such a grave importance on the scale.

5. Food is not just medicine

Food is adventure; it is experience. Food is not only meant to be had, but it is intended to be enjoyed. We have been blessed with so many incredible flavors (salted caramel chocolate anyone?), and we owe to our bodies these wonderful pleasures.

6. There is a difference between living to eat and eating to live.

If the universal purpose were to be indentured to foods, where would our world be? Food is here to serve us, and there is so much more to life than worshipping what we eat.

7. The body is incredibly intelligent.

The initial stages of my journey to healing (aka: gaining weight) were laden with fear and distrust for my own body (what a terrible feeling that is). I distrusted my hunger and fullness, whom I were certain would betray me. But, as I learned my body, I discovered how incredibly knowing it is. Our bodies are designed to work for us in a shape and size only they are intelligent enough to know.

8. Health exists at every size.

And how incredibly intelligent our bodies are to advance so far beyond the societal stigmas against fat. Our bodies know that fat is so good and that fatness IS NATURAL! These incredible machines are so innately kind to the diversity that they know we can and will encompass.

9. Beauty is not pain.

While society might tell us that thinness and dieting is the path to fulfillment, there is nothing beautiful about self-torture. There is nothing beautiful about the voice in your head constantly telling you that you are not enough. Beauty is abundance. Beauty is being free of the chains of your inner critic. To be beautiful is to take up the space that you are meant to take up, unapologetically.

10. The most uncomfortable experiences are the most rewarding.

As difficult as it was to live in a cesspool of self-hatred, it was a comfortable habit to maintain. Eating out of love for my body was uncomfortable. Feeling my body was uncomfortable.

Being okay with myself was uncomfortable. But nothing ever changes in the comfort zone.