I have a confession to make. I am a data junkie. When I was a runner I would download every run to my computer and analyze the heck out of each run. I would hardly ever run without my beloved Garmin.

Crossfit quickly appealed to me with all the benchmarks, numbers to keep track of and measure. I was hooked and quickly chasing the bigger and faster numbers.

Now I feel naked without my Fitbit and keep track of my sleep habits, water intake, daily steps and activity minutes.

And of course I track all my food intake. One of the reasons I believe I love flexible eating is playing macros tetris daily on MyFitnessPal.

Tracking data can be great, because without action goals are just dreams. We need to take daily steps towards our goals to see success.

Weighing myself daily is also now part of my routine. Just like the other data I keep an eye on it, keep an eye on the trend. Am I pretty stable, slowly trending up? Trending down? It has been a process, but I have learned to use the scale to collect data. In the morning when I first wake up, I write in my Five Minute Journal, take a moment to reflect on how I feel, go to the washroom and then I step on the scale. By then I have already reflected on how I feel, set my intentions for the day and I am choosing not to let a number change any of that.

I have come to see that a lot can affect that number and weight is not gained overnight, but overtime. Some days I eat out, have more sodium in my food, have a glass of wine or two. Or  I walk more, sleep better or worse. Have a really big workout. Skip a workout. Hormones could be a factor. I know all of this affects me and my weight. If I see myself trending upwards too much I dial it in, get back on track, drink my water, get my sleep in and get to my workouts and I know it will settle right back where it needs to be.

I take the number on the scale as one piece of the equation. How I feel in my body, my energy level, do I like what I see in the mirror? I started this journey wanting to feel better, to have my outside self reflect the athlete I am inside, yet somewhere along the way I lost sight of this and became obsessed with reaching a certain number.

I am happy in my skin, I want to continue to get stronger, lift more weight, be a good example for my daughter and live a life I love. I’ve found my happy place, and you need to find your happy place too; you must realize it does not live in a number on the scale, it lives inside you. You get to define your markers of success. And while having a goal is great, and measuring data can be helpful, we don’t want to lose sight of the big picture focusing on that one thing. These days I see numbers between 129 and 131 depending on the day, and that’s okay.

Annie 🙂