The Scale

I gave in and bought one.

It was time; I've been on my healthy eating program for almost a year, and I was getting curious. Afraid, but curious. I knew I'd lost weight; but how much?

I've been poring over weight-to-height charts, information on calculating BMI, and I've determined my fame size. (I'm solidly in the medium category.) But all that meant nothing without knowing the Actual Number. I knew it wouldn't be as low as I wanted it to be, and it wasn't. But I am officially inside of the normal weight range for my height and frame size; I've even made it into the old normal weight range from my teenage years.

Yup, just like the bodies that fit into what is now labeled a size eight, the normal weight range has gotten bigger. For my height, the lower limit remains the same, but the upper limit is twenty pounds higher than it was in my youth. Of course, that is for someone with a "large frame;" but even so, the old upper limit was for women who had "big bones."

So, I'm aiming for the center of the old weight range. I'm a medium frame, so that should be just about right for me. It was a very good weight for me the last time I was at it (about 20 years ago!) and it's a number that would give me enough leeway to occasionally indulge without fear of nasty repercussions. I don't expect to get there by my one year anniversary, though I would like to. The slightly compulsive side of me would like to be nice and neat and wake up on the 20th of January at my desired weight. But I'm not going to let that be the only goal that will make me happy.

I'm going to celebrate being back in the normal range, and I'm going to do it without eating something bad for me. I'm no longer a member of the overweight. The scale says so.