What in the world is the “No Weigh Way”?
As we said goodbye to 2020, many people were more than ready to set new goals and move into 2021. It had been a heck of a year! Every year when New Year’s rolls around you start to see the plethora of marketing advertisements touting, “New Year, New You”, “New Year, Better You”, “Time to rid of the holiday fluff”……the list goes on and on. And yes, being in the health field for the better (or worse) part of the last 30 years, I absolutely thought that this time of year was the BEST time to help people reach their “goals”. In 2021, I was in a very different place. I made a public and personal declaration in 2020 that I was completely done with diet culture. I witnessed first-hand the damage diet culture was doing to our youth (and all generations) – and then I had to realize that I partook in this “wellness” trend, as well, because it was all I knew.
Late December 2020, in a Facebook Peloton group that I was active in, was a post all about New Year’s resolutions. You can only imagine what was being posted; lose 5 pounds, cut out all sugar, fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans…..on and on. I knew that I was not going to make any of these changes but what could I do that would be aligned with my new anti-diet mission? As I personally was dismantling diet culture from my life, I felt like a fraud as I was still weighing myself every day. And if I am being completely transparent, this was affecting my mental health. As I scrolled, I saw a comment that stopped me dead in my tracks. It said, “I would like to stop weighing myself for the month of January”. My hand just gravitated toward the post and I responded, “me too”. Another friend replied that she wanted to join us. I almost shut off the computer and pretended that the post never existed but that was not moving me forward with my personal mission so I did what any crazy woman would do. I created a private messenger group with the 2 other ladies and said “ok, let’s do it! No weighing ourselves in January”. Much to my demise, they both replied and said “OK!”. So, now I had to do it. Or rather, NOT do it!
My bathroom floor had a new empty spot in it, as did my morning routine. I have never been good at keeping new year’s resolutions, but I was determined. Every day, often multiple times a day, my “girls” and I would chat in our messenger group. We became brave and vulnerable with each other. What did this one simple act have over us? How did NOT knowing this information affect us? It showed us how caught up we were in a meaningless number. Rationally, weight is ONLY our gravitational pull to the Earth…..nothing more than that but holy smokes we were attached to it and its value.
We all literally felt like we were in withdrawal – and we were. The first few days were tough – the first week we had moments of struggle but then it became easier. It allowed me to FINALLY separate my day and my worth from that silly number that lit up on an electronic machine. It made me realize that even though I said the number did not impact me, it did. And I was done. January 31 came and went, and I left the scale hidden away in a closet.
This journey was the impetus for creating the “#noweighway” Facebook group. If three of us had such life altering experiences with such a seemingly simple shift, let’s see how many others we can impact. To date, we are close to 1300 members strong and so many lives impacted.
One of my members sent me a message one day and said “thank you for creating this safe space on social media that is NOT bombarded with diet culture. It is like a breath of fresh air”
Onward to 2022!!!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/879030752852702
COME JOIN THE MOVEMENT!
