I’ve written about this before, but today I’m a little fired up.

This afternoon I got an email from Human Resources saying there was a health benefit reward available for everyone who has insurance through the company. It’s a free hoodie if you complete the checklist within the calendar year. I figured I’ll take a peek and see what it entails. Listed as a mandatory item to accomplish is the health assessment through our insurance company. Easy enough.

I logged in and started working on it. Some questions were repetitive and others I didn’t know the answer too, like blood pressure. I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s always good when I visit my doctor.

Before I continue, I want to remind you that I had gained 10 pounds post show/holiday fun eating consumption. In the first 26 days of prep I have lost 6 of those 10 pounds, and I’m hanging out at 154. Weigh insz are only on Wednesdays and I’m pretty damn proud. 86 more days until the first show. Below is the difference between the first day of prep and yesterday when I weighed in.

Hello booty growth and goodbye holiday fluff!

Moving on…

I got to the end of the assessment and my score was 89 out of 100, which is really good. However, what struck a chord with me were the bullets that highlighted what I could do differently about my weight.

First let’s begin by talking about the sliding weight scale provided for my height. I’m 5’4″, I’m not giant, but that’s a huge range of weight. Secondly, I’m 154 pounds, but I wear a size 6 and have no muffin top… I’m almost scared to know what I would look like or what size I would wear if I was 111 pounds… I’m pretty sure my doctor would be concerned, I know I would be.

Now looking at the bulleted list. I’m going to skip over the first bullet because well being in prep I’m already doing that and before getting involved in bikini competitions I had be consistently losing weight. Bullet two can be ignored because my doctor at one point thought playing soccer would be too much for me and that I should just do yoga… Ha, no. Bulets three through seven all kind of go hand in hand. I follow IIFYM and eat flexibly, within macro tracking I eat pretty damn clean too. Minimal sugar, usually well under 50g a day, to put it in perspective a 12 ounce bottle of regular Coke has 40g of sugar. At least 3 servings of greens a day and other fiber rich foods. My goal is 35g of fiber a day, sometimes I go over by a few and sometimes I’m under by a few, but I try to come as close as possible.

In the assessment, I said that I work out 6 days a week because it’s true. Some days I do two-a-days, cardio in the morning and lifting during the day sometime. I also checked off that I have lost weight and will continue to lose weight. I’m sure a health assessment with a live person would be a little different, but what I don’t like about this standardized form is that similar to the BMI, it only takes weight and height into consideration. In fact, it only take the BMI into consideration.

We know muscle is more dense than fat and therefore you have the ability to weigh more than you look. People always get surprised when I say I weigh in the 150s. In fact, in 5 pounds I will be at my lowest weight in years and according to BMI, I will still be overweight. Thank you standardization!

How someone who is a size 6 is overweight boggles me, but I also know that this needs to be brushed off. My point is, so many people depend on the scale and what they weigh. I heavily relied on it in the beginning and during prep I check in to make sure I’m where I want to be. Muscular development has given me piece of mind that my body is getting where it needs to and that the scale should really shut up. Your clothes say more about your health than a piece of plastic on the floor ever can.

My advice and what I like to do is use the scale in moderation. Once a week or once every two weeks, I’ll weigh in. You fluctuate so much on a daily basis from many factors that you will drive yourself nuts checking it too often. If you’re clothes are getting big, but the scale doesn’t move, you are still making progress, don’t get discouraged. Take progress photos every few weeks so you can compare and see the differences. It can take weeks for progress, don’t give up.

❤ Cristina