The Scale

I used to hate the scale.

I used to loathe it with every fiber in my being.

So much so that until this month, I have never owned one; but now, happily situated in the middle of my tiny bathroom floor sits a very expensive (albeit free for me) scale that not only tells me how little weight I'm losing, but also how much body fat I have, how much part water I am, how much muscle mass I have (or don't) and how many calories I should take in per day.

I love my new scale. Lemme esplain.

It is a great way to monitor my growth (or fading growth) as I partake on this crazy adventure called weight loss.

It talks to me. It tells me more about what I am, other than just $#% LBS.

This past month has been more exciting to see my fat percentage dwindle along with the pounds. It's interesting to see how much water weight I carry (I'm pretty sure I'm descended from camels), and it also gives me an awesome basis to the ultimate question: "Exactly how many calories should I eat if I want to lose x amount of weight in y amount of time?"

I love my new scale.

If you've had a chance to check that website I referred you to earlier, called "Good News", perhaps you might have stumbled upon a lovely little diddy about monitoring your spiritual health along with your physical health. Ever since reading this, and experiencing life with a scale in my bathroom, I've really taken to trying to "monitor" my spiritual health.

For one thing, I've been keeping a better journal. Even if it's just scribbling down what I did today: "Today I ate twelve donut holes and cried for an hour. Luckily my water weight went down .0009%. Cohen also said the prayer at dinner time, and did a really good job."

For another, I try to remember hymns throughout the day, because, for me, it reminds me of things I should be doing.

"Ere you left your room this morning, did you think to pray?"

"Savior may I learn to love thee,

walk the path that thou hast shown,

Pause to help and lift another,

finding strength beyond my own."

These have been excellent check points for me when attempting to monitor my spiritual health and reminding what I need to do in order to stay "healthy".

One thing Sherrie Johnson recommends doing is pausing to determine why you're feeling the way you're feeling. If you're sad, is it because you don't have the Spirit with you? If so, what can you do to bring it back? It's funny how easy it is to forget the Spirit is with us, and how quickly we realize it when it is gone.

I'm grateful that we have the Atonement, and continual chances to bring the Spirit back into our heart, and with it the peaceful glow that flows through our minds and our bodies, giving us a truly sublime sense of well-being.

You don't need a scale, though, to radar where you are on your eternal path. You simply need some introspection and a moment of prayer.

Sherrie, in a later post, also qoutes Parly P. Pratt. This qoute moves me so much.

As Parley P. Pratt once explained the Holy Ghost, "expands and purifies all the natural passions and affections, and adapts them by the gift of wisdom to their lawful use. . .It develops beauty of person, form and features. It tends to health, vigor, animation, and social feeling. It develops and invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man. It strengthens, invigorates, and gives tone to the nerves. In short it is, as it were, marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being." (Key to the Science of Theology, pp. 96-97)