This is what happens when you stop weighing yourself

If you’re trying to lose weight, gain weight, or just maintain what you’ve got, relying on a household piece of technology can be tempting. That doesn’t mean checking the number on a scale is the best way to get the results you want.

Not only can those numbers be deceiving, but checking them regularly can also start a pretty messed-up obsession. Once you kick the habit, you’ll realize the number you used to obsess over actually has very little to do with how healthy you are.

You start to gauge your health on how you feel, not what you weigh

As your hormones fluctuate due to stress, irregular sleep patterns, or changes in the foods you’re eating, your weight goes up and down. Don’t freak out. That’s supposed to happen. Seeing the number go up on the scale might make you nervous since this world requires women to shrink themselves in order to have value. Nip that problem in the bud by ignoring that superfluous number altogether.

You can focus on more important things than a meaningless number

Like learning a language, discovering a new song you like, reading a book, or curing cancer. If you do and eat what makes you feel good while avoiding what doesn’t, you can trust that you’ll get to your ideal weight without the stress.

You learn not to sweat the small stuff

A pound here and a pound there can be the difference between drinking enough water one day and being super dehydrated the next. Just because the number went up doesn’t mean you’re suddenly spiraling out of control. Starving yourself or hitting the gym for an extra hour just to see that little digital number go down is often completely unnecessary.

If you scarf down a box of Oreos as a late night snack because you’re an adult and you do what you want, you’re already going to have to endure the punishment of feeling a little gross afterwards. No one needs an extra slap on the wrist from a tiny gray robot that sits on the floor all day.

You finally become a happy and body-positive person

If you’re letting a tiny machine tell you more about your health than your own brain, it’s time to reassess. Try tossing that scale out the window and listening to what your body has been trying to tell you all along. That way, you’ll have a real sense of the kind of progress you’ve made and where you need to go from there.

When you stop weighing yourself, you realize you’re not just a blob of mass taking up space. You’re not a piece of checked baggage thrown sloppily on a scale before being tossed underneath the plane. You’re not a bag of underripe fruit sliding down the conveyer belt after having your value punched into the register by a sweaty 17-year-old cashier.

Your worth is not determined by how much you weigh or how much space you take up. You’re not a piece of luggage and you’re not a goddamn apricot. You’re a beautiful, fabulous person with a lot more to give the world than just your body.