Scales For You

My aunt, who is 96 years old, was talking today about being diagnosed with diabetes.  She said that at the time (which was probably about 35 years ago) she weighed 185 pounds.  The doctor told her that if she could lose the unwanted weight and change her eating habits, she could live a long, healthy life.  Apparently, he was right.  I call 96 a long life; and she lived alone until about two months ago, and thinks she could manage now if only her daughters would agree.  She said she lost down to about 125 pounds in 10 months just by eating the right amounts of the right foods.  She was always going places and doing things, and I’m sure it was difficult at times to measure her portions.  She said it took about another year to get her eating habits established and she has never regained the unwanted weight.

My aunt became my role model today!  If she can change her lifestyle enough to lose 50 pounds and keep it off 35 years, I should be able to do the same.  I will have resources that she didn’t have access to–nutrition information from the internet and a portable scale that can be used to measure food portions at home or on the road.  The scale has a stainless steel platform for easy clean up, and will fit into my pocket.

With today’s economy problems, it becomes more important to use our money wisely.  That does not necessarily mean buying the cheapest products.  My husband says, “If you don’t like it when you get it, you won’t get to where you like it.”  That is often true.  Shopping for the wisest use of our money means looking at the different products, evaluating which features you want and/or need on the item and then finding the product that you have selected at the lowest price.

If you’re looking for scales, you may want to consider a dial scale.  Dial scales are usually less expensive and may meet your needs in a satisfactory manner.  They have a nostalgic look that will add to your decor.  Spending money on features that are not needed and/or used is wasteful and inefficient.

We just got back from a trip to Colorado, and today I realized that I have lost a necklace I bought as a souvenir in Silverton, Colorado.  I think I left it on the bedside table in the motel in Salina, Kansas.  I hate to lose things like jewelry, money, friends, relatives, my glasses, a favorite recipe, and so many others that I could name.  However, there is one thing I would love to lose–my extra weight.

I guess if I really am serious about losing weight, I’ll need a new set of electronic scales.  My ideal scales will have the hold feature so I can step off the scales and still see my weight.  When you have an eye problem, it’s hard to read the digital display while standing on the scales.  And one thing is certain–I don’t want to have my husband read my weight for me!

I retired from my job as an educator about ten years ago, but I did not retire from life.  Many people look at retirement as a time to go home and sit in a recliner, or lie in a hammock and watch time go buy.  As we all know, the sedentary lifestyle brings about health problems and obesity.  An inactive mind leads to slow thinking and sometimes, depression. 

If our health is good and we have the opportunity to retire from the workforce, there are unlimited opportunities for fun and/or service available.  Nursing homes are always happy to have volunteers to paint fingernails, play Bingo, entertain, or just visit the residents.  Most schools have volunteer programs to tutor students who are having difficulty, monitor testing programs or help in bookfairs and other extra-curricular activities.  Hobbies such as bicycles, motorcycles, golf and other outdoor activities keep us active and involved with friends and neighbors.   Sewing and needlework, crossword puzzles, cooking, carpentry, and any number of other activies help us keep our mind active and our attitude positive.   A body fat scale will help us determine if we have any muscle left, or if our body has completely turned to fat.  Someone said, “We don’t sing because we’re happy; we’re happy because we sing.”  I say, “We don’t move because we’re healthy; we’re healthy because we move.” 

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a disease in which the lungs are damaged, making it difficult to breathe.  It includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis and is the fourth-leading cause of death in the United States.  There is no cure for COPD, but good nutrition, exercise, and medication can slow its progress; and studies have shown that good nutrition can actually help prevent this condition.  Diets rich in vitamins such as Vitamins C, E and A can help protect you from COPD or help you manage it if you have already been diagnosed.  A multivitamin pill can help, but vitamin-rich foods such as vegetables and fruits are even more beneficial.

Anytime a new diet or eating plan is initiated, portion control becomes very important.  A cooking scale can help measure your portions, while it also makes cooking a lot easier.  With the Tare feature to return the scale to zero after adding each ingredient, you can eliminate the need for measuring cups and spoons.  This makes clean-up faster, which is especially helpful to people with COPD who are having trouble with their breathing.

As a tourist in Russia, I had difficulty communicating since I had no command of the Russian language.   While waiting for our transportation one day, I decided to quickly go into the closest building and find a bathroom.  I tried to ask some people there for directions to the bathroom.  I could tell they were totally confused.  After a few futile tries at getting directions to the bathroom, I suddenly said, “toilet.”  This brought smiles to their confused faces, and they began saying, “Oh, toilet,  toilet,” and immediately pointed out the public restroom.  Later, I visited a Russian family in their apartment and discovered that they had two rooms: one with a tub and sink which was called a bathroom, and one with a commode which was called a toilet.

Have you ever wondered if we should be calling our bathroom scale a toilet scale?  I guess not.  Sometimes, we forget that other cultures have their own way of saying and doing things, and they don’t necessarily agree with ours.  That’s what makes traveling interesting–meeting other people and studying other cultures.

Weight loss should be a slow, gradual process.  After all, we didn’t gain all this weight overnight.  By reading labels to see the number of calories, fat, fiber, etc. we can gradually eliminate the high calorie and high fat foods and replace them with more nutritious foods that will satisfy our hunger even better.  With a little research and educating ourselves, we can plan and enjoy a food plan that will slowly lose our excess weight, while implementing a new lifestyle.  This does not necessarily eliminate eating out; most restaurants, even fast food restaurants, have salads and lowfat, nutritious meals.

A good weight loss program needs reachable, easily defined goals.  We can state the goal in pounds lost, waist measurement, etc., or simply take a garment that we cannot wear and try it on at intervals to see the improvement.  A good set of weight scales will help us record our progress from week to week.  By realizing that weight loss should be a slow process and a lifestyle change, we can not only improve our looks, but also, our health and our self-esteem.  There’s no better time to begin than right now.  Good luck to you!  I’m on my way!

The weight measuring system is different for items found in a grocery store such as sugar or flour and precious metals such as gold or silver.  The precious metals are weighed in troy ounces, the sugar or flour is weighed in avoirdupois ounces.  An ounce of gold weighs more than an ounce of sugar.  The troy ounce is 480 grains, while an avoirdupois ounce is 437.5 grains.  One troy ounce is 31.1034768 grams and the avoirdupois ounce is 28.349523125 grams.

If your business or hobby calls for troy ounces, it would be wise to invest in a scale that calculates troy ounces, pennyweights, etc.  Imagine trying to convert avoirdupois ounces to troy ounces.  Your hobby would cease to be fun and your work would never get done!  Troy ounces scales will save you time and frustration.

I grew up in rural west Tennessee where small country stores flourished.  There was usually a store within walking distance of your house and they had a little of everything.  We would walk to the store and get a balogna sandwich and a coke.  The storekeeper would get a large roll of balogna out of the cooler, slice it with a knife, and make the sandwich.  Sometimes, we would ask for a pound of sliced balogna to take home.  He would put a piece of butcher paper on a spring scale and place slices of balogna on the paper until the scale showed one pound.  The balogna was then wrapped in the paper and taped with masking tape.  Those were the days!

A spring scale can be useful in situations that do not call for digital electronics, and it is less expensive.  It also adds a nostalgic look to your kitchen or hobby room.  You can take a little walk down memory lane each time you see the scale and get your weighing done at the same time.

In the past, bathroom scales had an analog dial that could be difficult for some people to read.  Numerals only appeared at full increments, and lines marked off weight increases between the numerals.  These scales were really just estimating your weight.  There was no precision.

Digital bathroom scales display the weight on a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen as a number with decimal points.  You no longer have to read a dial, and your weight is an accurate and precise measurement.  This is important when you are documenting your weight each week to show progress with a diet or eating plan.  Shop for a set of new digital bathroom scales for your home.  You’ll be glad you did!