57. Dr. Stierman on Breaking Up with the Scale

May 19

When body image issues and limiting beliefs stem from childhood, it can be so difficult to be content with your adult body. Contentment comes not just from healing these traumas, it also comes from removing triggers from your daily life. Dr. Sarah Stierman talks about how she broke up with the scale and feels good at her new stronger and smaller, though heavier, size.

How to Break Up with the Scale

Put your scale in another room (or remove it from the house)
Determine your body type
Work out and eat to support your body type
List your evidence of non-scale related success (photos, measurements, how you feel)

Listen to Episode 57 Here

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About Dr. Sarah Stierman

Dr. Sarah Stierman is a board-certified Dermatologist and Dermatopathologist in private practice in NW Ohio. She co-owns her practice of 12 providers (including her husband of 18 years) and 65+ employees.

Dr. Sarah Stierman enjoys treating patients of all ages with medical, surgical, and cosmetic concerns. She especially enjoys helping adult women achieve optimal skin health through science-based skincare and procedures.

She is a mother of two school-aged children, and a pet mom to 17 (dogs, cats, chickens, and one fish at last count). Sarah actively participates in local community theatre, vocal performance music, and is an avid supporter of the Arts. In her spare time, she works on her Overwhelm, lifts heavy things, enjoys vegetarian cooking, and tries to catch up on her sleep. ...the Work never ends!

Healing Limiting Body Beliefs

It’s unfortunate, but so many of us develop body image issues in our childhood. Whether this stems from traumatic events perpetrated by family members, like what happened to Dr. Sarah Stierman, or societal pressure, these events trigger limiting beliefs about our body.

Sarah explains how she was always bigger than her friends. She now understands she has a different body type - a mesomorphic body - that is naturally bigger. This body type also gains muscle much easier than other body types.

When Sarah accepted that she couldn’t change her body type, she learned to embrace it. This meant she started understanding how to fuel it and what exercise feels good.

Breaking Up with the Scale

Sarah had to check her perfectionist ways at the door. She chose to reframe and embrace her mesomorph body for what it can actually do - not what she wanted it to do. She realized it wasn’t going to be perfect, but it was her body.

Part of Sarah’s monumental journey to self-acceptance was breaking up with the scale. It’s not an easy decision to make, especially when you’ve been a slave to it all your life. Sarah physically removed it from her life, but mentally it was much harder.

Any time Sarah feels doubt and like she needs to check on the scale, she instead writes lists of all the non-scale victories she’s achieved. Muscle weighs more than fat is a mantra we can all live by.

Homework for Women Physicians

Have you split up with your scale yet? If you haven’t, I want you to start the process. Move your scale out of its normal home and go a week without stepping on it. A week is easy? Try a month. Let me know in the comments below how you get on.

In This Episode

How our childhood can create limiting beliefs about our bodies [7:30]
What happens when you accept that you can’t change your body type [14:00]
How to embrace imperfection [17:15]
How to break up with the scale [19:30]
Why the Transform program is different from other transformation programs [26:30]

Quotes

“It’s just phenomenal how stifling it was and created my limiting beliefs. I know my metabolism is not broken based on my results with Transform. It’s just amazing how easy it is to derail yourself. You’re the only one standing in the way of yourself.” [9:23]

“I’m a chronic over-achiever so I guess I’m just going to have to reframe and embrace my body for what it actually can do. It’s amazing when you actually are able to harness your own potential.” [15:18]

“I have done strength training body transformation programs before. I hurt myself. I injured my back and injured my elbow, I had tendonitis. I felt so betrayed by my own body and felt that nothing works. When I show myself that I can be strong and I can make gains, my body just shuts down and betrays me. Transform felt easy because I can gain muscle so easily, but it also felt good. It didn’t feel like I was punishing myself. It didn’t feel like I was going to hurt myself. The biggest shift, this time around, is breaking up with the scale for good. It’s over.” [26:16]