JJ Virgin ditches the scale after years of letting it dictate her worth, describing it as a manipulative partner that praised her for bad choices and shamed her for good ones. She argues the scale shows only one narrow metric of health and kept her trapped in rules that hurt her body and mind.
I'm breaking up with you. I have finally had it. All of those years of abuse. I tried so hard. I did everything I could, everything I thought was right, only to have you tell me I'm bad, that what I was doing wasn't working. And crazy enough, those times when I went off the rails, when I did the wrong things, well, then you tell me that I'm good. You've left me confused, frustrated, and feeling like I might as well just throw in the towel. But you know what? I finally figured it out. I realized you had it all wrong. You only had part of the story, and so you were judging me incorrectly. And because of that, you made me follow the wrong set of rules, and it caused so much damage, both emotionally and physically. But no more. Now I'm ready to heal, to approach life with eyes wide open. So you, Traditional Scale, I'm breaking up with you. I will never be misguided by your false information again.
