This post is part of the Natural Cures Blog Carnival hosted by Hartkeisonline.

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I’ve been on a myriad of weight loss diets in my life. I’ve lost and regained over 700 pounds in 40 years of trying every diet put forth by “medical science.” Know what I got? Fat. Know what else? Guilt. If you are struggling today, may I offer a piece of advice?

Hop off the carousel. Just like you can’t lose weight (healthily and permanently) by eating pre-packaged superproccessed diet bars and meals, looking at the same numbers over and over will give you a brain cramp. Sure, you used to be 34-24-34 and 110 pounds and wear a size 10 off the rack. But honey, those are just numbers, not some pie-in-the-sky ideal to get back to. Stop looking for a goal and focus on getting healthy. Ideally, you shouldn’t need any numbers of comparison.

“But,” you say, “I need a guideline, a reference, a comparison point.” Yeah, me too. Okay, let’s define a new set of comparison points. Get a 5 foot long, 3 foot wide sheet of paper, or tape several sheets together. Get four different colored pens, pencils or markers. Get naked.

First measurement, first color: Tape your paper to the wall. Stand with your back to the wall. Hold your arm out straight and point at something. Remember what you are pointing at, because you’ll need to repeat this next time you measure. Now put a line at the top of your arm and at the bottom, at the place it hangs lowest. Let’s call that Arm Drop. Date the bottom line. Next time you measure, point at the same thing and line up your arm with the top line before drawing the bottom line.

Second measurement, second color: Lean hard against the wall and flatten your belly out against the paper. Get as flat against the wall as you can. Put a circle where your nose touches the paper. Mark the left and right sides of the widest spot of your stomach on the paper. Let’s call that Tummy Width. Date both lines. Next time you measure, be sure your nose is on the circle.

Third measurement, third color: Put the paper on the floor. Sit on the paper with your legs out straight. Put a line on one side of your rear end, and a line on the other. Let’s call that Spread. Date the right line. Next time you measure, scooch until your left side is even with the left line you measured before.

Fourth measurement, Fourth color: Leave the paper on the floor. Stand with your left foot so that the outside of your foot is even with the edge of the paper. “Walk” your right foot out to where the top of your thigh just begins to touch the other thigh. Mark the outside edge of your right foot. Let’s call that Stand Span. Date the right line.

Now make a legend on the paper for what colors you used for what measurement. DO NOT MEASURE THE LINES. Do not associate these non-judgemental lines with numbers. These lines are your friends! They are happy lines that will move closer together as you move toward a healthy, traditional way of eating. They are friends coming together, not numbers that tell you what a bad person you’ve been. Make friends with your lines. Make peace with your lines. They aren’t judging you, they are just there. They don’t appear on any graphs in doctor’s offices, you won’t find a calculation in the BMI for them. If you don’t tell anyone what they are, they can’t compare their lines with yours. Now, roll up your paper and put it away for a whole month. Don’t remeasure before a month is up.

I developed these four measurements to help me with my four problem areas, but any measurement you invent is valid for you. The goal is to get healthy first and foremost. Thin does not automatically mean healthy. It’s time we stop judging ourselves by the numbers put forth by flawed scientific data and start getting healthy.