I have always believed that whatever your job is, you should have the right tools for that job. Quality tools, not cheap tools. Some people may consider quality, expensive tools to be nothing but a luxury, but I believe that having the best tools will improve the quality of the work that you do, make your work easier and more enjoyable, and generally help you do better and offer a better result.

Over the past few days, I have been facing this belief and pondering the path that I will take on a certainly related question.

My Scale

Right now, I have a kind of “standard” and “cheap” bathroom scale. I have had this scale for about ten years now. It was actually given to me by a friend who was moving back to the United States. He did not feel like moving it halfway around the world with him, so he gave it to me as a gift. I have appreciated it so much, and it has been very useful to me.

But, in the past, I was not that serious about losing weight, not like I am now. I have lost weight over the years, but right now it is a more intensive desire, and almost like a job to me. Because of this, I am thinking I might need to up my game when it comes to my tools for weight loss.

Jealousy

I have a friend in the States that is on this same journey with me. We are both trying to improve our health and to lose weight. He found this blog and reading what I was doing interested him in losing weight, beating his diabetes and generally getting more healthy, so he emailed me. Ever since then we have been exchanging messages, almost every day.

When my friend emails me every day, he always tells me what his weight is, compared to the previous day. He also tells me that “his water retention has increased by 1%” and “his body fat decreased by 2%” and things like that. I really had no idea of how he was getting this type of information. One day I asked him how he was finding these things out.

He answered me…

A Tanita Scale

A Tanita scale? What the heck is a Tanita scale?

He told me that Tanita was a brand of scale that would measure many things instead of just weight. Different models of this Tanita brand scale measure different variables. They can measure BMI (Body Mass Index), Percentage of Fat, Percentage of Water, Muscle quality and many other factors. Of course, they measure weight.

Well, every time that my friend would tell me how much fat he had lost, or how much his water retention had increased and such, I have to admit that I was jealous because I did not have a scale that could tell me these things. For me, it was only a guess.

Remember what I said? You should have the right tools for the job you are doing.

Right now, losing weight is one of my jobs. I really did not start out the Keto combined with Fasting to lose weight. I did it to improve my health, losing weight is part of better health, but it was not the primary goal. Right now, though, it has turned into an important thing for me.

A suggestion

The other day, I was talking with my friend again, and the topic of a Tanita scale came up in conversation. He suggested that I should get one.

I had not really looked into getting one. I live in the Philippines, and I felt nearly certain that no such scale would be available here. I would have to order it from the States and spend a ton of money to ship it here and also wait a long time before I got it. When the subject came up, though, that I should get one, I decided to look into it.

I found that Tanita scales were indeed available here in the Philippines. One of the more popular online stores had a number of models to choose from.

So, I think I am going to buy a “smart scale”, a Tanita scale. Thee are lots of other companies making them too, but from my research, I believe that Tanita is the one that I want to get. The online source that I found here has 3 models – one is a lower end one that is P4500 (about $90 US). Then the next model up is P10,900 (about $220 US), and then the high-end one is P12,500 (about $250 US). My choice will be either the P4500 or the P12500 model. The P12500 model has Bluetooth to connect with your Android phone and it will track all of your weight statistics in a database on your phone. The P4500 model does most of what the high one does but won’t communicate with your phone to store the data. The cheaper model also is not as accurate, it uses an older, less accurate technology. I am debating but leaning toward the cheaper model. I feel it is important to me to get this to continue my journey in a more informed way and motivate myself.

The model that I like is the Tanita RD-953. It seems to be the highest tech they make.

So, based on the fact that I am very serious about my health now, and I am committed to my goal, I feel that this is the right tool for the job. I am just trying to decide whether to go for the less expensive model or the one with all the bells and whistles. I am thinking I will go all out and high tech. What do you think I should do?