You’ve heard it before, but we’ll say it again: The number on the scale does not matter. Fitness influencer Christina Basil is helping women everywhere see the truth in those words with her latest before and after photo.

“I’ve reached the same weight I was when I first started training almost 2 yrs ago!” Basil wrote alongside a post earlier this year. “Kinda seems like my fitness journey has come full circle in a way, doesn’t it???” The photo shows Basil at 140 pounds before she got serious about self-care and again at 140 pounds after nearly two years of weight training.

In the caption, Basil explains that when she first started setting fitness goals for herself, all she wanted was to shrink down to 120 pounds. She would religiously count down each and every pound, and if the number on the scale wasn’t what she wanted it to be, she would restrict calories and feel exhausted.

“Why do we as women keep doing this to ourselves???” she wrote. “Men are generally so PROUD when they’ve put on weight when working out – meanwhile many women are determined to forever shrink themselves down to nothing.”

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Wake up call: The scale doesn’t define you, and it can’t tell you how much fat you’ve lost versus how much muscle mass you’ve built. “I’m here to remind you, love, that YOU DON’T NEED to constantly weigh less and less to prove you’re healthy or fit,” Basil wrote.

What’s way more important than the number staring back at you is the fact that you’re sticking to reasonable goals, and you’re giving your body the time it needs to transform, both on the inside and out.

“I’m rooting for your success,” Basil wrote. “Whatever your health and fitness goals may be. You got this.”

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