Jessica Simpson Threw Out Her Scale: 'I Have No Idea How Much I Weigh'

Jessica Simpson isn't letting numbers on the scale ruin her self-esteem.

On Thursday, the 40-year-old mother opened up about her health journey during an interview with Hoda Kotb on the Today show. Comparing her scale to a "Ouija board in church," Simpson decided it was best for her to throw it out.

"I have no idea how much I weigh, I just want to be able to feel good and zip my pants up. If I don't, I have another size. I have every size," the fashion designer said.

"I've really tried my hardest to not let that define me," she added of using a scale to keep track of her weight.

Simpson has always been candid about her struggles with her body image throughout her career. In her 2020 bestselling memoir, Open Book, the singer included a journal entry from 2009 about some of the criticism she received about one of her concert outfits.

"Today my heart breaks because people say I'm fat," the journal entry read. "Why does the cruel opinion of this world get to me?"

Simpson now has an entirely different perspective, trying to focus solely on her health rather than numbers on the scale. As a mom of three kids with husband Eric Johnson, she says she's healed from the hurt and told PEOPLE in March that she's glad it's opened the conversation around body image.

"There is a wonderful movement for body positivity now and the response to that portion of my story has been overwhelmingly supportive," she said. "I don't think people always realized that there was a human being, a beating heart and working eyes with actual feelings behind those headlines and that words can hurt and stay with you for a lifetime."

Earlier this month the singer's mother, Tina, shared the difficulty she has witnessing the intense scrutiny and body shaming her daughter dealt with in the past.

"I have to be honest: To me the hardest thing with Jessica has been the weight. Because the way people judge her, it's unbelievable," Tina, 61, told Sheinelle Jones on Today. "Body shaming is a terrible thing, and no girl should have to go through that — or guy. Period."

Tina said that her daughter didn't want to leave the house because of the negative headlines about her body.

"Because of [the body shaming], it catapulted all kinds of different emotions and different things in her life too, you know? And then it made her want to be a recluse, in a lot of ways, and to hide out and not want to get out of her house," she said.

In March, Simpson showed love for fellow singer Britney Spears, saying the two share a similar "coming of age" story and that she admires her strength and ambition, choosing to live her life "unapologetically and authentically."

"I honestly choose not to watch the documentary," she told PEOPLE at the time, referring to the Framing Britney Spears unauthorized documentary. "I didn't want to watch and bring back any of the dark pieces of my personal coming of age in the music business. I have worked through a lot and want to keep moving forward in my own story on my own path."