It got me thinking about an article that I've read before and that I may need to print out in order to read more often. It's called "4 Things You Don't Know About Weight Loss" and talks about why the scale lies.
There are so many factors that can affect the number on the scale from a day to day basis. Food is an obvious factor, but the number can go up because of exercise and sodium and water weight and so many other little things that there is no real reason to weigh yourself on a daily basis.
I've learned that it does not help me in any way to weigh myself on a daily basis and I end up adjusting my mood each morning based on that number. Yesterday morning started with a great mood until I saw the number and then everything changed. I've been trying to weigh myself once a week, but have been peeking at the scale to see if my efforts have been paying off. This clearly is not helping because the scale is not showing what I want it to show and it is still just affecting my mood.
The scale may need to go away during the week until I weigh in on Monday. Maybe the scale needs to go away for a month. Maybe the scale can go in the garbage and I can solely focus on other things. Hmmm... Not a bad idea! But for now I will do my best to only weigh myself on Monday's. I will do my best to eat better. I will do my best to focus more on the other things.
According to the article, the scale is not the best measure of one's success and I completely agree. Especially now. I may think differently of the scale when it starts working with me instead of against me. Which says a lot about me and maybe I need to look in the mirror instead of down at the scale.
I highly HIGHLY suggest reading the article, especially if you are having your own frustrations with losing weight or if you are putting too much of your self worth on your successes or failure on the scale. I'm sure everyone will take something different from the article, but this is what I take from it that I am hoping will help me:
"There are important changes happening in your body that the scale can't measure or detect, such as: changing body composition, changes on the inside, and more strength and endurance."
"Muscle takes up less space than fat, making you look slimmer, and it's more metabolically active. When you exercise, you gain muscle, raise your metabolism and lose fat, but that fat loss won't always show up on the scale. Where it will show up is in measurements, how your clothes fit and how your body looks."
"Strength and endurance means you're making progress, but if the scale isn't moving, you may not pay attention to how fit you're getting."
"Relying on the scale may even make those workouts feel like a waste of time, even though each one helped you burn calories, get stronger, protect your body from diseases and made you more fit than you were before."
"Beating a plateau is often more about making small changes to tweak what you're doing than going overboard with your diet or workout program: change your workouts, add more activity, tweak your calorie intake, make adjustments throughout the process."
"What you may not realize is that, sometimes, forgetting about your weight can actually help you lose weight."
"Shifting your goal to something tangible, something you can see, feel and touch on a regular basis may be just what you need to get the results you're looking for. Some ideas: your health, your performance, your satisfaction."
I think my plan as of right now is to continue weekly weigh ins until week 4. I want to give this a solid month before I switch to something else. At the one month mark I will be taking my measurements and will switch to weighing myself once a month. If my eating is still out of control I will be attempting a different way of tracking, most likely by using My Fitness Pal since it is free. We'll see what happens in the next few weeks. Hopefully I can make the conscious effort to eat better before then.
I just want it to connect so badly. I feel like there's something stopping me though and I just don't quite know what yet.
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