Talking It Off

Yoni Freedhoff’s post in Pschology Today has caused me to look back over the history of my relationship with scales and weighing.

There was a time when the scale ruled my life. If the scale didn’t reflect what I perceived as my hard work, I would immediately quit dieting and go back to old habits. Stupid but true. But when I started getting serious about dealing with what lay behind my inability to keep weight off, this scale insanity had to be addressed.

I dealt with it by doing something that most professionals would probably advise against: daily weighing. For months on end, I weighed myself every single morning and even recorded the numbers here for the public to see. In the end, I quit because I finally understood how my weight temporarily fluctuated over weeks and months and how it responded to sensible controlled eating. Today I can hop on the scales in the morning and not have an emotional blip because I pretty much know what to expect. (Though I did have a physical blip which led to an emotional blip when I didn’t weigh myself for 6 weeks and put on 7 lbs this summer – so all is not perfect, yet.)

I also refuse to weigh myself other than at home first thing in the morning – except when I go for hospital appointments but that’s for another purpose altogether. You’ve got to love how happy everyone is because I haven’t lost any weight! Hooray me. (If only they knew……)

Here’s an excerpt from one of my old posts about Weight Watchers’ contribution to scale insanity:

So I trotted down to the (Weight Watchers) meeting and stood on the scale.

147 (with clothes, post coffee – that’s just fine)

I was yammering away as I stepped off and thought the weigher hadn’t seen the number. So I stepped back on.

146.5

Interesting. Do you see why I don’t really care what the WW scales say?

When I took my seat with some friends, they had each put on half a pound. Or had they?  Maybe we should go back to weighing in whole pounds on balance scales? I wonder if those who weigh in kilos and half kilos are less prone to this craziness. I wish I had the answer to scale insanity. I think they should have a WW topic about The Big Picture. It’s really about what happens over a month – or a season – or a year that counts.

When you’re 10 lbs lighter than you were 2 months ago, that’s weight loss.

When you’re .5 lighter than you were last week, maybe it’s a loss and maybe it isn’t.

Here’s the big issue. We get so emotionally wrapped up in what that scale says that we let it rule the following week. I’m pretty sure the women who had small gains are too sane to let half a pound influence their eating. But then people used to think I was sane too – but I really really wasn’t. Half a pound gained could lead to another pound gained which would inevitably lead to quitting WW and putting on 20 pounds.

So I’m going to keep up the daily weighing. I knew it could take away the power of my home scale but I am absolutely over the moon that it has snuffed out the power of the WW scale too.

Back in 2011, I’ll finish with a few of Dr Freedhoff’s wise words:

Remember, it isn’t really about what you weigh; it’s about what you’re doing about what you weigh. Getting sucked into using the scale as your arbiter of success is risky business.

Amen.

Isn’t it?

I can be a Scrooge and a Grinch all the way up until about now and then it seems to kick in. The tree smells lovely. The gingerbread house adds to the festive nose-feast. The only thing playing on i-tunes is my Christmas music. OK – I’ve got the Spirit.

So how’s the eating going to go for the next few days?  I’m not sure that’s the right question.

How am I going to feel about my body by New Year’s Day? That’s a slightly better question.

My weighing every day experiment may end up to be the best thing I’ve ever done from a maintenance perspective.  It has completely obliterated (yes, that dramatic) my tendency to get off track and stay off track.

Last year at this time, I also had “a something” that required surgery.  I also got worried that my weight loss was due to illness – just like this year.  I also lost my appetite and decided to eat what I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t really dying.  But it was entirely different because I stopped writing and I stopped weighing myself. I did all that stuff with no controls whatsoever.

This year I’m also not feeling great with an entirely different problem that will probably require surgery.  I have experimented with the appetite thing.  I’ve experimented with the quantity stuff.  I’ve stopped journalling which means I’ve put away any expectations of losing weight until the new year.

But I’ve kept other controls – just by coming here and saying what’s on my mind and stepping on that digital slab once a day.  And it seems to be working.  This is what’s happened to my weight this month:

December 09

1-144.4 Canadian scales
2-144.2
3-145.6-after a day of pretty heavy eating. interesting.
4-145.6
5-148 Really? In 24 hours? Interesting……
6-144.4 after one normal healthy day – see why this was a good idea?
7-144.8
8-144.8
9-144.8
10-144.4
11-away
12-away
13-144
14-145
15-145
16-146
17-146
18 -forgot or didn’t want to – can’t remember
19-out of town
20-out of town
21-145.6
22-144 – is my scale broken or is it premenstrual madness?

I’ve always seen the scale as my nemesis – certainly not my friend – but now I’m seeing that the personification of a bathroom fixture just can’t be a good thing.  This experiment has helped me to see them the same way I view my measuring cups.  How can I be anything but emotionally neutral about measuring cups?

Wow.  I’m heading into Christmas with the gift of scale neutrality.  Bring on the turkey.