Why the scales are not your friend
A friend recently shared that she had joined a well-known weight loss app subscription that promotes eating behaviour change. (I’ll give you a clue, it rhymes with boom)
My initial thoughts about this service were positive. Surely if big bucks are being thrown behind marketing campaigns that supports mindset change and the psychology of eating, as opposed to a dieting message, this has to be a good thing?
When however, my friend explained that a daily weigh-in was a requirement, I was somewhat perplexed.
You may have gathered that I am not a big fan of the scales. In fact, I tend to suggest that my clients give them away or throw them out! To try to break free from a dieting mindset yet be told to create or consolidate a weighing obsession is utterly bizarre to me. The two are just not compatible. My fear is that people are unintentionally deceived into yet another diet.
Whenever someone comes to me for help with their relationship with food - yo-yo dieting, emotional eating or binge eating, I explain how and why weighing themselves will keep them firmly stuck in the cycle.
So many people who approach me for help, describe how they have obsessional thoughts about food, weight and their body. Morning-to-night the thoughts don’t stop and many are even dreaming these thoughts. The process of weighing themselves is one of the things that exacerbates this. Loading their head space so there’s room for nothing else.
Going on the scales tells you what you ‘should’ be feeling that day. Lose a pound and your euphoric, gain a pound the next day and this can trigger a binge, low mood and nasty critical inner thoughts about yourself that you’ve failed or are a bad person.
Besides this, our bodies can naturally fluctuate in weight from day to day by up to four to six pounds! (Yup, you did read that correctly!) This comes down to many, many factors; not merely how much and what we eat and drink. (To understand more about your body’s calorie requirements, check out my blog ‘Why you are not a calorie machine)
If you are experiencing slight fluctuations in weight as I would expect you to, think about what this will do to your mindset if you are weighing yourself on a regular basis.
If you are someone who leads their life based on that number on the scales- think about what that number really means.
Where did your ‘ideal’ weight come from?
Why are you allowing that number to stop you from leading the life you want?
My advice is to stop - stop weighing yourself straight away and get rid of those scales!
There is a way out of this cycle. There is a true method of working on mindset, behaviour change and understanding the psychology behind your eating.
The method works, the support is here, and YOU are worthy of it. It is 100% possible for you to be able to transform your life.
