Queue the dark ominous music to play when I say "the scales". Because that is what I is playing in my head when I think about the scales and weighing myself.
A few posts ago I decided that I was going to weigh myself once a week. I am typically someone that weighs daily. Ok, at least when I am doing well with my healthy lifestyle, when I'm back sliding I tend to 'forget' to weigh myself. I like daily weigh ins but the scales have not been moving consistently and they have become more of a disappointment to me. So to combat that disappointment I decided to weigh once a week. Good idea right?
I did great with not weighing at first. I didn't miss it and I looked forward to seeing what the scales would say on my weekly weigh in. But this week the scale boogeyman has reared his ugly head. I find myself thinking about my weight. I find myself pondering my progress. I find myself panicked over a lack of progress. At times it's almost seems like I am obsessing about it. Whatever it is, it's not cool.
I don't want to be ruled by the scales. I want to lose weight for sure, but I want to be 'normal'. I don't want to live and die by the number on the scales. I don't want to obsess. I don't want to panic about what they may or may not say.
The problem is that I have had a LONG time.....so many years....of living and breathing the scales and what the scales tell me. It's ingrained within me. It's part of who I am. But this time I am making my 'get healthy mission' one of improving MaryFran with not just my weight but also my mental approach to live, my physical body, my emotions...the whole kit and kaboodle. And that means that I need to get a grip on this scale obsession.
Weighing daily is not a bad thing (once a day...not multiple times...thank heavens I don't do that!). Weighing weekly is not a bad thing. Weighing monthly...or never at all is not a bad thing. What is a bad thins is the obsession, the panic and the fear. What is bad is living my life and making my decisions daily on what the scales say. What is bad is allowing what the scales say to dictate how I feel about myself. THAT is bad. So for now, I am resisting the urge to step on the scales. I am accepting that the scales may be up on my next weigh in. If that is the case, then I will tweak and change my food intake. (I am trying different things for my lunches.) But the most important thing is that I will not obsess in the meantime.
