Don’t Let Your Scale Be Your Mood-Meter
How many of you are guilty of allowing your scale to be your mood-meter? You know what I’m talking about… you wake up first thing in the morning, strip down to your birthday suit, hop on the scale with high hopes that the number staring back at you will be much less than it was yesterday… and in those few seconds that you anticipate what your final number will be, you have a giddy little feeling inside hoping for the best?
And then…
The number staring back at you isn’t what you wanted it to be. Maybe it’s three pounds more than it was yesterday. Maybe it’s two pounds higher… Heck - maybe it’s only one pound more than it was the day before. How are you feeling about now? If you’re like me, you may feel like a big old GROUCH! You definitely aren’t jumping for joy, and even if you’re not totally depressed, you may feel slightly irritated at your body for not cooperating the way you’d like it to.
I used to be really bad at letting my scale be my mood meter for the day. If the numbers were down, my mood was up. If the numbers were up, my mood was down. Luckily, I realized that this was a pathetic way to live my life… so I decided that the best way to stop the insanity was to stop weighing myself all together. I did that for about a year and learned that the best way to measure success regarding my physical goals was all in how I felt in my clothes. If my clothes were feeling snug and uncomfortable, that was a pretty good indication that I needed to be more dedicated and work a bit harder. If my clothes fit the way I wanted them to then I knew I was doing great and just needed to be consistent and maintain.
There are so many reasons why our weight fluctuates and why we may not see the numbers go down as fast as we’d like them to. I’ll address these reasons why in another post this week, but for now I want you to think about how YOU react when you see that number on the scale. Do you feel bummed or disappointed in yourself if the number isn’t what you’d like it to be? Do you feel ecstatic when the number is drastically lower? I want to hear what you all feel like when you step on the bathroom scale and see what the final number is. Stay tuned this week for some more information on why we shouldn’t let our scale be our mood-meter… and in the mean time, if you are one who let’s your scale determine your mood for the day, give it to a friend or family member and have them hide it for a while! Start now to get out of the habit of basing your happiness on whatever the scale has to say.
Take Care!
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7 Responses to “Don’t Let Your Scale Be Your Mood-Meter”
Debbie Petras
December 1st, 2008
I agree. Sometimes the numbers just do not make sense. Since I am still in weight loss, I am going to take my measurements and every week, I will see if they have gotten any smaller.
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Jen
December 1st, 2008
I have been living by the scale. I can’t help it! LOL! I don’t think it affects my mood, though. I’ve been using it as a way to see what is working in what I ate the day before (or more often these days, what isn’t working). I discovered that a slimfast for breakfast, a quarterpounder value meal supersized for lunch, and a slimfast for dinner made me lose 2 pounds yesterday. LOL!
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Jenny
December 1st, 2008
I’m a fan of the clothes gauge. When my pants get a little tighter, I know it’s time to work harder! I probably weigh myself every couple of weeks -mostly because I’m just curious.
Blake
December 2nd, 2008
I moved my scale out into the living room. It actually help with my obsession of weighing myself at every opportunity.
When it was in the bathroom, I basically hop on it whenever I happen to laid eyes on it.
Now that it is the living room, I rarely hop on it. Sometimes he would get curious and try to look at the numbers when I am on the scale. I really do not want to burst his disillusion that I am still at the same weight as when we were in college hence less hopping on the scale for me. For some reason, he still thinks I am 15 pounds lighter than I actually am.
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asithi
December 2nd, 2008
I am definitely discouraged by what the scale says. Sometimes I get so discouraged I wonder why the heck I am working so hard if nothing changes on the scale. Darn scales…why do they even make them anyway? I try to go a week or so and not weigh myself but then it is more discouraging if nothing has changed over a weeks time.
Now I have had the scale change for the better and I loved it, but trying to lose that last 10 pounds…that was awful. I am trying to just go by how my clothes feel, but Oh how I would love to see the scale go down!
Nikki
December 2nd, 2008
[...] athletes, Melissa Byers touches on this, Kelly at fitness fixation said this a few posts ago, Liz Rosenbaum did it and now all this stuff about Oprah (and okay- back in skinny jeans once again in case you [...]
Primary Foods. | BEE Lifestyle. Balance Eating and Exercise. Or Don't.
December 12th, 2008
If you ate anything with salt the day before, it will impact your weight. I stopped getting all excited about a pound or two because I know it varies. I find it best to weigh once a week so I can track how I’m doing.
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