THE SCALES ARE LYING TO YOU
Today It's time to purge that elephant in the room: THE SCALE!
Whether it's in the bathroom or the bedroom, it's taunting you.
Everyday it beckons for you to step onto it. It's the first thing you think of when you wake up and we always want to hop on the scale before bed.
This obsession is one of the reasons you should cut ties with the scale; set it free so you can set yourself free of its chokehold.
Daily weigh-ins are meaningless?
Most people trying to lose weight really want to see a change in their body composition: FAT LOSS. Body composition changes cannot be detected by a scale on a day-to-day basis.
Fat loss can be detected on a weekly basis, however, if you can have enough discipline to only hop on once a week, then you have my permission to keep your scale.
This is very tough however- so if you start to notice yourself weighing yourself more often, then hide it.
Did you know that your scale weight can fluctuate up to 5 pounds in one day!
This is due to:
- Weight of food & beverages
- Water loss from exercise
- Water gain from menstrual cycles
- Water retention from high sodium intake
- Weight of non-voided bowel contents
The scale is NOT the real barometer of progress.
You may believe that "the scale does not lie," and that the number is objective.
However, you can get more objective, more in-depth feedback from other measuring tools.
Here's an easy non-disappointing way to do it at home:
Be mindful of how your clothes are fitting.
A person who finds he/she can suddenly fit with ease into a pair of formerly tight jeans shows that they are losing fat.
And they can do this without actually even budging the number on the scale because the scale doesn't measure "fat loss" it measure weight!
Other effective measuring tools can be:
- How you feel after rushing up a flight of stairs
- Not tiring out as quickly when you play with your children
- Your new found ability to change the water cooler bottle at work or lift your children without any effort!
- Diminished cravings for sugar
The scale can't record these milestones…..
When you read the number on the scale, you will automatically associate that number with food. Yes, that's right.
If you don't like the number, what thought pops into your mind? It almost always relates to food.
The scale is a harbinger of food obsession, which includes counting every calorie, and carb and fat gram.
Before you know it, you'll be carrying a calorie counter with you everywhere you go.
Focus on how you feel, milestones in your daily activities, improved muscle definition/shape, better eating habits, and how your clothes fit, rather than an ambiguous number on a gadget.
So there you go, take the scale out of your life rather than have your life lead by a number which in turn will lead you to restrict some of the amazing nutritious and mouth-watering foods that can be found out there.