For many years I didn't use a bathroom scale to weigh myself. My weight didn't really change a lot one way or the other. Then I had a baby and tried to lose weight afterwards. Through all that dieting, I lost and gained back a lot, a couple of times. Sometimes I'd weigh myself, sometimes I didn't.
So now I am constantly checking my weight, every morning, and it seems to help me stay focused on my goals and helps me to stay motivated every day. I notice that when I'm away from the scale, I don't make the wisest eating choices. It's like I tell myself I've got time before I get back to the scale to work it off. Which doesn't always happen.
But I don't want to be tied to the scale. I want to make those consistently good choices for myself and experience all the other ways I can experience success as a result of my efforts. Like today, my newest pair of pants that I could just button the waist on when I bought them, it was really easy to button them this morning. Shirt sleeves are looser too. I want those sorts of things to motivate me, not the number on the scale.
So, do I move the scale to the new house, or leave it behind for now? Or bring it along but put it away in a place that's a pain to get into, or in the garage. If I stop using it, I don't have the immediate feedback I like using to keep me honest. But I don't like being so attached to it any longer and I want be faithful to my efforts on their own, for their own merit. It's time for me to step up my commitment to myself.
Did I just answer my own question? I may be bringing the scale to the new house, but putting it away, I think.
I think you should bring it! I wouldn't call your relationship with your scale being "tied to it" instead it is a simple tool to serve as a reminder and a focus for your day. As long as it is not what you revolve around, as in... can't have a good day if you have a bad weigh-in. Scales can serve as apart of healthy reminder, one that I keep in a cupboard under the bathroom sink and only pull out in the morning after I have had a full nights sleep. But, keep in mind that if that relationship changes... you may need to relocate the scale to the trash.
Georgia, Maybe you could ask yourself why you want to leave the scale behind. It sounds like you think you "should" be able to manage without it. Or you "should" be more internally motivated. If those are the only reasons, you might want to rethink.
There is no magic in being more internally motivated. It sounds like what you are doing is working for you. You have found a bunch of techniques that together have enabled you to accomplish something important. You are moving in the right direction and wont be any more slender, or more mature, or a better person if you don't use the scale. I'm saying this badly but hope you just keep doing whatever works for you without expecting you to be different than you are.
Congratulations on what you have accomplished so far and hope you find an answer that works for you.
It sounds like you've got good instincts, Georgia! A scale can be a helpful gauge of your health, but it's only one. Often, it's not the most accurate one, either, especially when you consider muscle weight vs fat weight. Since muscle is heavier and more compact, you could be reducing your size, but not seeing it on the scale. So I'd recommend tracking measurements regularly, too -- once a week or twice a month.
Then, too, there are So many other invaluable measures to success. How is your energy level? Your mood and self esteem and confidence? How flexible, agile, pain free are you these days? Have you reduced medications? Seen improvements in your skin?
The scale isn't so bad -- it's just so b&w 2-dimensional when you are glorious technicolor 3-D.
I weigh myself every morning, and like you find that if I don't weigh myself, I tend to be less conscious of what I'm eating that day.
I don't worry about being chained to the scale though - not any more than I worry about being chained to my toothbrush, my hairbrush, or my mirror. I use them all at least once a day, sometimes more. They're tools that help me live my life.
If using your scale every day makes your life better - then keep doing so. If you feel it makes your life more difficult, decide if it's a tool you need to get rid of or use in a different way.
I think you should throw it away, I don't think you need a scale, especially if you risk on getting upset by the number.
You saw your clothes fit, then, isn't that a goal reached? Also, if you see your clothes fit, why do you ALSO need to step on the scale? Maybe because it gives you that sense ov validation you need before to shout to the world that you lost weight? You also know you may loose fat and put on muscle so you may fit in your clothes but the number on the scale increase...that just isn't right.
I think your clothes are the best tracking tool you have. When you see sizes dropping, when you put on your usual jeans at morning but passing by a mirros you consider how loose and ugly they look on you and that you need a smaller size just about now, when you fit again in something you used to fit last year, or two years ago, or when you were in college, when the jeans you bought just two months ago because the old ones were loose now are loose again...after all this...I don't think you need a scale.
All Crowned Royalty--international and intergalactic--must offer a tip of their crown and a deep dip of their knee to you, Luan. And that is because though self described as only a Princess, your title so far outranks theirs as to make them peasants before an Empress. Princesspuffypants! Such creativity in naming yourself can only be described as brilliant! Awesome! Fantastic!
I've posted lots of generally anti-scale posts in the past, even in the last couple of days. But, what it boils down to is this:
1. There is no "should." You will not get an award for doing things the "right" way. (There are rights and wrongs in terms of eating healthily, etc., but other than that ...")
2. If it's positive and helpful, then do it. If it's not, then drop it.
Those are my two basic rules about EVERYTHING related to weight loss. In your case it sounds like the scale helps and you're not tied to it in an unhealthy way. If it's a tool that genuinely assists your efforts, then keep it!
Thanks to everyone for weighing-in (sorry, couldn't resist!) on the scale question. I think that for this next week, I am going to leave the scale at my vacation house and go without, focusing on staying on track with eating and exercise at my new house. New house means a fresh start and a positive, healthy outlook. I'll see how things go for the next week, then when I go back to the vacation house for another load of goods, I can make a decision for the next phase.
If I'm feeling desperate, I can always weigh in at my parents' house. Their scale, of course, weighs me five pounds heavier than mine and my doctor's scale.
My mom had the experience that if she weighed herself every day she would get frustrated and mess up her plan. But if she weighed herself once a week it was inspirational to her.
I thought I might share that. I don't own a scale, and I am too heavy for hers. But I do want one because I know that it would motivate me. Everyone is different though.
Over a year ago I had the opportunity to go to Green Mountain Spa in Vermont. I stayed for three weeks and wasn't allowed to weigh myself during my stay, only on the first and last days. I did lose weight there, and inches. It was frustrating to no be able to weigh in at will, but as the time went by, I was more able to focus on the actual success of knowing I was exercising six days a week and eating really healthfully rather than measuring the success by the scale. I think if I had been caught up with the scale during the stay I would have been more disappointed that I "only" lost 10 lbs. during the three-week stay. I lost real inches while I was there, and actually dropped a whole pants size due to weight training. I gained muscle as well as lost fat during those three weeks.
Hello Georgia.. When I was living with my mom and sisters, I was a scale weigher daily, It was a good motivator, but when the scale went up..gotten depressed.
Now, I move into a health care place, and I missed my daily weighing on my doctor scale. Now I weigh weekly when I visit my mom/sisters. I also weigh at my new doctor office ditgital scale, when shows me heavier then my scale.
You do what makes you happy and seeing those numbers move down. Good job on the clothing getting losen. What a Non scale victory!!
Should I get rid of my bathroom scale?
