When I can't weigh for some reason I get very anxious. If, for instance I can't weight for two weeks I step on the scale and see I have gained 5 pounds, I would be thinking if I had known earlier that I am gaining I could have done something about it.
Oh, I'm terribly anxious about it. I am so anxious that it is on my mind pretty much all day every day. However, when I get into my bathroom in front of the scale I lock down and can't make myself step on it. This morning I had every intention of weighing, but put on workout clothes first. Can't weigh with clothes on. Then drank 30 oz of water during my workout. Can't weigh with that much water in my tummy. Etc.
And I have a Mother's Day dinner this weekend and my birthday next week.
1. Weigh after a week on plan.
2. Make up a ridiculously high number that it couldn't possibly be, convince myself that this is true, and then feel relief when the scale says otherwise.
I do both of these. Well, really I weigh about once a week no matter what. Partly because I can't handle doing it more often, but mostly because that allows me to set up the "ideal weighing situation" where I have eaten little in the past 12 hours, not drank much water in the past 3 hours, and exercised in the last 8 hours. I only have to do that one day a week. Pretty lame, I know. I should be able to handle a random weigh-in any time of day or night.
Bargoo: I'm glad you fixed the hair situation! It seems trivial, but one bad haircut can feel catastrophic.
That book "Thin for Life" which talks about long-term veterans of weight maintenance notes that while eating plans differ wildly from person to person, nearly all of the successful long-term maintainers weighed regularly, and went back into weight-loss mode if they registered a gain of x pounds (trigger # varied of course). So it's not a surprise that most of us on this board get quite anxious when we don't weigh. The amount of neuroticism that builds up around weighing though- that is not good. Having to weigh naked? Only after fasting, or first thing in the morning? Being so afraid of the scale that it occupies your thoughts for days? Or, like me, not weighing if you've had an off-plan/high carb day? Wouldn't it be amazing to be able to treat the number on the scale as a neutral fact, without any emotional resonance? "Oh look, I'm 2 pounds up today; must be the MSG in the Chinese food I ate yesterday" and then just move on until the next day's weigh-in. I wish.
I'm in Annapolis this weekend because I'm attending a wedding tomorrow. Managed to keep the calories under control today, but tomorrow will be another story. Guess I won't be weighing myself on Monday :>)
I weigh even if I have binged or for some reason eaten more calories than usual. I want to know what I have to deal with.
Me too . I am pretty neutral about the number now, but I have no desire to fit into a bikini or a tiny size of jeans any more. I was weighing myself Mon., Wed., and Fri., no matter what, but now I'm down to once a week on Monday. :
I didn't weigh myself for 2 weeks at the dog sit and came home with a number 1 lb. higher than when I left. Now I'm finding I go by how my belly looks (the first indicator of excess poundage). If it's bulging I cut back. If it's flatter I can eat a bit more. A couple of lbs. either way isn't such a big deal any more.
And how did I come to this relative peace with the scale and the number on it? No freakin' idea whatsoever!
I weigh once a week, on Friday morning. (Except when I am in emergency mode, then it's probably every two or three days. I'm close to emergency mode right now.) Even before I get on the scale, about 75% of the time I'm pretty sure about what I'm going to see there. Not the exact number, but its movement up, down or steady.
My most darkly comic moments occur on the days when I know it's not going to be a good reading. And I walk to that scale like a convict walking the Green Mile. It's an inward struggle, but I make myself do it. There's some relief in doing it, even when it's showing an upward trend. For me, knowing is always better than not knowing.
Oh, and I thought I had developed a cold, but allergy medication has given me tremendous relief. I've never suffered from allergies as much as over the past few days. What has happened? I feel as though my body is betraying me. It is holding onto weight and it really wants anithistamines badly every day. I was always the person who seemed nearly immune to allergies. How does that change, and why?
I'm typically a daily weigher who posts it on a chart. I also always wear a heart rate monitor when I exercise, and for a year or so have worn a body media fit. I stopped the fit a few months ago, haven't replaced the batteries in my HRM from where they died a few months ago and still today didn't step on the scale, and now I've had water so won't do it. I think I'm falling apart.
I'm typically a daily weigher who posts it on a chart. I also always wear a heart rate monitor when I exercise, and for a year or so have worn a body media fit. I stopped the fit a few months ago, haven't replaced the batteries in my HRM from where they died a few months ago and still today didn't step on the scale, and now I've had water so won't do it. I think I'm falling apart.
Shannon, pull yourself together. I know what you can do when you are determined.
I'm typically a daily weigher who posts it on a chart. I also always wear a heart rate monitor when I exercise, and for a year or so have worn a body media fit.
Am I correct in thinking you also count calories? That is a lot of data-collecting and data monitoring, Shannon. Do you think that maybe part of you is rebelling against all the effort this input, recording and interpreting of data requires? And because you aren't doing it all consistently, you don't want to do any part of it? If this were me -- because you & I share a lot of the same anxieties -- I'd put a big red sticker on this: "All or Nothing Thinking Never Helps."
You were carrying an awful lot. And if you drop a lot of pieces all over the floor, it's hard to gather them all back up again in one single fell swoop. When your rebellion is over -- unless you want to continue it for a little while longer -- can you try to pick them up again, one by one? At least the ones you feel you really, really need, the must-haves, not the nice-to-haves? Start with just one thing. Focus only on that. Set yourself up for a little success.
Am I correct in thinking you also count calories? That is a lot of data-collecting and data monitoring, Shannon. Do you think that maybe part of you is rebelling against all the effort this input, recording and interpreting of data requires? And because you aren't doing it all consistently, you don't want to do any part of it? If this were me -- because you & I share a lot of the same anxieties -- I'd put a big red sticker on this: "All or Nothing Thinking Never Helps."
You were carrying an awful lot. And if you drop a lot of pieces all over the floor, it's hard to gather them all back up again in one single fell swoop. When your rebellion is over -- unless you want to continue it for a little while longer -- can you try to pick them up again, one by one? At least the ones you feel you really, really need, the must-haves, not the nice-to-haves? Start with just one thing. Focus only on that. Set yourself up for a little success.
I am a reader of "O" magazine's columnist Martha Beck. I don't necessarily agree with everything she says - starting with the fact she was calling herself a "life coach" for awhile - but she stated something interesting in one of her columns.
Apparently many North American people tend to focus much more on negative thoughts and experiences than positive ones. I am in that camp (unfortunately) and IMHO think a lot of you here are also there. I am not a believer in the "positive, positive all the time" approach (whether for dog training or my own life ) but maybe we could all focus on one positive aspect of our lives when the negative things start to overwhelm us?
I can think of at least one positive thing about each of you and I'm sure you all can think of one about me. Maybe we should start reminding each other of the good stuff, as well as supporting each other through the bad?
Just a thought. Hope no one is offended by any of this.
I am so impressed by your personal strength: in dealing with your father, in dealing with your DH, and in handling a number of dogs, often in very challenging weather.
Thank you, Dagmar. Your suggestion has also increased courtesy levels, already high here.
Tomorrow morning I'll get on the scales. In all the chat about do I, don't I, shall I, shan't I, no-one has mentioned my main reason for not weighing myself: it is too cold in the bathroom to take all my clothes off, and there is nowhere else to have the scales. No room in the tiny bedroom, the sitting room is a thoroughfare in the morning, likewise the kitchen, and the garden room has a big window and all next door's visiting cats and chickens would see me. But tomorrow I'll bite the bullet.
I'll let you know. Shannon, we could have one of those pacts: I will if you will. Think of my goosepimpley body turning whiter and then blue. Laugh as you luxuriate in the warm Atlanta air and relax into it. Srsly, I could do with a bit of sustained warmth. It's been sustained rain all day and I've had the fire lit.
We went out and bought patio furniture while the wind whipped tiny hailstones around. A peculiar Canadian irony. Now I have put the central heating back on in the house. And deferred washing my parka and putting it away once again.
I'll join in the "I will if you will" weigh in tomorrow morning. I haven't been and I'm not too concerned but I should have a basis for which to start my next dogsit (Thursday). They don't have a scale in their house - the woman is rail thin and her husband doesn't really care any more. Both of them do work out but they like to eat full fat cheese, drink wine, and they eat potato chips with sandwiches for lunch.
Part of me greatly admires this abandon in mid life. Potato chips at lunch! But I know I can't eat like that and come home and then fit into my shorts (which, ever hopeful, I did take out and dewrinkle last week).
Good end to the weekend all! And tomorrow let's be kind to ourselves, whatever number we come up with. :
. I am pretty neutral 
about the number now, but I have no desire to fit into a bikini or a tiny size of jeans any more. I was weighing myself Mon., Wed., and Fri., no matter what, but now I'm down to once a week on Monday. 
:
I cut back. If it's flatter I can eat a bit more. A couple of lbs. either way isn't such a big deal any more.
thoughts and experiences than positive 
ones. I am in that camp (unfortunately) and IMHO think a lot of you here are also there. I am not a believer in the "positive, positive all the time" approach 
(whether for dog training or my own life 
) but maybe we could all focus on one positive aspect of our lives when the negative things start to overwhelm us?
about each of you and I'm sure you all can think of one about me. Maybe we should start reminding each other of the good stuff, as well as supporting each other through the bad?
if they ask. 
A peculiar Canadian irony. Now I have put the central heating back on in the house. And deferred washing my parka and putting it away once again. 
