Am I the only one scared of failure?

  • Okay so, a few days ago I got the most amazing news ever....the scale at my gym was wrong -- HORIBBLY, HORIBBLY WRONG. It said I was 209, the next day it said I was 205. I realized it was broken, so I asked the staff to calibrate it. Imagine my surprise when a digital scale in thier office said I was actually 202! I couldn't believe it. I made three staff members get on it and weight themselves in front of me before I accepted the weight it told me I was. But now I'm afraid. I've kept up my exercises, I've kept calorie counting, but I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that I'm TWO POUNDS FROM MY FIRST MINI GOAL. Now I'm afraid to get on the scale again. What if, somehow I've gained weight? What if I get on that scale and find out that I never lost any weight at all? I know it sounds crazy, but I am so afraid to fail that I'm losing the nerve to face the scale everyday. Please tell me that, as irrational as this may be, I'm not the only one who's ever done this. I need to know how to handle it......
  • So . . . don't face the scale everyday . . . it is just one wy to measure your progress. You are so much more than a number, Chickie.

    Think about how your feel; think about how your clothes fit; think about the fact that you are really trying and that is all anyone can expect of themselves. We are all afraid of failure . . . the trick is to make sure that the fear isn't so strong that we never even try. Lack of trying is the way to make sure you fail.

    Hang in there -- you can do it.
  • congrats on the weightloss so far! you are rockin and rollin! I HATE SCCALESSS!!!! I go by the way my clothes fit and the way I feel! I weighed myself at home on my digital scale and I had lost like 25 pounds. I went to a friend and weighed on her scale and it said I had lost like 15 pounds blah I went to the Dr. and they said I had lost only 10 Pounds! I was so mad! So now I go by how I feel! lose clothes are the best~ being able to wash my jeans and actually dry the in the dryer cause they are to big is amazing!!! Good luck to you chica~

    Jodi
  • OH I definitely understand that fear. Earlier this month when I lost a couple of pounds through food poisoning, I was frightened for days afterwards to get on the scales in case I'd gone up - which of course I did, inevitably, when I went from not eating + throwing up to eating minus throwing up. Yesterday I got down to 200, today I'm the same but terrified that I won't hang on here, that I'll bounce back up again.

    I think the only handle I have and can recommend is from another site I belong to: 'I am responsible for my efforts, not for my results'; that plus hanging on to the knowledge that if I continue to eat and exercise like this, it would utterly defy the laws of nature if I didn't - eventually - lose weight. We just have to learn to live with the eventuallies.....

    Good news about the scales though and great work on your total loss!
  • I feel that way sometimes, actually more so the closer I get to my goal... Like I am SO CLOSE, but I will never quite get there. But the way I look at it is that i've got two choices:

    1. Just give up. Now, when I'm so close. And know that I'll be forever kicking myself for quitting when I had ALMOST accomplished what I set out to do.

    2. Keep going and keep working at it. The worst that will happen is that I find out that it will take me a little longer to get there than I thought.