Quote:
Originally Posted by milmin2043
I have heard that she has decided not to worry about the number on the scale, but concentrate on health and happiness. Me too, but I still believe that I will always worry about the number, along with health and happiness.
For some people, this can be a necessary stage of personal development. I really think it was time spent "not worrying about the number," that in the long run actually saved my life. When I focused primarily on the number, I tended to do unhealthy things to lose the weight.
Focusing on the numbers most of my life (since my first diet in kindergarten) I had only ever been (ultimately) unsuccesful with weight loss. I was always either losing weight rapidly or gaining weight rapidly. Maintaining my weight wasn't a skill I had ever developed.
If I hadn't spent a few years "not worrying about the number" I don't think I ever would have learned to maintain weight loss. I always would have been losing or gaining, never maintaining.
Eventually, the numbers had to become important again, but they never again would be top priority to the exclusion of common sense. When the number was most important, I was always willing to do unhealthy things to make the numbers move faster (because that was always my first concern).
For me (and I'm not saying for everyone else) I had to diet "backwards," taking the number almost completely out of the equation. I decided instead of focusing on the number, I'd decide what healthy changes I was willing to make whether or not it resulted in weight loss. Weight loss became the reward rather than the goal.
I'm at the point now where the number has to be part of the goal, but it's still a struggle to give the number it's necessary, but no greater importance. Keeping it in perspective is still difficult. I'm still tempted to resort to unhealthy and unsustainable methods for the sake of speed.
Maybe a little time off of the diet rollercoaster, will allow her to recharge and refocus. It helped me. I just wish I had done so decades ago, before the rollercoaster became so ingrained in my habits that it has become my "autopilot" mode. Unlearning has been harder than any learning ever was.