wingo1's Journal

The Scale Is Your Friend! Take Advantage of'em!
Jan 14 2009 21:35

Contrary to popular belief, I'm an advocate of weighing yourself as much as ya want, within reason of course.  For one, it's important to know when and when not to weigh yourself.  For the most part, the scale has been a MAJOR motivator in my weight lost!  Now, some of the experts aren't liking me with saying this!

I think weighing yourself 2-3/week has been sufficient for me!  The scale is a direct measure of success for weight lost!!!  However, I've had to learn that, as I develop more muscle tone, the scale might not always be reflective of what I think it should be.  The scale will tell me, however, if I'm not working hard enough with my diet and activity level.

-Always weigh yourself in the morning, before you eat anything!  Why weigh yourself after you've eaten something.  Hey, so what if you're psyching yourself out with the scale.  I've turned this all into fuel for motivation.   Sometimes, I like to weigh myself after a good workout at the gym. 

-Don't weigh yourself if ya know you haven't been living up to your diet and/or exercising for a period of time.  Why feed yourself voluntary negative feedback.  However, with this, if you've lost focus for some extended period of time--say 2 weeks plus, weighing yourself can be a great motivator in helping ya get back on track. I had to do this today.  I knew I wasn't working well on my diet and exercising.  Well, I had gained 7 pounds.  I didn't get discouraged; it made me so eager to get back into the gym.  As easy as I can gain 7 pounds, I know I can lose it.  A lot of those 7 pounds is just retained water and food on the belly. 

-Write down on a calendar, your weigh-in weight!  This is good to see your progressions(or regressions) over time. 

So, what works for me, is what I've stated above!  Us humans are built to have a need for validation.  The scale gives me this validation in concrete numbers.  I welcome all opinions on this topic!  Other measurable entities regarding body mass and weight lost may be more pertinent, but the old fashion scale is our most readily available tool to us.  I try to look at weighing myself in a very superficial way, meaning that I block out all other opinions and facts related to weighing oneself.  It's all about me, and what the scale says.  The scale doesn't lie, however.  It might not solely tell the whole truth.    

Thanks,

Wingo