This week’s tip is something I’m commonly asked.
What is it?
“How often should I weigh myself?”
Daily, weekly, monthly, never?
We get a lot of conflicting advice about the scales.
For example, if you’ve come from a corporate background where progress is measured through KPIs. Or if you’ve come from a Weight Watchers background then you’re used to frequent weigh-ins.
Which is based on the idea:
“what gets measured, gets done.”
But, I’ve found – specifically with us women – that daily weighing leads to perfectionist thinking. Daily weigh-ins are a really quick way for us to self-sabotage.
Blokes are different!
Now, if I was talking to blokes, I’d suggest daily weigh-ins because they are biologically programmed to shift the weight more quickly and easily than we are.
It’s a sad fact of life. For men, daily weigh-ins can be very motivating.
But for us women, what I encourage you to do is put the scales away.
Here’s why.
When we women stand on the scale, only one of three things can happen.
1. The scale goes up
“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh CRAP!!!”
Adrenaline, stress hormones, cortisol, and that deflation of “nothing EVER works for me!”
Very often our response to that is to self-soothe and commiserate with chocolate. Not very helpful!
2. The scale remains the same
Boooooooo, the dreaded plateau. Once again, we go into that place of self-doubt,
adrenalin-fuelled anxiety. Hello, self-soothing chocolate!
3.The number goes down
Even when the number moves in our desired direction, we still self-sabotage!
Either with:
a. “Yahooooooo,” I’m stoked!” and—you guessed it—I’m going to celebrate with some chocolate.
Or, b. “Ohhhhhh man, is that all I lost, I expected more than that,” where’s that chocolate?
So, having worked with hundreds of women, you can see the theme developing here.
Regular weigh-ins cause self-sabotage.
No matter what the number reads, we use that number, as a way of beating ourselves up— and that makes progress virtually impossible.
For us women, the scale has an eye-watering ability to make us feel bad, to trap us in that shaming space of feeling yuuuuck.
Give yourself space to change
When you’re first pregnant, can the outside world see the miraculous shifts happening inside you?
Course it can’t.
The mirror only reflects the changes in the second trimester.
Becoming your happy shape and size is a similar journey. The scales simply aren’t sophisticated enough to show all the changes happening inside.
The real goal is learning to measure your progress by more encouraging means.
For example, notice how loose your shirts are becoming, how easily your jeans button up, or becoming aware of how energised you feel. Or, noticing how confident and in control you feel.
Because that’s what becoming our happy shape and size is really about. It’s about how good you feel inside. NOT the number on a scale.
Sooner or later, you realise you don’t need a scale to tell prove that you’re making
progress—you know you are. You can see it in your changing silhouette in the mirror.
I invite you to put down your beating-up-stick, take back your power and allow the scales to gather dust in the cupboard.
Give yourself the gift of space. Space to change.
Remember, the scales can’t tell you how beautiful YOU are, or how valuable YOU are.
