Tag Slave to the scale

I’ve had a couple of people ask me this recently so let’s jump in.

First of all, what is a cheat meal?

Basically, a cheat meal is where you give yourself permission to eat whatever you want, and it usually involves a lot of junk food.

Some dieters have a specific cheat meal, whereas other people have a cheat day.

But I’m not judging you!

I used to do it.

I’d spend all week living on rice cakes and salad, depriving myself of all the foods I actually wanted to eat, when Friday evening came – I went mental.

I’d demolish a tub of ice cream, a packet of family-sized salt and vinegar chips, and liquorice allsorts.

I’d go CRAZY.

That was my go to cheat meal.

After living on rice cakes all week, it felt so good to eat unencumbered.

I’d obsess about what I was going to binge on at my cheat meal all week.

Ironically, I’d consume so many calories in the form of junk in that one cheat meal, I’d completely undo any calorie deficit I’d created during the week.

And sadly, there were no vitamins, minerals or nourishment in that cheat meal.

Doesn’t work for sustainable or joyful weight loss.

Cheat meals are a popular trend in the fitness industry.

Some people say it’s good to get all your cravings out in one go and shock your metabolism – many bodybuilders use it as a weight loss strategy.

If it is working for you – yay, keep on doing what works.

But I’m going to make the assumption that you’re not a bodybuilder.

If you’re like the women I work with, extreme dieting combined with cheat meals is a miserable way to live your life.

It’s punishing and oppressive and rigid.

And it doesn’t work for weight loss!!!

Having eliminated cheat days from my life, I literally eat what I want.

And yes that includes cake!

But now, mostly what I crave is real food – veges, fruit, and ‘real’ food jam-packed with vitamins and minerals.

Ditch the cheat meal as a first step.

As a first step to creating peace with food, I encourage you to ditch the cheat day mentality and instead focus on nourishing your body.

Have a lovely week!

Love etc, Avril

PS: If you’d like to cultivate a more peaceful relationship with food that doesn’t involve guilt, or shame or cheat days and – where no food is off-limits – why not come on over to Peace With Food.

How often do you yourself?

Daily, weekly, monthly, never?

There’s a lot of conflicting advice out there about the scales.

For example, if you come from a Weight Watchers background then you’re used to frequent weigh-ins.

These frequent weigh-ins are based on the idea: “what gets measured, gets done.”

And I agree – but only if you’re a bloke!

Men do great with frequent weigh-ins because they are biologically programmed to shift the weight more quickly than we are.

(It’s a sad fact of life, ladies.)

For men, daily weigh-ins can be very motivating.

But for us women, what I encourage you to do is toss the scales.

I’ve found – specifically with us women – that frequent weigh-ins leads to perfectionist thinking.

Which is a sure way to self-sabotage.

Here’s why.

When we women stand on the scale, only one of three things can happen.

1. The scale goes up

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh CRAP!!!”

Stress hormones flood our body along with that frustration of “nothing EVER works for me!”

Which leads to commiserating with chocolate. Not very helpful!

2. The scale remains the same

“Boooooooo, the dreaded plateau. What’s the point?”

Once again, we can go into that place of self-doubt and 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:

1. “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, you can see the theme developing here.

Regular weigh-ins cause self-sabotage for women.

No matter what the number reads, we use that number, as a way of beating ourselves up— and that makes progress virtually impossible.

The freedom you seek does not come from a number on the scales.

The freedom you seek comes from a deep and loving acceptance of yourself.

We women to give ourselves ‘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.

So I encourage you to measure your progress by more encouraging means, like noticing how easily your jeans button up, or becoming aware of how energised 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.

I invite you to toss your scales and use more encouraging ways to measure your progress.

So let me know, does that resonate with you? How will you change your behaviour based on what you’ve learned today?

I hope you find it helpful.

And remember, the scales can’t tell you how beautiful YOU are, or how valuable YOU are.