Many clients are confused as to how often they should weigh themselves.
My advice is delightfully simple.
Don’t.
Having worked with hundreds of women, here’s why.
When you step on the scale, only one of three things can happen.
1.The number goes up
“Oh craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap!!!” we think as we immediately go into that place of self-doubt and fear, that deflated place of ‘nothing ever works for me.’ The stress hormone adrenalin floods our body causing us to feel anxious, and we head straight for the pantry, to commiserate with some soothing chocolate.
2. The number remains the same: the dreaded plateau
As above, we go into that place of self-doubt, negative self-talk kicks in and adrenalin-fuelled anxiety. Hello, Plateau Panic and more chocolate.
3. The number goes down
Even when the number goes in our desired direction, we still self-sabotage. Either with:
- “Yahooooooo,” I’m stoked!” and – you guessed it – we head directly to the pantry for some celebratory chocolate!!!
- Or, “Oh man, that must’ve been a fluke, I must’ve been lucky,” where’s that chocolate.
Again, the self-doubt, negative self-talk and adrenalin. Can you see a theme developing here?
Irrespective of what the number reads, we use the information the scale provides, as our excuse to sabotage – making progress impossible.
Even though the scale is an inanimate object, it has this eye-watering ability to ruin our day, steal our power and trap us in self-sabotaging habits.
How to get freedom from the scale?
Clients who’ve become entrenched in the scales-as-the-boss-of-me way of life, find it challenging to ditch the scale at first. I’ve been there.
What I suggest is to you give yourself the ‘gift of space’ from the authoritarian number on the scales, by weighing yourself a maximum of once per month.
A monthly weigh-in allows you to track your progress, without the daily ups and downs of fluid retention or time-of-the-month heaviness, which can be disempowering.
Give yourself space to change
For example, when you’re first pregnant, the outside world can’t see the miraculous shifts happening inside you. The mirror only reflects the changes in the second trimester. Your weight journey is similar. The scales simply aren’t sophisticated enough to show all the changes happening inside.
The real goal is learning to listen to our bodies. And part of that is learning to track our progress by other measures, e.g. how lose your knickers become, how easily your jeans button up, or how invigorated your energy levels feel.
After a while, you realise you don’t need a scale to tell you you’re making progress – you can feel that bounce in your step, you can see your silhouette changing shape in the mirror, you feel in control and confident.
But, to create these changes, you first needed to give yourself space to change – away from the scale. Take back your power by allowing the scales to gather dust in the cupboard.
Why not lay down your personal beating-myself-up-stick, and take back your power by giving yourself the gift of space too?
Love etc, Avril
PS: If you’d like to experience freedom from the scales and be able to control your weight without scales, hypnotherapy might just be the answer for you. Why not drop me a line so you can experience the freedom from the scale obsession…
