I just finished reading MizFit's "The Power of the Scale" and accompanying comments. Good discussion! An earlier discussion on that topic led me to shift my weekly reporting focus from how much weight I'd lost to how I'd done with my health goals. It felt good to make the change.
One commenter, Tricia, said the scale was currently serving as a compass for her: "...I need it to help me to head in the direction I want to go. When I get there I think that may not so much be the case, but now it is." I really liked that analogy, and I feel the same way about it. That said, I do weigh in daily but track weekly in my health log. In a way, having other tools is pretty helpful...for me, the scale number pales in obsession-worthiness to a blood glucose level. And the monthly tape measure can be comforting that there's other good progress when the scale is standing still.
But the post got me thinking: do I actually have a secret obsession with the scale? How would I feel if I only stepped on it once a week? On the one hand, I remember from my WW days that the weekly weigh-in was fraught with much angst/anticipation. Would I be giving the scale more power? Or would the anxiety just prove that I'm too dependent? (Do I have the uncanny ability to overanalyze things? ;-) On the other, knowing I wasn’t going to have that particular bit of datum every day might inspire me to be more careful with my food & moving habits.
How often do you weigh in? How does that frequency affect your habits?
6 comments:
I just found you on Mizfit's site. She got me thinking..no more weighing daily. As women, we sometimes fluctuate 2-3lbs in a day. It is about how your clothes feel, losing inches, not necessarily numbers.
Thanks for stopping by my blog!
Ideally, I'd like those to be my indicators, too. I don't think I'm
ready for it yet, though. I spent many years ignoring the whole realm
of my physical well-being: scale numbers, ever-tightening pants,
feeling tired and run-down, and symptoms of diabetes. So, for me
right now, it's one of the tools of my course-correction. I am going
to try, for this week, only weighing in once, on my usual "recording"
day and see how it feels.
I go back and forth on the need for a scale. I lost almost all my weight without a scale in my house--just weekly weigh ins at w.w. Now I go from weighing daily, to twice a week. There are certain days I won't weigh, because I know it will be a 'false-positive'--abnormally high d/t travel, etc.
I haven't even read Miz yet. I'll head over there next.
I weigh in weekly at WW. Anymore than that and I'd be obsessive (as evidenced by my compulsive desire to step on the scale at my friends' homes!). I got rid of my scale a few years ago and have no plans to buy another. I can tell how I'm doing by looking at my stomach in the mirror.
Your turn! I did level 2 today!
I decided to weigh in once a month now - there are too many fluctuations day to day that I would get discouraged.
And from my WW days, you can't always expect the scale to be kind to you on the day of weigh in, as if it knows how well you did the previous six days.
I just took my measurements too and that's speaks just as much as the weight on the scale! :D
I gotta say I read that post too and it was really really good. I am a weekly weigher. If it were the Price is Right game, I'd prefer my number stay in a certain "range" and when it ventures out of that range, then I get scared. Of course I'd like the "range" to be some lower numbers, but if they hover, like they have for a while, at least I know there's not a significant gain to battle.
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