Allowing your week to revolve around one event generally isn’t a good idea. If that one event turns sour, so does your week. When you are on a diet, your weigh-in can become that one event. If your diet is important to you, then your weigh-in will also be very important to you. A weigh-in will give you “thumbs up,” “thumbs down” or “hanging on”; it is your weekly progress report.
I used to feel elated when I got a “thumbs up,” and dejected when I got a “thumbs down.” Sometimes those feelings would last all week until the next weigh-in, which would either confirm the feeling or change it. Please don’t make it this way for you. The weigh-in gives you feedback, and feedback is extremely important. Treat it as information and stay off the emotional roller coaster.
What can you do to help yourself just before you step on the scale? Do you have any last requests? Is there anything else you can do to increase your probability of success? If you are thinking about taking fast-acting laxatives, I’ll give you a few bonus points for thinking outside of the box, but please do not rely on such substances. I certainly wouldn’t want to compound my problems by getting addicted to something else besides food.
On certain weeks where I knew I would not have a favorable weigh-in, I wanted to clip my nails shorter than ever, get all the wax out of my ears and shave my head (anything to make me weigh less), but clearly I just needed to do better the following week. That’s about all one can do.
Then there were the weeks when I knew I would have a great weigh-in. The night before weighing myself, I would lie in my bed, wanting to fall asleep as fast as possible so that tomorrow would arrive sooner. I couldn’t wait to get on that scale, much like a child cannot wait to open his birthday presents. I would mark down that one or two pound loss and glow with pride. My confidence rose on such days.
My process of getting on the scale is by no means simple. I tried to get on the scale as lightly as possible rather than jumping on. I didn’t want to rattle the Fat Gods or anything like that. While both hands were pushing off of two different bathroom ledges, I would place my left foot on the scale. Slowly I would raise my right foot onto the scale while my hands were still responsible for cheating the scale reading by 30 pounds. Gradually, I would reduce the pressure from my hands and I would see the reading start to rise. How far would it rise? At the very point my hands would lose contact from the walls, I could see how I had done that week.
If I gained a pound, I usually weighed myself again, but I always got the same result. It was worth a try. If I lost some weight, I did not weigh myself again. My thinking was that the second weighing might be higher. Why not leave a good thing alone?
Many times before the weigh-in I used to starve myself for a day. I wanted to nail the weigh-in that badly. What would happen after the weigh-in? I would scarf down enough food for three people. I figured I could do this since I wouldn’t have to weigh-in for another seven days.
I don’t think this was a good idea (no kidding, Johnny). Overall it just threw me out of balance. I think it is much better to be consistent day in and day out than starving yourself one or two specific days a week. You will just end up wreaking havoc with your metabolism.
Remember that it is much more important to be consistent than carefree on your diet. This doesn’t mean that you can’t be carefree in other areas of your life. Why not wear fancy clothes but eat simply?
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