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Ruled by the bathroom scales
Isn’t it amazing how a number on the scales can determine what sort of day we are going to have. I’ve met hundreds and hundreds of people who weigh themselves religiously every day, hoping for a weight loss. Most people have their own little ritual of when they weigh themselves, what they will wear and how many times they will move or tilt the scale in order to get a better reading! I am no stranger to this ritual myself. I spent many years allowing a number on a scale to dictate my mood for the day. If it had dared to go up then my mood plummeted. Thankfully today, |  |
for me I have released the obsession with daily weighing……. actually if I am honest it was more like ten times per day!
Countless times I’ve watched people remove every possible item of clothing, right down to earrings just so they may be a fraction of a pound lighter. They will starve themselves all day, go to the toilet several times to make sure every last drop of urine has left their body and even stand in their bra and pants to reach target weight! I guess only a desperate dieter can understand the sheer desperation when we know each quarter of a pound will make so much difference.
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To someone who does not have an obsession with the scales, they must think that it is complete madness to be so crazy over something so small. But to us it feels as though our lives depend upon it. There is nothing rationale about weighing once a day. In fact it would be very interesting to do a research project to see if people actually gain more weight because they weigh themselves so often. All it seems to do is lower our self esteem, which is usually pretty low in the first place because of the weight issue or eating disorder. |
Once a month is often enough to weigh, if you actually need to weigh at all. The scales are not the only measure for weight loss. If you were stranded on a desert island without your scales you would be able to tell if you had lost weight. You would know that your clothes were feeling a bit loose or that a belt needed to be moved to another notch. But if we are totally honest we can actually feel that we are losing weight.
Have you ever tried to get rid of your scales? I could write a very humorous book about my scales. When I first tried to get rid of the scales I actually had to given them to my brother who lived nearby me at the time. I told him not to return them to me no matter how hard I pleaded until a month had passed. It was actually a miracle that I achieved that goal because the scales so were ingrained in my life! That was how I moved to monthly weighing. One day I realised that my mood was still affected for a few days after standing on the scales, so I made a decision to dump the scales completely. I had asked my husband to remove the scales and hide them (which he normally did very obligingly), but for some reason he thought I would be able to cope with them in the wardrobe. One day I just got up and threw them into the outside bin and put dirty rubbish all over them, knowing that I would not retrieve them. It was the best thing I ever did. I learned that I could live without knowing how much I weighed. I could feel good without knowing what I weighed and I could look after my body so much better when I didn’t put pressure on myself to be a target weight.
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Today I have bought a pair of scales and I have returned to monthly weighing because the number on the scale no longer affects me. My weight is either static or moving downwards but because I have sorted out my food issues it has never moved upwards. For the first time in my life I am at peace with the scales and they no longer rule my life. If you let the scales rule your life, I would urge you to let them go and start learning to live with freedom from the scales.
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