Tracking your weight….
So how does it make you feel when you’re about to step on the scales. Anxious, embarrassed, frustrated, excited?! Well these are all valid emotions and more to feel before you step on them. For a variety of reasons but what’s important is that you don’t get fixated on these feelings. Numbers don’t define you as a person. Numbers don’t make you a good/bad person. What they are there for is to support you with achieving goals. It’s a guidance – remember no by standard scale is 100% accurate. What you need to do is be consistent with the scales you’re using.
So how have I felt over the past 8 months of weigh ins… I won’t lie it’s been hard at times. Some weigh in days have really flipped my mindset negatively. But as mentioned in a previous blog I was pretty addicted to tracking my weight after my weight loss so stepping on any set of scales plays with a difficult place in my mind anyway. But I understand the reasoning and the benefits of using them in conjunction with pictures and measurements. So with the first few times I was pretty happy with the numbers – they were going down and everything was good, the pictures well I wasn’t so keen on them and I really wasn’t seeing the changes. The measurements however supported the scales changes so it wasn’t all bad. Unfortunately I picked up an injury which meant training was predominantly upper body focused for a good six weeks. This is where things started changing – I wasn’t hitting the classes I normally would, I wasn’t doing the prowler stretches I would always do – so the scales took a hit – I didn’t like what I saw! I punished myself that night I didn’t eat dinner in fact I punished myself for a few days eating very little but not just that my actual appetite went. So as much as I wasn’t fuelling my body my mind wasn’t telling me it was hungry. This only lasted a couple of days and I came round again. Back to my 3 meals and training what I could when I could.
I’ve come a long way I’m able to look at myself in the mirror (naked!) but I know food still plays a huge part in my life not just for fuelling but it plays on my mind. I become self conscious about eating around people, wondering if they’re judging me. This comes from my anxiety which I will talk about in another topic but everything is so closely linked. I track my calories and macros now – and it’s not obsessive, I can go for meals out or weekends away and not track but put a pretty decent guess as to whether the plate is balanced to meet the daily needs. And I’m learning to look at it over a week rather than on a day to day basis – because I’ve realised that one day (as long as it is just one day) it down make or break my goals.
I am effected hugely by my emotions, by the time I train and a number of other components but I am usually able to do what needs doing – which is fuelling my body to succeed in reaching my goal sets. I’ve also come to realise that my weight will fluctuate through the month and has a huge amount of variables attached to it. Take your weight with a pinch of salt (especially if the scales are not calibrated regularly and in gym settings) If you’re weighing yourself at home then stick to regular times and keep as many of the variables the same as possible.
