Progress

Monday, November 21, 2011

Scale Avoidance

OK...So we've all read blogs and answered questions about how we feel about the scale.  Obviously we have the love/hate relationship...love see numbers go down, hate seeing numbers go up.  Most of us never looked at scale, owned a scale, possibly even acknowledged the existence of scales while we were gaining all of our weight unless we were on one of the countless diets to lose the weight.  Then we've answered the questions of how often we weigh...daily vs weekly vs monthly vs 18 times a day in varying degrees of nudity.  Some of you have divorced your scales while others get on on it religiously.

I've commented on many of your blogs about this but thought I'd put it out there in my own.  I weigh every week, religiously, never to miss unless I'm out of town or something but since I never travel this is rarely an issue.  I don't weigh every day because daily fluctuations can really mess with my head.  One day of too much sodium can wreak havoc on a daily weigh in and I just don't need that kind of stress.  I can't divorce the scale (yet) because I gained all of my weight when I didn't even own a scale.  So weekly works for me.  It allows me to see steady progress sometimes over too much time but overall, gives me a sense of where I really am.  If I always retain water on Mondays because I never drink it on the weekends (ahem) then it's still an accurate reading as long as I'm always retaining water on Mondays.  Make sense?  Good.

So why am I talking about the scale today?  Well...it's a little bit of accountability for yours truly.  This morning was the first morning in a VERY long time where I actually debated whether or not to weigh in today.  I was about to make the conscious decision NOT to weigh myself this week.  Why?  Because of how I ate this weekend.  I had Starbucks EVERY DAY.  I had CANDY, chips and half a soda on Friday.  I ate at a buffet for the first time in a year on Saturday, overindulged on desserts and had 4 pina coladas!  4 creamy luscious, high-calorie pina coladas.  Sunday saw fried jalapeno coins and onion rings...steak fries!  A milkshake!  Apparently, I lost my mind somewhere this weekend and really just took on a "F*** it!" approach to eating.  And did I work out and be extra active to make up for this?  Oh no!  Not I!  I got in a whopping 45 minutes of activity.  "At least you drank your water Panda."  Nope...sure didn't.  I had iced tea, pina coladas (as previously mentioned), soda and pretty much NUSSIN' else!  So when I woke up and looked at the scale,  I knew it wasn't going to be good.  I knew I had a terrible weekend and I didn't want to own up to it.  I didn't want to step on the scale and see that number go up after hitting an all time low last week.  I didn't want to feel that anguish and disappointment of another bad week that always seems to come with a gain on the scale.

Don't worry.  I'm not looking for a "It's a new week.  You can do it!" comment or "We all fall off the wagon sometimes" comment or even a "Get off your butt and do something about it" wake up call comment.  I've already done all of that in my head.  Let's face it.  It's Thanksgiving week.  I'm not saying that as an excuse to go apeshit and eat everything in sight all week long but there's definitely going to be some overindulgence.  There just is.  I'm making 3 homemade pies, mashed potatoes, yams and buying wine by the gallon.  If you think for one second that I won't sample in all that, then I've seriously misled you on how much progress I've made this year.  But here's the difference.  I know that whatever nominal gain I have over this week or even the entirety of the silly season, I'll take it back off.  I know what I need to do.  I know how to work my band.  I know that it's not the end of the world, the end of my journey or any major indicator of the type of person I am or am going to be.  It's a number that will go up and down depending on my actions and how much effort I put into staying where I want to be.  And I'm up to that challenge and the emotional roller coaster that stepping on that scale will bring.

Weigh In: 160.  +1 from last week...not as bad as it could've been.

Your Monday DEMotivation:

7 comments:

Steph said...

This is why we hate out bodies. We can eat like crap one week and only have a gain of 1 lbs (which is really pretty great in the grand scheme of things), but other weeks, we can eat like the patron saint of Lap Banders and show a 3 lb. gain due to some freaky thing like water weight.

Thanksgiving will be ok for us all if we just remember to do things in moderation and don't hate ourselves for enjoying every moment of time with our families!

Lap Band Gal said...

I like your accountability and realization that a weekly weigh-in is important to your progress :)

Nora said...

Jeez, that isn't a bad gain at all!!!

Anonymous said...

Yes, Manda, you need to weigh in even if just to keep yourself accountable.
But seriously, I though you were going to report a five to ten pound gain.... one pound, you got that under control!!

Cece said...

I'm more interested in fried jalapeno coins ... what are they?

Andrea said...

It's good that we have the scale and the blogs to keep us accountable. Yeah when I was gaining all the weight I sure wasn't paying attention to the scale!

Rhonda said...

Applause! I never can avoid that evil scale... especially when I assume I've gained 10 lbs overnight. It helps me to see that small gain and move on (and hopefully down!). If I don't see it, I think, "Well, just one more day of bad eating then." ;)