My scale is still en route to Washington, DC.
I mailed my scale and most of my other possessions from San Diego to DC via USPS. And it has taken forever (only a week so far) to get here.
The beauty of being without a scale is that I have no clue what I weigh.
That beauty is also a double-edged sword. Having no clue what I weigh is both liberating and downright nerve-wrecking.
Sometimes, I just want to know!
Normally, I weigh myself once every day, in the morning right after I wake up and go use the potty. But I’ve been scale-free since last Tuesday.
At first, I had this ridiculous urge to weigh myself. It was as if I was addicted to the scale.
I realize now that the scale had become something like cocaine.
It was a drug I couldn’t get enough of, and I was almost mentally controlled by it.
I wouldn’t get upset with small fluctuations, but I think using the scale so frequently made me lose sight of the big picture. Instead of worrying about long-term, my daily weigh-ins changed my mentality into focusing on the short-term.
And this journey is a lifelong, forever type. Short term just doesn’t work.
Perhaps weighing daily has been one of the causes of my mindless eating. Maybe it was why I kept sabotaging myself and my efforts.
I’m glad my scale is still somewhere in the postal system (though I want my other stuff).
Being without a scale has taught me to aim for some balance and remember that I am more than just a number.
I have eaten more sensibly this week. I have been listening to my body, intuitively eating while also calorie counting.
And though I still have urges to weigh myself, the urges are less mind-controlling than before.
I didn’t realize how a scale could be so addicting, and in such a negative way, until I was forced to live without it.
For some people, it’s soda and coffee. For others, it’s cigarettes and alcohol. For me, it’s the scale.
But I am slowly winning this battle.
My goal for when the scale finally arrives?
Return to weighing myself only once a week.
Are you a scale addict?
Do you weigh yourself daily, weekly, monthly, ever?
What are you addicted to?
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Female. 25 years old. Chinese. Cook. Foodie. UCLA grad. Traveler. Musician. Scuba diver. GWU Law. Runner.
I read in Reader’s Digest this week about weighing twice a week: once on Friday, when you’re most likely to weigh the least, and once on Monday so you can make sure the weekend didn’t throw you off to much. For me, I weigh on Thursday and Friday and take the lesser of two evils for my “official” weight for the week.
Guilty!! I’m a scale addict.
I weigh myself every morning when I get out of bed and sometimes at night.
I even weight myself while on vacation in Portugal.
It’s become a terrible addiction, one that I need to break soon.
I am addicted to the scale, I weigh myself daily. I cannot help it. It really keeps me in check.
I was addicted. But I recently broke up with my scale:
http://gamereviewwiki.com/bikinibirthday/2010/06/17/the-break-up/
But I do keep going back to him like a battered wife.
Weight Scale = Cocaine. Interesting comparison…the sad thing – I can see the similarities all to clearly. I hope you get your stuff soon and enjoy DC!
Seth @ Fitwithapurpose´s latest post: Home Food Database HalfWay Giveaway Winner Awesomeness
It’s really crazy, right? But it dawned on me how much the scale could and can control somebody’s life and emotions, create their ups and downs. It’s almost just as bad as an addicting drug, but less recognizable and not shunned in society so more “acceptable” to be addicted to the scale when in fact, it really screws with your moods.
LOl, same wave length Jess, Thursday I have a post on this too. I’m going to monthly now. I was daily, then weekly and now that the intuitive eating is taken hold full force, I’m taking the big old step to less. It gets easier! And it’s awesome!
I hope the rest of your stuff arrives soon. That sucks.
Rita @ The Giggly Bits´s latest post: Eating Mindfully
Are we the same person or WHAT? I’m glad your intuitive eating is working. I’m doing a bit of both right now. Listening to body but counting calories. I think I need the extra written accountability for a bit. But I will definitely go back to intuitive. That’s where I want to be.
Yes, I’m a scale addict. I really need to put it under my bathroom sink if I want to get away from it. It’s just so easy sitting on the bathroom floor.
For most of my adult life (say from 21-42) I didn’t weigh very often. Then I started “the journey” and weighed once a week as I lost 55 pounds. Then I got stuck and tried all kinds of things…at one point I was weighing every day. And I was gaining weight. And finally, a little over a year ago I gave it up, cold turkey. I know I’ve lost weight, but I have no idea how much and I am fine with that. It’s very freeing to not be associated with that number. I am free to focus on things that are much more fun and which fill me up with joy…It took me a while to realize just how much space that damned number used to take up in my head!!
I sign in only if I’m 100% sure that the number (good or bad) will not shake me emotionally.
In other words — I ask myself how I feel about myself, my body, my habits BEFORE i get on the scale.
That way, no matter the number, I’m in a good mental space to keep on pressing on instead of feeling judgmental about my actions/inactions.
Yeah my name is Foodie and I’m a scale addict. Every day. But I also truly believe it helps keep me honest and accountable to myself and when I go too long without it, I start telling myself stories about how it doesn’t matter and THEN I get into trouble. The number doesn’t matter really but the accountability does.
I want to find that healthy balance with accountability again. I USED to go through the no-weigh because I’m hiding from myself kind of thing, which led to yo-yo dieting, but now the scale has taken the opposite hold.
For me, I want to find a good medium between too much and too little of the scale.
I am also a scale addict but in the process of trying to wane myself off. It’s hard to stop something that has become a regular part of my morning routine!
YAY!
Im a scale addict. ONCE A YEAR NEEDED OR NOT
Im proud of you.
MizFit´s latest post: Wordless Wednesday
I am religious about weighing and recording in my writing journal on New Year’s Day and on my birthday every year. But I still step on the scale most days and I weigh twice on my long run days — once before and once after b/c I love the after number (but it’s also nice to get an idea of how short I was on fluid intake during the run). But I don’t really think about it much. Some mornings I’m up 2%, sometimes down 2% from my New Year’s Day number (my general marker each year), but I generally stay within the same 5-8 pound range, though I seem to have shifted primarily to the lower end of the range for an unknown reason about a month ago. I also write down my weight on the first day of the month on a sheet of paper in my closet just so I have an idea of any real trends that I don’t see on a daily basis, but I throw that out each year with a new New Year’s weight. But when we’re out of town or the scale batteries are dead, I don’t miss it really, so I don’t feel overly controlled by it.
I weigh myself multiple times a day, actually. It’s usually just because I’m curious and it’s right there in the bathroom. But I gained weight post-bar exam so now it’s actually to see the number and try and control it.