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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