This week I'm taking advice from Sandra at Thinking Slimmer. I am throwing out the scales. I know from experience that weight loss is never linear. The journey to being slimmer comes with sheer drops which are great but also plateaus where the weight does not shift. Plateauing can be demoralising. After a week of being virtuous to find that I've lost no weight can be enough to send me to the biscuit tin. My efforts can be completely ruined after being taunted by the unwavering needle of the bathroom scales. Being obsessed by the number of pounds lost can definitely cloud my focus. Weight loss has to be seen as a long term effort, not a quick fix. Weight can fluctuate from hour to hour depending on whether you have been to toilet, had a big drink or just eaten. It can change from morning to night. It definitely changes across the course of the month with water retention. So relying so heavily on weighing in, can lead to demoralisation and wanting to just give up when the scales don't seem to reward your week's dieting.
I am the sort of dieter who jumps on the scales everyday searching for the elusive lost pound. If I felt I had been particularly good I would be gutted if the scales stayed the same. It would really put a cloud over my day. I'd wonder why I was bothering if I wasn't getting the results.
I had brilliant weight loss for my first two weeks since joining in with mumentum. This really showed me how my gluttony was responsible for a good stone of my excess weight. Stopping the greed is a quick fix to shedding those pounds. However there is no way I can sustain weight loss like that...it would be unhealthy anyway. The weight loss has to slow down, but I know from experience that the slow, steady decrease in weight frustrates me. That frustration can really scupper me! I've done it so many times in the past.
So instead of falling prey to something that I know will knock me off my path to a slimmer me, I'm going to stay away from weighing myself every week. So I can't tell you whether I've lost weight or not. But I can report that my size 12 jeans do up without a struggle...so that's got to be good right?
I can say that I'm not snacking between meals and I haven't touched chocolate at all. I am eating the same as the family, which means my meals are not very low calorie. So if I notice no changes I can up the ante by making diet dinners for myself...so that is a weapon in my arsenal! Fingers crossed though things will keep going in the right direction.
I hope everyone else is doing well this week and that you are all feeling good about yourselves!! We will get there ladies!!