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Saturday, October 17, 2009

NYNL - The Weight of the Scale

Now I weigh myself EVERY day so I know there will be no surprises. I know everyone has their own opinion on how often you should weigh yourself, i like knowing EXACTLY where I am each day... now having said that I must make something very clear about my life in the past 3 months. I have developed a full blown obsession with the scale. My morning routine consists of waking up and stepping on the scale, going to the bathroom then stepping on the scale, getting in the shower then stepping on the scale, eating breakfast then... yep, stepping on the scale. That was JUST from 7am-8am. Throughout the day, any chance I get, I will go weigh myself, before lunch, after lunch, when I come home from work, before I leave for work. And I'm not just talking about hopping on the scale, I go full blown strip down, weigh myself, get dressed and then leave. I knew it was overboard but I didn't identify it as unhealthy until I went away for a weekend and realized two things. First, I thought about weighing myself so much that every where i went, i asked if they had a scale ( I even went to Target, unwrapped a scale, took off my shoes in the store and weighed myself) and Second if it wasn't a "problem" then why did i feel the need to hide it from everyone? It didn't take long at all to go from the woman who avoided the dr's at all costs just because I knew they would want to weigh me to a woman who couldn't stand the thought of not knowing how much I weighed. I knew that people with food addictions have compulsive tendencies. I know , even though I was not raised with the presence of my father, that he and his side of the family all suffer from drug and alcohol addictions and on my mom's side, pretty much everyone has an eating issue or a smoking issue ( some have BOTH) so what I'm saying is I come from a long line of people with addictive behaviors. I also know that its really common for people to move from one compulsion to the next... I just never saw my scale as my new addiction until now. I know I must set limits for myself, just like I do with my food. I know how much food I can allow myself to eat and i know when its time to eat and when its not. Now I must use the same rules for my scale. I can weigh myself every morning ... once! I then am putting my scale away for the day until the next morning. It might sound silly to have to make a PLAN to put away a scale but whats not silly is how fast this unhealthy habit has crept into life. I am 100% committed to living a healthy life and that means, for me, a life not controlled by addiction. I have a long way to go and it seems like every day i take one step in the right direction, my list of things I need to work on grows by ten. I guess the good out of it all is as long as I keep moving forward, eventually I will get to where I wanna be.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anyone who reads this blog and is starting out weight loss, please let me encourage you NOT to weigh yourself everyday. The results are potentially DISASTEROUS. The NORMAL fluctuations you see everyday could potentially become discouraging, and the more discouraged you get, the more you set yourself up for failure. It will NOT allow you to gain as much insight as one would think. It is much easier to see a pattern in weight loss if you only weigh yourself once per week. Please do not read this blog and think otherwise.

Valerie Fambrough

cindi roberson said...

It is all part of the journey Lex and how positive that you are recognizing it and making changes. I prefer to weigh once a week, as Val points out.. I find the daily fluctuations to discouraging.

Lexy said...

I don't find the daily fluctuations discouraging at all. The thing about weight loss is that there is no right answer, its whatever works for you. For me, weighing myself every day works. I know a lot of people who that does work for, Bob Harper encourages people to weigh yourself daily but I also know just as many people who don't. But that wasn't the point of this blog to begin with...

Anonymous said...

Another point one should remember, that just because you're a food addict, and an alcoholic,
and you triumph over those addictions, you DO NOT automatically become a drug addict.

Lexy said...

I never implied that here but thanks for the clarification. However it is important to be aware, there are countless studies showing that the chemical reaction to addictions, be it food, drugs,sex, drinking or even spending show up the same.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20080820/weight-loss-from-addiction-drug

There also is an exceptionally high number of addiction transfers in people who have repressed food addictions in weight loss. Here's a good article to read about it but there is thousands more out there and even some really good books on it if you want to read more.

http://www.locateadoc.com/articles/addiction-transfer-after-gastric-bypass-surgery-the-hidden-danger-1570.html

My commitment to a healthy lifestyle means that I am vigilant to the reality of life and the reality is that I have an addictive personality and need to be extra attentive in my life if I want to avoid falling into another addiction. Thats why i'm nipping this one in the bud.

Unknown said...

Dear Anonymous,

Your comments seem to be PURPLE hearted. Alexis has done an amazing job without you and will continue to be amazing. My advice to the people reading this blog is that some people will always be jeliuos of those who suceed.

Vicki aka Lex's mom

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