One Month Without My Scale –
Confession Time:
I am embarrassed to tell you this because I am supposed to be more evolved (lol…paleo joke) but I usually weigh myself every few days (if not everyday). My husband went out of town for a trip and before he left he hid my scale from me at my request. I thought it was no big deal at first but then I really started to miss it. I thought I knew where he put it and I even started to look, but I couldn’t find it.. I guess that is a sign that I did not need to subject myself to that torture of weighing.
One month without my scale
Are you addicted to the scale?
Why do I feel the need to weigh myself?
The rational part of me knows that the scale does not really tell me what is going on with my health but the brainwashed “US” magazine side of my brain wants to be on that scale every morning. Back in 2009 when I gained 20 lbs in one month and later realized I was hypothyroid and had Hashimoto’s, I became manic about weighing myself. Getting on the scale felt like my only way of holding on when I was on an out of control roller coaster. I am still on a healing journey and have not fully resolved my issues. I am currently working with functional medicine doctors to regulate my thyroid and adrenal glands so they can get back to their optimum function. The thyroid is an endocrine gland that regulates energy levels, digestion, oxygen consumption and mobilizes fat from storage so if it is not working well all of these systems will be affected.
Scale = Stress
Nothing is more stressful than seeing that number on the scale going up (or even staying the same) which will also raise the fat storage hormone called cortisol. If you are dealing with thyroid issues or adrenal fatigue the only way to heal is to reduce your stress. Obsessing about weight daily will only increase your stress hormones and belly fat. Just get some sweatpants and focus on good sleep, restorative exercise and healing nutrition rather than the scale numbers.
One month without my scale:
Its been four weeks since I weighed myself and you know what happened? My weight stayed the exactly the same. Would I have lost weight if I weighed myself everyday? I doubt it. Would it have caused me a great deal of stress and anxiety each time I weighed? Yes, that is a given. I would have mentally beat myself up assuming I don’t have self control or some other negative line of thinking that only causes more pessimistic feelings. This month without a scale has helped me to focus on healing rather than berating myself daily. For some reason my body is holding on to this weight to protect itself because my thyroid/adrenals are not functioning optimally. It is not because I am a bad person or lacking in personal responsibility. To quote Dr. Janet Lang “Hormones are more powerful than diet”. When your body is healthy again it will release the weight so it is up to us to keep looking for that underlying cause and love ourselves in the process.
Resources for learning more about your thyroid health:
