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Will you hate me if I told you something I’m not proud of?
I knew you wouldn’t…so today I’m going to spill it.
One of the things I love about coaching is that I’m doing the same work right along with my clients.
I’m still on my own weight loss journey (45 lbs and counting). And I’m always looking for opportunities to grow and learn more about what makes me tick (or not tick as the case may be).
I love and live this work and I have a lot of pride about the fact that I can tell you exactly how a tool that I recommend worked for me.
So admitting this hurts a little. But here it goes…
I have been helping clients use a tool that I have not actually, fully used for myself…until recently.
I knew I could have benefited from it. But it’s a tough one. Something inside me resisted using it. I would look at it sideways while walking wide circles around it. I would be proud and jealous at the same time when I had a client use it and find all sorts of good stuff about themselves.
But it was a big subject of resistance for me for quite some time.
Even before I used it I knew it was a really, really good tool (created by my mentor Brooke Castillo). There’s no way it isn’t going to teach something when used (which was the argument I gave myself each time I called myself out for not completely trying it).
So last month, as I took some much needed R&R, I decided to try this tool.
And what I found out was gold.
The tool?
Weigh yourself every day for 1 week.
That’s it. No frills. Nothing fancy-pants about it.
But oh, there’s so much to it.
When I weighed myself each day for 1 week, I was reintroduced to those old thoughts that crept back in – the ones I have worked with before:
~If my weight goes up, I failed.
~I feel great and healthy, but the scale may tell me something else.
~I’m really happy with how things are…let me see if I’m right.
~Damn it! I thought I felt so good! I guess not.
All those thoughts about second guessing my own instinct and letting the scale tell me how I’m feeling came right back up when I started weighing myself each day.
I weigh myself each week normally, and those thoughts don’t typically come up. But that’s because when it’s a weekly occurrence, I can manage my mind and move on.
But when you weigh yourself every day, you have so much more to work on.
And that gave me the window I needed to see that those thoughts were still living there unchecked in my mind.
Really good to know.
Another huge thing that happened when I used this tool? My weight fluctuated every day, sometimes by 2 or 3 pounds. That’s good to know for 2 reasons:
1. Weight gain isn’t all fat. Sometimes it’s water, which is what happens when we see big increases or decreases in a small amount of time (like a day). So the belief that you’re a failure and must have been going crazier than you thought with food isn’t always true. If you saw a big weight gain in a weekly weigh-in, you may get the complete wrong idea.
AND miss out on some vital information because:
2. The reason for this big difference can be what food we eat (not how much). If we eat something that our body doesn’t like, it will retain water. That’s because the body’s defense mode is to surround our cells with water when something is introduced into our system that we’re sensitive to. When that something has been flushed from our system (usually 1-3 days), our body releases the water. Big movement on the scale that can teach you that something you just ate is something you’re sensitive to.
Good to know.
So now that I’ve actually done it myself, (and those of you that I’ve asked to do it – you know I love you) I’m asking you to give it a shot.
Weigh yourself every day for 1 week.
It will bring up your stuff. Do it with your journal nearby so you can do a thought download.
What is your first thought when you see that number?
What are the next thoughts after that? (There will be many.)
How do those thoughts make you feel?
Are they actually true?
Keep a food journal while you’re doing this as well.
What did you eat the day before a big weight gain?
What happens if you avoid that food for the next few days?
This is a tough tool – I know because I’ve been avoiding it!
But I promise, the scale won’t hurt you.
What hurts are the thoughts you have about the scale.
And I always say that’s the good news. Because we can choose to believe what we want.
My renewed belief about the scale?
It’s a super helpful tool in helping me get healthy – and it’s just a piece of metal that has no power over me.
And that feels just fine.
