I weigh myself every day.
Sometimes multiple times a day.
I know, it's horrible. My trainer AND my nutritionist both tell me, in the nicest way possible, that I'm a freakin' idiot for doing this. And yet I can't stop.
I have to do it. I don't punish myself on "bad" days or reward myself on "good" days, I just have to know what the scale says!
I feel weird when I don't weigh myself. It's obsessive and I know it's bad, but I do it. Confession over.
Let's talk about why this may be the crappiest idea ever.
Last month, I went to my nutritionist's office for my body comp appt, like I always do. She weighs and measures me, sticks the EKG patches to my hand and foot and then we chat about how things went and she answers my 10,000 inevitable questions.
Last month, I weighed in at 255, which for me is pretty damn good. Friggin amazeballs good, actually.
The next day, and for about 2 weeks afterward, I consistently weighed in at 255. Sometimes my body likes to hold on to weight for as long as humanly possible and then drop several pounds overnight, so I wasn't too concerned or annoyed at this point.
Then, things took what I thought was a horrible turn. My weight started to creep upwards. A few days later, it was 257. Then 260. 261. 262. Another week and a half later and I was holding steady at 266.
And I was PISSED.
I was (am) still working out as much as I have been for the past year, 5-6x weekly for an hour. I had (have) been eating the same healthy, whole foods as I always have been.
Why in the holy hell had I gained 11 pounds in less than a month? I could understand it if I had avoided the gym all month and taken to eating a steady diet of cupcakes and Cheetos. In fact, I briefly considered eating cupcakes and Cheetos, because why not? If I'm going to gain weight anyway, I might as well go down in flames...
About 4 days before my nutritionist appointment, my weight started to trend downwards. It finally "landed" at 256, one pound above where I'd started the month (although my bathroom is an electromagnetic black hole...every scale that enters it becomes 2-5 lb heavy within 6 weeks, no lie).
I asked my nutritionist about my body's love of holding on to weight and then dumping several pounds instantaneously instead of gradually letting it go. Apparently, normal. I also asked her about my rapid weight gain this month and told her how pissed I was. After telling me (again) to stop weighing myself every damn day, she told me this can be normal, too. *le sigh* I don't WANT to gain weight when I'm working my ass off! Even if it's muscle and water (two things that I actually need to gain).
I hopped on the scale.
253.
Ok, not fantastic, but a loss. I'll take it.
Then she did my body composition analysis.
And this, my friends, is why you should not weigh yourself every day.
Even though I "only" lost 2 lb on the scale, I lost 12 lb of fat.
I also gained muscle and several pounds of water. I know a lot of people hear "water weight gain" and think of edema or bloating, but I'm chronically dehydrated despite drinking 3-5 Nalgenes of water a day, so for me, numerous pounds of water weight gain was excellent news.
The moral of the story?
I hate hokey crap. "Trust the process." "Find your zen." "Keep calm and carry on." "#blessed" "If you build it, they will come."
Ugh. Just give me the info and/or tell me what to do without the crispy new age coating, please.
But in this case, true. Trust the process, indeed. "The process" has been serving me well for over a year now, one perceived setback shouldn't derail me.
Especially because it turned out to be AWESOME and not a setback at all.
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