The Mood Altering Drug in Your Bathroom
The scale is a mood altering drug.
If you want to be insure a bright sunny day, step on your scale and have the needle swing to the left and WOO HOO, things seem instantly lighter, your self confidence boosts, you willingness to persevere skyrockets, your attitude lifts, instantaneous happy pill side effects.
Contrary to that, a slight shift of the needle to the right and hello MOOD dip, give it up attitude , “non perfect’ ‘I was bad” commentary and shovel mode ( you shovel in more food cause what the heck, you can cover your anguish of all the hard work of dieting that didn’t show up on the scale as you expected with some food that you DESERVE).
So here’s how my “exclamatory” evening went last night. I emailed my “Competition Coach” as I do every other day with my weight. I don’t make a big deal of this ritual as I just appreciate and accept that it is a measurement of what changes are happening in my body so that I can adjust my workouts and/or my food intake. So I did this without too much concern or thought. The email is short and sweet:
Today’s date:
Rosie’s weight:
The response from my coach:
“So, your weight is 2 pounds higher today than on Feb 3? !!!” (notice the exclamation points)
I was horrified by this reaction. What’s with the exclamation points? That’s what got me. The exclamation points. I mean really it’s only 2 pounds, I justified further; maybe I just breathed in some more air this morning, or had a sock on that should have been off (I weight myself naked, of course), or a touch of salt, or something. I didn’t like those exclamations. I could deal with the two pounds easier than I could deal with the exclamation at the end of the question. It couldn’t have been the fact that I have not been following EXACTLY my meal plan and even though I am not FAR off, I am off. Off is off when you are precisely monitoring everything about your body for a figure competition.
For competition, every little bit matters, perhaps, just perhaps, those extra couple of almonds that I reached for in the refrigerator door the other day, throughout the day added up. Picking counts, not just on the scale but in the realization that when you focus 100 percent on the goal and the commitment is to enter a figure competition, go figure, everything you put in shows up! ! ! ! ! (exclamation, exclamation, exclamation)
In my house I have THE SCALE and I have a much more accurate, kinder scale as well. My coach forbids me to use the kinder one for my competition measurements and because he already knows the reading, but I like to be comfortably reminded of this measurement so that I can settle in my mind and heart what really matters most. It’s the way you treat yourself and it starts with food. If I am eating well, eating healthy, eating the right amount for my body, then the results will show up on my body, and the numbers simply don’t matter.
I got my measurement today and I know that I am hot! The scale proved it (exclamation, exclamation, exclamation, exclamation). However, my “coach’s” comment and his prescription that followed, “…you need to step it up….”” has reminded me of the commitment that I made and what I have to do to get there. That’s were coaching is invaluable. Someone to care, be help accountable to and remind you to turn up the heat when you want to live in your true “hotness”.
Responses