What About the Scales?

                        
What about the Scales? 
Should I weigh? If so, how often?
Should I throw my scales away?

This issue is discussed frequently by those dealing with diet
and weight-loss. After a lifelong battle with food and
with weight (see ABOUT ME),
I’ve established what works for me.

Regarding the scales:
Over the years, I have had every reaction to them possible.
 I've eaten because they showed a loss,
and I've eaten because they showed a gain.
I've eaten because they didn't move up or down.
I've felt bad because they went up,
 I've felt good because they went down. 
Sometimes I've felt bad, and sometimes I've felt good,
when they didn't move at all.

Over time, I tried different variations to my use of the scales.
I tried weighing whenever I felt like it, even if it was many times a day.
I tried weighing once a day, and once a week, and once a month.
twice a day, not weighing myself, but having a club or doctor weigh me.
I spent several years not weighing at all.
I've bought many scales of various kinds,
and I've thrown away many scales.

The scales was never the problem.
I did not like the Reality of the numbers registered by them.
Like many overeaters, I have a strong tendency to lie to myself.
It's easy to lie to myself about how much I eat,
and I can also lie to myself about how much I weigh.

In order to face reality, I have to have an objective standard.
I weigh every morning after using the bathroom, but before I dress.
I write that weight down.
I then record that weight on charts and graphs that I keep.

I feel emotions during this process,
just like I feel emotions about lots of my other daily activities.
I can emotionally eat because I do or don't like the number the scale tells me
or I can emotionally eat over something I hear in the morning news.
............or over anything at all.....
Facts are facts, and emotions are emotions.

I continually work to avoid emotional eating, no matter what the cause.
Not facing the truth of facts isn't a solution to emotional eating.

Some mornings the scale shows me up 2-3 lbs from the prior morning.
I don't like that.
However, I KNOW I didn't really gain 2-3 lbs of fat overnight...
because I'm not a moron.

 I know that it's the Big Picture that counts,
rather than one individual day or one individual weight.
Since it takes approximately 3500 calories above what I burn to gain 1 fat lb.
I know that the calories I took in the day before wasn't even half of that.
I also know that eating salty foods,
will affect my body's salt/water/waste levels for several days.
This means that I will register numbers higher on the scale.

Whatever the reason, when I see higher numbers on the scale,
I know that for the next few days
I will need to eat smaller amounts of lower calorie foods.

Do I feel frustrated by this?
Am I angry and disgusted?

I hate the Reality of the fact
that I cannot eat everything I want to eat, all the time.

THAT is what I feel frustrated by.
THAT is what sometimes angers and disgusts me.
The number on the scale just reminds me of that Truth.

My determination
to stay the course and view the numbers on the scale in a positive way,
and my determination
to accept the Reality of the fact that I cannot eat everything I want to eat all of the time,
is an ATTITUDE CHOICE, and that choice isn’t always pleasant or easy.

This is an ultimate Truth for me:
I must face Reality; Change what I can; and Accept what I can't Change.