Do you weigh yourself? (click the link to answer)
Your weight is an important indicator of your health and your progress towards a health and fitness goal.
Even though it is the easiest self measurement to take very few people do it regularly, if at all.
I am always astounded by the number of people that are weight conscious yet they choose to be unconscious as to what their weight actually is.
They find it too painful and demoralising.
Most have been convinced by friends, personal trainers or media articles that weighing is not a good idea.
I ask them why not?
They answer with explanations like:
We stick our heads in the sand not wanting to know what the facts are.
We use weak, long term and subjective measurements like how we feel, how we look, and how our clothes fit.
Or we dismiss it as not being important and claim to not care about our weight.
This is an attempt at escaping something that DOES hurt and that we ARE concerned about.
The fact is we just believe we can’t win.
We have tried and lost (or not lost..) too many times before.
We’ve given up hope and we don’t want to hurt any more.
Confidence is low.
We don’t want to know what the score is.
Apathy is no way to live when the grand prize is your health.
The result is silent weight gain.
It sneaks on slowly, gradually, until one day you see yourself in a photo at a party and you think ‘oh my god, look at me! What the hell happened’!!
When you don’t want to know what the speedometer says, sooner or later you are going to get caught.
When you don’t want to know what the oven temperature is, you are going to get average results.
When you don’t check your expanding credit card debt, you are going to go broke.
Apathy is inaccuracy which leads to eventual failure.
We don’t want to know what our weight is because we make it mean something about us.
It is that meaning that we assign to a number which makes us so scared of knowing what the facts are.
So we make excuses.
We hide under larger clothing, we use injury as a reason to not participate, we make tracks when the camera comes out.
Your first step towards recovery is awareness.
Becoming aware of the results of your behavior gives you the insight required to make a change.
Your weight is just one of many measurements that you can use to guide you on a journey to a different destination than the one that you are on now.
The more diverse the measurements the more accurate your direction will be.
Just be sure to include your weight as one of those. It is the singular most reliable form of feedback you are likely to get in your home.
Use it wisely, regularly and without judgement.
Use the feedback to be a coach to yourself, not a critic.
Do this and next time there is a group photo you’ll be the first in front.
Take the poll here in the Secrets of the Lean Facebook Group 'Do you weigh yourself regularly'
Learn how to weigh yourself accurately and reliably by reading my blog post here.