4 Steps to Release Scale Weight Angst

Have you ever:

• Defined the success of your strategy by your scale weight
• Defined how you feel about yourself by your scale weight
• Believed that “you’ll be happy when you weigh x”

...Even though logically you know that there are so many factors that go into your scale weight and you shouldn’t be letting it get to you so much?

If you said yes to any of those options, read on! I’ll be taking you through my 4 steps to release scale weight angst, steps which you can implement today.

But first a little story.

I remember the feeling of stepping on the scale being so confident that I’d done everything right during the week.

Meal prepped 100% of my meals, completed my training sessions, cardio, gone to bed on time, ate my veggies and had 3L of water.

Feeling like I was about to be met with a drop in weight as a confirmation that I was successful. 

Doing all of the right things.

Then the feeling when, to my boiling frustration, nothing had changed.

“ARRRRRGGGHHHH, damn this shit, I’m doing everything right why didn’t my weight drop!!”

Does that sound familiar? 

Can you recall a time when you’ve had the same experience?

My question to you is what happened after that?

Did you:

1.  hit the “fuck it” button and sabotage your day, then wake up feeling guilty over said sabotage?
2. mope around all day, and vow to decrease your calories (ahead of schedule) and increase your cardio?
3. notice that you’d just been triggered, take a few breaths, slow down, acknowledge the voice in your head and reiterate that it is one data point that needs to be considered in context of multiple objective and subjective data points rather than in a vacuum all on its lonesome?

If your answer is c), yay for you! You’re well on your way to getting to a neutral relationship with the scale.

If your answer is a) or b) this is also good news as you are in exactly the right place.

In the next 4 steps I’m going to show you how you can go from feeling trapped and frustrated every time the scale doesn’t go in the direction you want, to being able to use this particular data metric without emotional attachment in order to assist you in gaining a full picture view of your progress and track useful trends over time.

Before we jump in though, let's take a look at the real problem that this creates. 

Allowing the scale to get in the way of your process (and your enjoyment) and acknowledging any progress that you might have already made. This often leads to emotional changes in strategy rather than logical decision making, inconsistency and even restrict/binge cycles of food & training. All of these things are really just creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Ain’t nothing gonna change sista if we aren’t sticking to the plan! Of course providing the plan is sound, but that’s a topic for another day.

Into the 4 Steps we go.

1. Ensure that you are tracking other objective & subjective data points so that your weight can be read in the appropriate context. I have my clients track their menstrual cycle, sleep, digestion, perceived stress, hydration, food intake, measurements, photos and training session data (total volume load per sessions). This will allow you a sufficient context with which to place your scale weight and you may even get to a point where you’ll be able to anticipate fluctuations. ie poor sleep night before? Likely weight will be up. Week before time of the month? Up again. Stressed? Up. Heavy training session? Also potentially up. As you can see, lack of fat loss, or fat gain can absolutely be a reason, but it’s one of many, not the sole reason.
2. Notice your train of thought before, during and after taking a scale weight reading. Anything insidious lurking about here? Get out your journal and ask yourself:

• What have you made your scale weight mean? 
• What are you upset about or afraid of?
• What don’t you want to happen?
• If you could choose what thoughts you have when you weigh yourself, what would those thoughts be?

Next time, use it as an opportunity to reinforce that new chosen narrative and then journal on that experience and if and how it was different.

3. Review your weekly action steps and your compliance. I have my clients rate themselves on a 1-10 and acknowledge their weekly wins. If everything has been done diligently, and nothing has changed, the data will show us if it’s a real plateau and we need to change something or if we just need to hold tight a little longer. If not everything hasn’t been done diligently it’s a time to get accountable, take responsibility and identify ways to move forward by increasing your compliance.

4. Last but not least, how about we decide to stop overemphasizing one data metric and instead ask ourselves are we satisfied with how we are showing up in life! If you’ve done your values work then you know exactly who and what is important to you and why. And you have behaviours in place that help you to live into your values. If you haven’t its a great time to ask yourself, what kind of person do you want to be, how do you want to show up, what kind of lifestyle is important to you and are you activating in alignment with all of these answers?

The purpose of this article is to show you that you don’t have to keep repeating the same pattern when it comes to taking your weight and using it as a data point. It is possible to get to a place where you have a neutral relationship to your scale weight but it will take intention on your part. It’s my hope that these 4 steps will help get you there.

Aim