Many of you know that I am doing Whole 30 right now. Whole 30 has many rules. In most situations I can be a pretty good rule follower but if I don’t see a lot of value in the rule then I may not be such a good rule follower. I am not a blind follower when it comes to rules and structure. I would say that for the most part on this plan, I have been very diligent about following the rules but there is one rule that I just can’t help myself and I have been breaking it quite a bit. Yes, it is confession time…
The Scale…
Yes, I have been getting on it. I know the rules say that you are not supposed to weigh yourself for the entire 30 days but that just doesn’t work in my world!! My husband has no problem with this rule (mainly because he is convinced he is not losing), but for me, every morning, it calls me. We even took the scale out of our bathroom and put it in our downstairs guest room, but it still draws me to it each morning leaving me wondering what news it can tell me. Normally it is filled with good news and who doesn’t want to start their day out with some good news to get you moving? This morning however, it wasn’t as kind and my weight was up a pound. I know that our bodies fluctuate and I also know that I have been eating healthy and I have no concern about that pound in the bigger picture. At least that is what I am telling myself.
This morning as I was having my quiet time and writing in my journal I was listing the blessings from yesterday and one of them was seeing the scale jump down and feeling encouraged about where I was headed. After I had written it, I paused because I am so guilty of falling victim to the same tale that I work with others to help them avoid. Yesterday morning, I was feeling encouraged and motivated and excited about the future. Why? I tell myself that it was because of what the scale said. However, I know logically that’s not true. The scale has no power to make me feel anything unless I give it that power. The number on the scale is absolutely meaningless, until I decide to give it meaning. This means that it is my THOUGHTS about the number that were really the driver of my motivation and encouragement and yesterday. This morning, after seeing the number, my thoughts were different and therefore it resulted in different feelings. Our thoughts and the stories in our head create our feelings. I know that is true but it can be so difficult to remember sometimes. The good news here is that I have the power to recreate those feelings from yesterday morning by simply going back to the thoughts I was thinking.
“I am making progress.
I feel great.
I REALLY am going to hit my goal weight this year!”
The scale doesn’t define my success. I define my success! I guess there is some value in the scale rule on Whole 30. That doesn’t mean I am going to follow it …but I do see the value of not having the head chatter as the scale moves back and forth. I am doing great and feeling good and I am going to take responsibility for reminding myself of that and not delegating my emotional well-being to a scale in our downstairs guest room.
What about you? Are you giving your emotional power away to something else or someone else? Today is a good day to take that power back and reestablish your own ground rules for managing the thoughts in your head.