The Scale

I have always had a love/hate relationship with the scale. I love that it can track and measure my success and it makes me happy when I see that success.

I hate the scale because of the fickle nature of our relationship. The scale does not provide me with unconditional love and one bad day, too much sodium or the wrong time of the month can impact what it tells me and significantly alter the balance of our relationship.

Having been in this relationship with the scale for so many years I have learned some of the guidelines to try and manage the fickleness of our relationship. Weigh yourself the same time of day each time wearing similar clothing as to minimize the impact the fluctuation in your weight.

I typically vacillate between becoming obsessed with weighing myself and breaking up with the scale. At one end the scale and I may decide to take a break and not see each other for weeks or months, at other times we are like a new relationship full of infatuation and we can’t get enough of each other.

Many people will tell you that it is not healthy to weigh yourself daily as your weight will fluctuate. I do think that I need more than a weekly weigh in as it keeps me from straying too far. I have had many a disastrous week because I think that I am doing ok (far too much rationalization going on) only to discover that I have actually gained weight.

The reason why I am talking about my relationship with the scale is that today marks 7 days since the first day I weighed myself on this journey. The year of the shrinking mommy started on January 1, however it took me until the morning of January 5 before I was prepared to weigh myself. So the results are in. During the last 7 days I have lost 5lbs.

This mornings results have taken me to a new level of my relationship with the scale as I have not experienced a week like this in the last 14 years. Typically my weight loss is very slow, which is probably a result of me not fully committing the program or finding excuses during the week to rationalize my eating. This week there was non of that and the results were amazing.

I will not be posting a meal list today as I am not going to be following my regular routine. I have a half day at work and commitments throughout the morning and evening so my eating patterns will be off. I will continue to eat clean food, however they will resemble more of the mini meals or snacks talked about in clean eating compared to a 3 main meal structure.

It is currently 12:31pm and I have eaten; toast with almond butter and honey, banana, 2 clementines and I just finished a taste of Nature Organic food bar. (They are amazing and avail at Costco).

I promise that I will return to meal ideas and photos tomorrow.