It’s probably not a huge surprise after my last couple of diet-related posts that I’m not particularly looking forward to my weekly weigh-in tomorrow.
I know that I kind of have to, good or bad, because that’s just how regularly measuring one’s progress works and it would screw up the data if I waited a couple of extra days until I was feeling more confident before actually stepping up to take measure of my efforts. I don’t have to like it as long as I’m still willing to do it, although on one hand it’s definitely going to be even more demoralizing if the numbers show that I’ve gained weight for two weeks in a row now…
Still, there’s a part of me that wants to avoid that check-in because somewhere nestled deep within my brain there’s this bizarre understanding that if I don’t actually stand on the scale, then I haven’t actually (potentially) gained any weight! I used to have the same problem with writing deadlines – when I knew that I had run over and probably had an e-mail from an editor sitting in my inbox asking where the hell my work was, my inclination was more to close my e-mail program and not think about it than to just man up, admit that I was running behind, and go from there.
The funny thing is, with my writing sometimes there would be a follow-up e-mail there waiting for me and sometimes there wasn’t, and I really had no way of knowing until I logged in and checked. And I guess the same really goes for weight loss because realistically, I don’t think that anyone can honestly tell when their body weight fluctuates by the 1-2 pounds that are healthy to lose in a single week’s time. Sure, over the long haul you can tell when clothes start fitting better and excess fat starts seeming a little less impeding, but for these shorter stints like I’m measuring on a weekly basis, actually stepping up on that scale is pretty much the only way to really know.
Besides, it’s not like living in that delusion is really doing me any good anyways – for better or for worse, at least after weighing in I know where I stand, and it can become another reminder that I really need to step it up a notch and get with the program if I want to seriously make this happen…
Boy, that last sentence would’ve made so much more of an impact if I hadn’t been munching on a Cinnamon Pop-Tart while I was finishing up the post! 😉