Weigh in time...

I need to make sure that the scales don't rule my life

It's been over a week since I weighed myself and after 2.5 months of 'ignoring' the scales and pretending I hadn't put on weight and my clothes weren't a lot tighter, I finally bit the bullet last Saturday and weighed myself. 

9th May - 99.9Kg. 

I did write a blog about it, so won't rehash the frustration I felt at reading that number, however, unless you change what you do, you're going to get the same results as always, right?

For the last 2 weeks, I've eaten really healthily and made more healthy choices when eating out with friends and in terms of what I cook.

This morning, despite saying I wouldn't weigh myself more than once a month, I got this sudden urge 'just to see' if things were heading in the right direction. My period started yesterday so I was hoping that any weight I had put on beforehand, was now lost, however didn't really think I'd lost anything.

Well, check out the new value.

Wow. Cool.. in 8 days I've lost 2.2Kg, which is apparently 4.8lbs. 

I should be jumping up and down, right? It's like.. so much weight in 8 days I could write a book about it and 'sell my secrets'... Except, I've been dieting on an off for the last 15 years and I know full well that when you first change your eating habits, your body reacts accordingly and the first few weeks, you do lose a lot of weight - In one week, I remember losing 7lbs!

What I mean is, I'm happy that the number is less, but I'm not under any illusions that this is how it's always going to go - some weeks, I won't see a loss at all despite eating healthily and sometimes I will. As long as I see a number that's less, I need to stay motivated. I also need to try and stick to what I said - Not to weigh myself all the time and not to become a slave to the scales, how miserable would it be, your mood is decided by the number of the scales?

There are a number of reasons suggested why you lose weight quickly when you change your eating habits, however the main two seem to be:

1. You're fat - I don't mean this rudely, however if you're overweight, you weigh more than your slimmer friends and family, hence the more you move, the more calories you burn off compared to others. If you've changed your lifestyle and are consuming less calories, your body is going to have to work harder.

2. You've got a higher basal metabolism - Lucky us, huh? Our BMR (Basal metabolism rate) is how many calories we burn off in a typical day - how many it takes for our heart to beat, our lungs to help us breathe and our brain to (sometimes) think. Larger people have higher rates as we need to work more to keep these vital functions working. So when you start healthy eating, your body isn't getting as many calories to keep these functions happening, ergo.. weight loss.

Surely this will just keep going, no? 

Sadly not, our bodies are clever and get used to our new eating habits relatively quickly - As such, we need to change things around to keep our bodies guessing and also, to stop us getting bored. 

So, will I be looking for the same weight loss next week? 

No - This is a lifestyle change and no a quick fix... therefore I'm going to re-make my promise and try not to weigh myself until the end of the month, just keep going, keep eating healthily and making the right choices.