When the scales don't show you what you want

I know I've been staying on track with healthy eating, so why are the scales against me?

Having been on numerous 'diets' over the years, the one thing that I struggle

with massively, is when I step on the scales after being 'good' for a few weeks and the scales show that I've not lost any weight. I mean, how is that physically possible? If you expend more calories than you ingest - surely the only figure you should see on the scales is less than the one you did before?

This usually de-motivates me and I turn to food as I feel unhappy and a failure - however, this morning is yet another reason why I need to stop doing that.

Sunday morning - lovely sunny day, I'm seeing my sister and my lovely baby niece this morning so I get up and have a shower, listening to the birds tweeting in the garden. I'm feeling good.. I went on a long walk yesterday, ate healthy and I'm not at work for another 2 days - everything is great with the world!

Then I see the scales by the bath and think 'Why not? OK, I said I wouldn't weigh myself until the end of the month, but I've been really focussed the last few days so I should see a different figure'....

So I step on them.

They show 98.3Kg 

0.6Kg MORE than they did a week ago - yet I've not pigged out AT ALL... I've been really motivated to stay on track.

Immediately I start thinking 'This is stupid, I may have to starve myself to lose weight, sod it.. I may as well just eat what I want as it never works' and my usual thought process starts - my mood totally changes, I feel like a failure and stupid.

After 10 minutes of being seriously annoyed, I wonder if the last 10 minutes of pacing around has changed anything, so I step on the scales AGAIN, as if to face the figure properly as I couldn't actually face it last time.

They show 97.2Kg.

Seriously? What the Hell? In 10 minutes, I've lost 1Kg? over 2 lbs?

I step on the scales another 3 times in succession and I still see 97.2Kg - My mood lifts and I feel happier.

However, this just goes to show how ridiculous it is to just trust the scales - I felt my jeans were a bit loser, I can now wear all of my size 16 jeans and some are more lose than they were before, I thought I could tell a slightly difference in the mirror and I definitely feel so much better than I did 3 weeks ago. 

It also shows that the scales really aren't accurate - I mean, I have no idea why they showed 2 different weights really quickly, did I step on them wrongly? (I mean, how many ways can you step on them?) did it calibrate wrongly? (I doubt it, it's hardly a complex program) So I really don't know....

The scales really aren't the best way of checking progress and it shows that I've still not been able to change my mindset completely and I'm still focussed on numbers, when I should be focussed on feelings and the healthy lifestyle for the rest of my life.