Day 28 - Beck Diet Solution, Get Ready to Weigh In

Today we work on further improving our relationship with the scale.  The day before whatever your appointed weigh-in day is, work on your mindset and prepare yourself for positively facing facts, whatever those facts may be.  Don’t try to deprive yourself or go to other extreme measures the day before just to artificially improve the reading.

Then the time comes to step on the scale, and there are three possible outcomes:

1.     You lost what you consider to be a lot of weight.

2.     You lost what you consider to be not enough weight.

3.     Your weight stays the same or you gained.

You might have any number of reactions to these three scenarios, possibly negative reactions to the second two, which could generate dangerous sabotaging thoughts.  But the scale is an important weight tool, one that we could welcome into our routine instead of dread.  To make sure we look at the scale with the proper perspective, no matter what it says, BDS suggests we approach the three scenarios as follows.

1.     Ok, so you lost a lot of weight this week?  You might think, “Wow, this is fantastic – I’ll be at my goal in no time!”  Slow down, tiger.  No doubt it is great you lost that much weight and you clearly did a fantastic job staying on plan this week.  But don’t expect to see that much of a loss every week.  By continuing to expect your weight to be +- ½ - 2 lbs from what it was last week, you keep your expectations realistic.

2.     So maybe you lost weight this week, but you feel like it was only a drop in the bucket – too little to matter at all.  It may feel like even more of an affront if you feel like you worked especially hard and deserved to see a much bigger loss.  Patience.  What you’ve been doing is working, and any downward trend is good.  Celebrate every half pound loss.

3.     Maybe your weight stayed the same or you gained weight.  Don’t panic – this can happen even when you stay on plan for a number of biological reasons.  If you made some mistakes, go back over the week and think about what you could have done better.  Stay in problem-solving mode.  If you have a diet coach, you could also ask them for suggestions.

If you approach the scale with the proper attitude, it can be a help to your progress rather than a hindrance.