Given my passion to eat healthily, work out regularly, maintain my current weight (or even lose a few pounds), it might come as a surprise that I hate weighing scales. I don’t own a scale and am never tempted to hop on the digital scales at my gym. With the exception of doctors’ offices and medical forms, I don’t weigh myself period.
To put it simply, scales don’t paint the whole picture at all. They don’t indicate whether the number reflects water, muscle or fat weight, how healthy you are internally, whether inches have been dropped, or how well your clothes fit. I won’t go much more into it but you can read more about my view on scales here.
Scales are one side of the story yet can influence our self-esteem so much. I say that from personal experience. Up until a year ago, the number on the scale dictated my mood for the day: higher number –>fat day–>low self-esteem.
Despite my aversion, this picture of the weighing scale made me chuckle. Every woman has endured a fat day at least once. More than just our weight, other factors may cause a fat day:
- Unnecessarily over-eating
- Clothes which don’t fit as well as before
- Comparisons with celebrity figures or friends/family members
- Hormonal fluctuations
- Feeling icky from head to toe just because
Some people tackle fat days by restricting their food intake up until their ‘stomach feels flatter’. Personally I enjoy eating…a lot. Whether it’s a Hugh Jass salad or a slice of cake, I love food too much to do without. I rather overturn fat days with a more positive approach: Exercise. There’s nothing that a good sweat session can’t fix. You hold the key to your own inner confidence. The psychological perks of exercise are astronomical. Every physically active person will swear by endorphins. Exercise boosts your self-esteem because YOU are taking care of yourself and improving yourself. YOU’RE accomplishing something and YOU’RE being proactive. Plus it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than therapy 😉 !
How do you get rid of fat days??
Now that I am turning into a gym rat, I would say I look forward to sweating out rather then starving myself. Also, when hunger strikes, food is all I can see. So honestly staying away from food to cure my fat day is not an option really.
I’m not the biggest fan of scales either. I used to be OBSESSED with weighing myself on a daily basis. It was very destructive, and I’m glad those days are behind me. I think my approach to turning around “fat days” is having the right attitude. Like you said, everything we do and feel is in our control, so why not be positive!