Scales Are For Fish

If these past few weeks of physical distancing, home schooling, being furloughed and just generally being out of routine are causing your eating and drinking habits to ‘alter’ then you are not alone.

The first 5 weeks of lock-down felt like a holiday to me and that meant eating differently, drinking more often and although I have worked harder in my virtual classes, my own morning weights workouts went by the wayside which impacted my mindset, focus and energy for the whole day. That knocked onto me reaching for the sugar flavoured snacks by mid afternoon and as I had eaten one biscuit / piece of chocolate I might as well have another and whilst the packet is open I might as well finish it and then they / it will be gone and there will be no temptation (until I opened another packet the next day) – sound familiar??

I say so often that the days of eat less, move more are far behind us. There is a much deeper conversation to be had, particularly around inch loss and as this week I have heard the scales mentioned far too many times I feel it is time to start that conversation again. This is taken from my ‘Step Away From The Scales’ newsletter (July 2018).

The most popular of these conversations usually starts along the lines of… “I’ve been working out for xxx days / weeks / months and the scales haven’t changed… it’s not working”

 

I will add at this point the following sentence is usually “but my jeans fit better”

 

The scales (or the misery step as I prefer to call them) create such disappointment and often feelings of failure that result in giving up and reaching for the biscuits or the wine as consolation.

 

Whilst it is commonly said that muscle is heavier that fat, a lb is a lb.

 

A lb of lead weighs the same as a lb of marshmallows, the mass is just different and this is the same for muscle and fat and so when muscle mass improves and body fat reduces simultaneously the progress will not usually be visible on the scales though positive change will be occurring.

 

Clothes size will be dropping and you will look and feel good which is the surely the ultimate goal because lets be honest no one walks around the streets with a set of scales showing people they meet how much they weigh… When you slim down no one ever tells you that you look lighter! We shop based on a dress size not on scale weight.

 

This is why all my coaching clients are encouraged to fetch the string and to measure themselves without numbers and to refer back to that for a progress check. I am a massive fan or cutting the string and measuring the bit that has been cut off so the focus is what HAS been lost and not ‘But I’m still…’

 

I got this message from another of my clients doing my 28 day online Weights for Women course… “I’ve lost ½” off of my hips and ½” from my waist – the scales haven’t changed”

And there is more… For a limited time I am sharing below a video from my recent Fountains of Wellbeing 8 week course. This is the Inch Loss presentation that comes from the end of week 7, having addressed stress, sleep, gut health, mindset and nourishment first.

Those are the area’s that need to be tweaked (and yes, they often only need small tweaks) for healthy, sustainable inch loss to effortlessly follow.