12/27/08

Going with the flow

In my last entry I talked about things I was not doing that many experts tell you to do. Here are a few things they tell you that I feel are very valuable to me.

You have heard it before and you will hear it again, never skip breakfast, and for me it is something I must follow. I have not followed this rule in the past and I know I paid for it. I am just not that hungry in the morning so I often skipped breakfast to save calories. However I very rarely could stop myself from over eating later in the day. I am still not much of a breakfast person and am truly not that hungry when I wake up still, but I force myself to have something anyway, and it really helps! I am much more in control of what I eat later, and my blood sugar seems to stay stable.

With exercise I have always thought, get it in whenever and wherever you can. I still feel this is the case. It used to tick me off when I heard experts say that exercising in the morning maybe more beneficial. I am not a morning person and could not imagine hoping out of bed to vigorously exercise. I knew it was a calorie burned whether I exercised at 6am or 11pm, so what gives? I started doing my main workout in the morning anyway and I see why it is encouraged. I have more energy all day. I can check it off my list first thing, so no matter what the rest of the day brings me, I know I got my exercise in. Some also say you burn more calories all day long; this may or may not be true, I am not sure, but if so I will take it!!

Drink your water! I know you hear it again and again. I used to drink a lot of diet iced tea and diet soda as my main beverages. When I heard my doctor say he wanted me to try and only drink water and one unsweetened tea a day I thought I would be miserable, and I was…at first. Now I enjoy drinking my water. I definitely think I was/am one of those people who confuse the signals for hunger and thirst. Now that I have my water intake up, I am less hungry and get full faster. Even if you hate water and have to flavor it with crystal light, keep sipping those fluids.

The one thing I am on the fence about is weighing. Many sources say to only weigh in once a week instead of everyday. I see pros and cons to this theory. I know weighing daily take s mental toll on many people. I know I have stressed myself out over my daily weight shooting up after I seemingly did nothing wrong. It takes a while to get used to seeing normal fluctuations on the scale. I have gotten to the place where I can ignore it. If I gain 3 pounds overnight, I know it is not fat, it is probably water. I like to weigh myself everyday. It helps to keep me in check. If for some reason I am eating too much and the scale is having an upward trend and not just an upward day or two, I like to catch it early and adjust my eating. How do you guys feel? Do you weight everyday? Why or why not?

11 comments:

  1. I am the same as you on the weighing thing. I used to put so much stock in the daily number on the scale. And I thought maybe I should just quit using it altogether. But I wasn't going to let a piece of machinery beat me. So I weigh myself every day to overcome that need to have a number define me. If it goes up a notch it doesn't matter because, eventually, if I am doing all the right things, it is going to go down and keep right on moving.

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  2. I weigh in every couple of days (two or three) because I actually can gain real weight within that time period and I really need to be aware of any harm I am doing to myself. I feel like if I am not being mindful of what I am putting in my mouth- at least I can get the information on the scale. The more mindful I am, the less I need to weigh but since it is such a struggle...

    I do find that when I am getting really crazy (perfectionism) about my weight loss I will weigh myself everyday and that is no good. I only post my weigh-in's once a week though. I find it to be a good measurement of time for my body to work it out.

    I was thinking about the skipping breakfast. I don't really have that issue- I have a skipping lunch issue. Even if it is just a couple of hundred calories of protein and veggies, I have to eat something in the middle of the day. I am not really hungry then but if I don't force myself to eat, nighttime hits and I am terrible ravenous and go overboard. I think it is important to eat all three established meals to keep the balance...

    Thanks for the good topic today!

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  3. Hi, This is my first comment. I weigh every day and I put my weight into this useful site www.physicsdiet.com

    It averages the weight out so that the daily fluctuations even out...

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  4. I weigh pretty near every day. If I don't, I gain. Simple as that! I just don't beat myself up and have accepted that :)

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  5. I go back and forth with the weighing thing. I'll try for a couple of weeks to only weigh myself in once a week then I'll start freaking myself out by the end of the week and getting convinced that my whole week has been wasted. Usually I'll find it a happy surprise when I finally do weigh in and I have lost but I hate that feeling. Then I'll switch and start weighing in daily but then daily turns into three times daily. Ug. That is one place I haven't found a happy medium yet. Still searching.

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  6. I am against the weighing in. I drove myself crazy. I also work at a hospital and their is a scale at arms length. I'd weigh myself in the morning then after I drank something. It go up about 2pounds per liter. Then after the bathroom. Made me nuts.
    The best indicator of progress, in my opinion, is how the clothes fit. Trite but absolutely true.

    Congrats on the water, that's the hardest thing for me.

    Cheers and Happy New Years

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  7. Me and my scale have issues. I honestly step on it, well almost everytime I walk into the bathroom. For this reason I've decided to just take 'official' weigh ins only once a month. I'm hoping it will stop my need to feel validated by that little square thing in my bathroom.

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  8. I got rid of my scale several years ago. Now that I'm on WW I weigh myself once a week. It is in the middle of the day fully clothed, but I try not to get worked up abut the number (in fact many times I forget the actual number!) and instead focus on the downward trend of the numbers. Yesterday someone offered me their old scale (she got a new one). I turned it down and I think that is the right decision for me.

    Great Christmas pic by the way! Won't it be great to compare that to next years picture and celebrate the change? :)

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  9. Hi! This is my first time reading and posting on your blog. I have a weightloss blog myself and I definatley weigh in everyday. I know about natural fluctuation and I know you can't gain a pound of fat unless you eat an excess of 3500 calories in a day so I always blame that on water. I weigh-in once a day, first thing in the morning, no clothes. Then I can't blame the gain on something I wore or ate that day. I weigh in on the gym scale once or twice a month when I do early morning workouts. Just to make sure my scale is okay, haha. Best of luck!

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  10. I weigh-in daily, but there are times when I think I would be better off weighing only once a week.

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  11. i just stumbled across your blog, interesting topics.

    I agree with the breakfast thing,(i'm a huge coffee for breakfast girl, trying to change this habit) it does make a difference later in the day.

    as for weighing, I don't have a scale in my house. i find I get to obsessive and constantly weight myself throughout the day. i now weigh myself weekly at the gym, and for me, that works.

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