You Fear Gaining Weight, But A Scale Messes You Up

A few of you have been posting on Facebook that you are worried about getting started with your thin mentality and gaining weight.

I 100% understand your fear, anxiety, and the problem of getting started.

You think that what I am saying is too good to be true.  You fear gaining weight.  You cannot believe that your body is trustworthy.  You can’t believe that all that nutrition information you have in your head is worthless- even harmful.

Okay, let’s break this down.  As you are learning how to shed your diet mentality, the fundamental principle that you must follow is this:

You must delay eating until you are hungry.

If you eat what you crave but do not wait for hunger, you will gain weight. Yes, you will.  When you are tempted to eat without hunger, remind yourself of this:

Anytime you eat when you are not hungry, you are betraying your body.  Do you go sit on the toilet when you don’t have to go? Do you scratch your arm when you don’t have an itch? Do you go to bed when you are not tired?

Make eating as normal as scratching an itch, going to the bathroom when you have the urge, and going to bed when you are tired.  Don’t this sound simple, easy and normal?

So is your thin mentality.

But you can mess up all of your biological drives if you treat them like you do eating.  If you continually scratch your arm everyday at 11 am, I bet, over time, you would do it without thinking.  Or if you started to go to the bathroom when you didn’t need to,  you would train your bladder to go more.  Or if you stopped going to bed when you were tired, you would mess with your sleep cycle.

So, as you ditch your diet mentality, remember that what I am asking you to do, eat in response for hunger is NORMAL.  NORMAL. NORMAL!!

When you realize that waiting for hunger to eat is as normal as going to bed when you are tired, you will, I hope, begin to understand that even though you are nervous about giving up your diet mentality, it is logical and normal to eat this way.

Keep saying to yourself,

“I am not asking myself to do anything weird, faddish or bad for me, I am simply re learning how to eat.  I have been “brainwashed” by the billions of diet ads out there to think that eating what I crave in response to hunger is weird.  In fact, it is normal.  I will wait for hunger eat what I crave, make sure that I keep checking in with myself to see if hunger has ebbed, and then I will stop eating until hunger comes back.  And happily I get to eat many times a day!

 So stop worrying and start reconnecting hunger and eating.  And I have to mention the scale again.  I know you want to use it to measure your progress, but it messes you up!!

It was hard for me to give up the scale too, so I empathize with you if you struggle with this.  But honestly, weighing yourself IS A TRIGGER TO EAT.

Here are possible scenarios:

You weigh more than you thought-

Result:  You feel depressed, worried, don’t eat when hungry so you weaken the bond between eating and hunger, and worry you don’t have a thin mentality inside

2. You weigh less than you thought-

Result:  You feel like even though you ate cookies yesterday, you lost weight so you can probably eat more than you thought, so you eat even when you are not hungry, hindering your development of a thin mentality.

3.  You weigh what you thought you would weigh.

But your weight fluctuates for lots of reasons including dehydration, humidity, sodium, hormones, inaccurate scales blab la bla, so it may not be accurate at all.  Especially if you weigh yourself frequently, it is not accurate enough to be helpful!

So instead of relying on the scale, make yourself keep asking that question:

Am I hungry?

Then delay eating until hunger arrives and stop eating when hunger is quiet.

Use your ability to answer this question as your progress, not the number on a scale.  Progress, not perfection.

That is all you need to do.  You will be fine.  You will lose weight.

(And this gets easier and easier over time)

(And, if I can do this- then so can you!!!!!)

(And it is way more fun!)