From skwigg's journal:
I've noticed a couple of changes since I quit weighing myself.
My food choices are more genuine (as in genuinely what I want). I used to consider how my decisions might affect my weight the next day. I knew I was going to see the number, so I might skip the bread or go easy on the salt so as not to startle myself. Today, I ate a bunch of pickles and barbecued pork at lunch. Do you know what all that sodium is going to do to the scale in the morning? Yeah, me either. HA!
I'm eating until I'm full and not until I think I should think I'm full. There's a difference! My "full" was being subtly influenced by weight concerns. Without those, I no longer have the "stop eating" gymnastics. I used to have to talk myself into stopping, remind myself that I could eat another great meal soon, have a finisher, have an activity to look forward to afterward, that kind of thing. But if I just allow myself to keep eating, I hit a point where I genuinely don't want any more food. It's like, "Yep. Good. Done. Not another bite." That feels so different from the trickery that used to go on. My body clearly tells me when it's had enough food. I didn't know it could do that because I was stopping it short most of the time, knowing I was going to step on the scale the next morning.
Aaagh! The diet thinking runs deep. Even when I'm sure it's all gone, I still find myself prying its little claws off of my brain.
These have been really refreshing discoveries though. It's NICE not to have any concern about what the scale is going to do in the morning. I don't worry that my unwatched weight is going to destroy me somehow because I'm still eating to appetite. I'm sure my energy balance system has it all under control, probably more so than when I was meddling. It is a little odd to have no numbers to judge by. No calories, no macros, no scale weight, no body fat percentage, no tape measurements. But I know that I'm happy, I look and feel good, and my clothes fit. That about covers it!
From skwigg's journal:
I had some weight thoughts as I was debating whether to bother stepping on the scale this month, or ever again. If I like the way I look and feel, and I like the way I eat, what the scale says is completely irrelevant. I was going to throw "like the way my clothes fit" in there too, but then I realized that if you don't feel comfortable and confident in your clothes, that's a shopping issue, not a food/weight issue.
The thing is, I've been all different scale weights and NOT liked the way I looked, felt, or ate. You think a number will make you feel a certain way, but it doesn't. Your habits and the way you treat yourself determine how you feel. If you aren't happy, it's the habits and self-talk that need to be addressed, not the numbers.