I received the following email from Audrey, a Member of our A Weigh Out Members’ Circle, in response to my post about the Insanity of Weight Loss Contests. Just when she’d freed herself from the tyranny of the scale, a Biggest Loser Contest sucked her right back in. Read about the choices she is making now…
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Dear Ellen,
I have been very focused on practicing my PENSO skills, feeling great even, and happy with my new skills. My productivity, well-being, concentration is all improved. I’m enjoying my life in every aspect. Then a friend asked me to partner with her in one of those Biggest Loser contests.
Now, [private_membership circle]though I am journaling, eating healthy, feeling great, I am drawn back into that traditional measure of success – the bathroom scale! I haven’t owned a scale for a few years, and have only been weighed at my annual doctor checkups. So, now that I am in this contest– which I have vowed to make about supporting my friends, infusing additional exercise into my week, focusing on health and nutrition- I am now also focusing on what that darn little scale says.
Right now I am feeling great, and the scale has been an ally as the weight loss is showing. Though I felt bad for my partner and friends, who are doing the right things, exercising, etc., but as we are human beings and a healthy loss is only a pound or two a week (which on a given day can be offset by the smallest things such as pre-menstral fliuid retention or that morning cup of coffee)–didn’t lose weight this week.
I don’t like to see them get discouraged when they don’t lose. I am worried about how I will feel during this contest if I don’t lose weight every week. I even purchased my own bathroom scale, so I can check how I am doing. Why am I so seduced by the number on the scale? I don’t intend to mail myself anywhere, so why do I care?
Yes, I want to feel healthy, be able to feel attractive and comfortable in my clothes as well as in my own skin. How can I feel so great– until I see the number on the scale? This, to me, is the ultimate downside of weight loss contests!!
My partner in the contest and I have made a pact to participate in the contest for the comraderie, and continue together in our workout plans and support long after the contest ends. So, I’m moving that new scale out of my bathroom where I want to get on it every time I pass it, to the basement closet, where I need to go find it to weigh myself. Getting weighed once a week, and having to tell my partner how I have done as my half of our team, will be too much focus on the scale as it is. I wanted to share this as your blog recently discussed the insanity of weight loss contests.
Warmest Regards,
Audrey
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Ellen Shuman is a Life Coach who specializes in emotional and binge eating issues. She is the founder of A Weigh Out & Acoria Eating Disorder Treatment, Vice President of the Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDA), and Co-Chair of the Academy for Eating Disorders Special Interest Group on “Health at Every Size”, ellen@aweighout.com [/private_membership circle]
