Have you ever waged war against your bathroom scales? I know that I have and I seem to always come out the loser. I don't know if it's a female thing; but then again I've seen men as obsessed with the dreaded digits, or if it's a dancer thing; but I've seen many a non-dancer become entangled in the battle or if it's just a human nature thing; I've never seen a cat worry about her weight (but I guess I'll never truly know!)
So why do we do it to ourselves? I truly believe that when I'm out of the battle zone, I have a happy and healthier relationship with myself and food. It's when for reason or another (for me it was when I went to give blood and they weigh you to check BMI) you hop on the scales and BAM alarm bells sound. My weight might not even change, but still there is this voice in my head screaming something unhelpful.
And then there's the self worth tied up with the a certain target weight "Oh I'm happy now as I've reached x KG's" or "I hate myself as I put on 2kg's"
Just self talk that is completely giving away our personal power to some number that really doesn't mean much.
OK OK, so I hear you saying, what about obese people needing that feedback as encouragement to lose weight for their overall improvement of health? Yes, I agree that obesity is something our society needs to address big time, but I would prefer to see it as 'lifestyle improvement' rather than 'weight loss'.
It's much more sustainable to learn how to connect to HOW your body FEELS after eating fresh and nutritious foods as opposed to junk or processed foods. And how it feels after exercise. And how it feels after good sleep, meditation or rest. This is a skill we seem to have lost in our fast paced society. How can we learn to re-connect to ourselves and our bodies and listen to the wisdom we have to offer ourselves.
This notion of re-connection seems much more beneficial than than relying on some silly apparatus, that in general, leaves us feeling deflated (or inflated) and drains our self worth.
Listen to your body, it knows when to eat, when to sleep and when to exercise. It's just a process of connecting, listening and trusting. Then the magic happens. It can take time and perseverance, but then so do all the good things in life.