SCALES: Useful Tool or Baggage?

I considered adding one more item to my list of what I carried forward into 2009. However, I thought I left that item behind. Actually not an item but an extra pound. Before, during and after Christmas, I weighed my 'ideal' weight. Usually my 'first in the morning' weight doesn't vary much from day to day, although I know weighing at different times, in different clothes or on different scales will vary that number. Occasionally eating very salty or sweet dinners the previous night can increase my weight by a pound. Eating very little volume or experiencing (rare) diarrhea can decrease my weight by a pound. So when I noticed on New Year's Day (my traditional first day of the month weigh in) that I had gained a pound, I thought I just consumed a little too much sweets (OK, a LOT of maple syrup) from my pancake dinner on New Year's Eve. So I weighed again this morning just to check that theory ... same weight. So I did gain an extra pound. That's no biggee, because I consider 3 pound range healthy or normal for me (or a 5 pound healthy weight range if I weigh at different times of the day on different scales).

However the REAL question should be NOT whether I gained or lost ONE POUND, but WHY WOULD I WANT TO WEIGH AT ALL? I'm eating fairly mindfully, I'm thin and fairly fit (energetic, muscular, etc.) and I'm no longer using disordered eating habits (restricting, bingeing, purging, etc.). Why did I bring my scales into 2009?

Above all, I value self-honesty. I know I can easily slip into denial and rationalizations. I do that when I feel satisfied and want to keep eating until I'm uncomfortably full. If nothing else, the scale confronts me with evidence that I have consistently overeaten or consistently undereaten enough to change my regular weight. I did monitor my weight more often after I unintentionally lost 4 pounds while using the anticandida diet to kill off suspected candida fungus in my gut. I don't like to go under or over my ideal weight. As mentioned, I consider a 3 pound range normal, but when my weight varies outside that range, I consider how I have eaten or exercised to cause that difference.

Many intuitive eating gurus recommend that we hide or get rid of our scales as we learn to eat normally. I prefer once a month weigh ins, but I also tend to weigh a day later after I'm surprised by that monthly weigh in. Never weighing seems like a path to denial; weighing daily seems obsessive/compulsive. Some people weigh only at their doctor's office. That worked for me when I saw my naturopath (who carefully monitored my weight after I unintentionally lost 4 pounds on that anticandida diet) several times a year. However, I've kinda run through his bag of gut healing tricks, which means I'm on my own to resolve my ongoing regularity problems. So I don't weigh at his office.

I suspect this post will engender several opposing (to weigh or not to weigh) reply posts. So I want to tell how I will use the information my scale provided (I gained a pound): I'm already working on eating mindfully and stopping when I feel satisfied, not uncomfortably full. I can use the evidence that I gained a pound to challenge my self-talk rationalization about overeating which says: "I'm thin. I can overeat as much as I want and never gain weight." What I saw on my scale the past 2 mornings proves otherwise.

Does that mean I need to 'diet' or restrict myself to low calorie foods (what are those?) to lose ONE pound?? Of course not. I will continue to focus on mindfully eating foods I love to satisfy hunger and make my body feel more comfortable. Maybe this 1 pound example seems extreme to people whose weight varies by 3-5 pounds daily, but my weight seldom varies by even a pound. It's all relative.