2665: [Part 1] Weight Tracker: Why I Ditched the Scale For Good (and You Can, Too) by Crystal Karges on Mental Wellbeing

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: This is Optimal Health Daily, Episode 2665.

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Weight Tracker. Why I Ditched the Scale For Good and You Can, Too. Part 1 by Crystal Karges of

[00:00:10] [SPEAKER_00]: CrystalKarges.com and I'm Dr. Neal, your very own personal narrator.

[00:00:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Hey there and welcome to another edition of Optimal Health Daily where I read some of the best blogs

[00:00:20] [SPEAKER_00]: covering health and fitness just like an audiobook and always with a bit of my commentary at the end.

[00:00:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Now don't forget we have a bunch of shows where we narrate blogs for you. Just search for

[00:00:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Optimal Living Daily to find all of them. Now today's post is a bit longer than what I typically narrate so

[00:00:38] [SPEAKER_00]: whenever this happens, I read the first half today and then finish it up for you tomorrow.

[00:00:43] [SPEAKER_00]: So with that let's get right to Part 1 as we optimize your life.

[00:00:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Weight Tracker. Why I Ditched the Scale For Good and You Can, Too.

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Part 1 by CrystalKarges of CrystalKarges.com

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I was first introduced to the scale in elementary school. It was an old-fashioned manual scale that

[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_00]: stood tall in our hallway. I never thought much of it until I realized what it measured

[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_00]: about myself. I remember stepping on it for the first time and figuring out how to jerry-rig

[00:01:17] [SPEAKER_00]: the pieces to get it to tell me how much I weighed. While I don't recall the specific

[00:01:22] [SPEAKER_00]: number, I do remember thinking that I needed to make that number shrink. Thus beginning my

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_00]: destructive relationship and downward spiral with the scale. High school was the first time

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I actively began dieting. With prom just a couple of months away, I decided it was time

[00:01:38] [SPEAKER_00]: to slim down to fit into my outfit. I bought Slim Fast and Detox Tees from the supermarket

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_00]: and was ready to jump on the dieting bandwagon in the name of health and thinness.

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_00]: The measure of my success? The scale, of course. At that point, I upgraded to a digital scale that

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_00]: could easily be hidden under the confines of my bed. Every morning before showering, eating,

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_00]: or drinking anything, I whipped it out and waited for the flashing numbers to show me

[00:02:04] [SPEAKER_00]: the progress I made or didn't make. It became a competition with myself,

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_00]: a ritual determining the course of my day. You see, if I stepped on the scale and

[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_00]: didn't see that number had dropped, I punished myself by eating less that day or exercising more.

[00:02:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Even when I did see the number go down, it was never enough. Seeing a lower weight on the scale

[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_00]: only pushed me to further rigidity with eating and exercise. When my parents started to become

[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_00]: aware of what I was dealing with, they moved quickly to get rid of any scales in the house.

[00:02:36] [SPEAKER_00]: But it didn't matter. I started driving to the gym just to weigh myself in the locker

[00:02:40] [SPEAKER_00]: first thing in the morning. I had to have a way of knowing what I would be allowed to eat or not eat

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_00]: during the course of my day. It became a vicious cycle that quickly escalated into a full-blown

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_00]: eating disorder, lasting from my late teens and into my early 20s. Recovering from my eating

[00:02:58] [SPEAKER_00]: disorder was a grueling battle which required the unlearning of so many things I thought to

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_00]: be true of myself and my worth. While eating disorders are the culmination of many complex

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_00]: factors working together to create the perfect storm, I see the subtle role the scale had in

[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_00]: how I began to measure my worth and value. A major turning point in my healing journey with food and

[00:03:18] [SPEAKER_00]: my body began with eliminating my scale. At first, the thought of not having it was terrifying.

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_00]: It had become so ingrained into my routine and food rules that I couldn't even imagine

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_00]: functioning without it. But once it was gone, I began to realize just how much of my precious

[00:03:35] [SPEAKER_00]: mental space it had taken up. When I started focusing on feeding my body, regardless of what I weighed or

[00:03:41] [SPEAKER_00]: without a scale to dictate my day, I understood just how much power I'd allowed it to have over

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_00]: my life. Without weighing myself daily, I was so much freer to actually listen to what my body

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_00]: needed without allowing an arbitrary number dictate my health or my worth. Ditching diet

[00:04:04] [SPEAKER_00]: enjoyed freedom with food and peace in my body for over a decade now. But it wasn't always like this.

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Now more than ever, diet culture is rampant and is going after our kids at younger and younger ages.

[00:04:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Through my own healing journey, I have a renewed passion to support those also finding freedom

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_00]: with food in their bodies to live life to the fullest and not lose precious moments to

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER_00]: diet culture. While challenging the magnitude of diet culture is overwhelming in itself,

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_00]: it comes down to the small steps, the things you can do today to reshape the way you feel about food

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_00]: and your body. For me, that small step was doing away with my scale for good. For too long I let it

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_00]: dictate how I felt about my body or the way I should feed myself during the course of the day.

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_00]: It was a vicious battle I was never going to win because no matter what the number on the scale

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_00]: said, it was never good enough. I gave it up because I wanted to stop obsessing over my weight

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_00]: and body size. I wanted to enjoy food freely without needing permission from the scale to eat.

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't want to feel like I had to punish my body unnecessarily because of the numbers reflected

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_00]: back at me. I didn't want to be a slave to a number anymore, and honestly I didn't realize

[00:05:17] [SPEAKER_00]: how much of my life it had taken over until I let it go and stopped weighing myself every day.

[00:05:23] [SPEAKER_00]: It's crazy that something so small and insignificant can take up so much space

[00:05:27] [SPEAKER_00]: and brain power, but the best realization is understanding how you can take that power back

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_00]: simply by not allowing it to be part of your life anymore. Getting rid of my scale was one of the

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_00]: best decisions I made for my food and body healing journey. Now as a parent of five kids,

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I can't imagine living with a scale in our home. When we decided to grow our family,

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I knew I didn't want to drag my kids through my own food and body image issues.

[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't want the negative behaviors I lived with for so long to recycle to them,

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_00]: and it started with a small but powerful step forward, a commitment to letting go of the things

[00:06:04] [SPEAKER_00]: that kept me in bondage for so long. To be continued, you just listened to part one of

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_00]: the post titled Weight Tracker, Why I Ditched the Scale for Good and You Can Too by Crystal

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Cargis of crystalcargis.com and I'll be right back with my commentary. Dr. Neal here for

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_00]: my commentary. What we've learned from a number of published studies is that one or two days of

[00:06:31] [SPEAKER_00]: overeating is likely not going to make a difference on body weight over the long term. That is unless

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_00]: we let it. I'll explain. Say someone was good about planning their meals during the work week,

[00:06:43] [SPEAKER_00]: so Monday through Friday, their lunches and dinners were well planned and balanced,

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_00]: and they stuck to it. So they followed this plan and everything went smoothly.

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Then the weekend came along. There was no plan. Meals were skipped. Dinners were the largest meal

[00:06:57] [SPEAKER_00]: of the day and were usually a not so balanced restaurant meal. Does this now mean that all

[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_00]: of that hard work that took place Monday through Friday is now lost? No. Unless we let those two

[00:07:09] [SPEAKER_00]: weekend days where we let loose, cause us to completely go off track the following week

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_00]: and the week after that and the week after that. But if instead we tell ourselves, hey I enjoyed

[00:07:20] [SPEAKER_00]: myself those last two days but I'm back to planning my meals for this upcoming week,

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER_00]: then that's all that matters and you'll find that over time if you were to weigh yourself,

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_00]: that number on the scale probably didn't change over the course of those two weeks anyways.

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_00]: All right that'll do it for today. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for sharing

[00:07:41] [SPEAKER_00]: this show with someone. Sharing the show is one of the best things you can do to keep this going so

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate you doing that. Don't forget I'll be back here tomorrow to finish up this post

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_00]: so I'll see you there where your optimal life awaits.