We have now reached the six-month mark for our diet group. Our dieters are all back to work and recovering from the holiday season. For the most part, they maintained their weight this week, which was the major goal. Some of our dieters report that, in the past, they gained five or more pounds over the Christmas/New Year’s week, so they were thrilled to step on the scale and find that they hadn’t gained any weight at all!
Speaking of stepping on the scale, one of the ideas we discussed during out meeting yesterday was how important weighing yourself is (a skill learned in Day 21 of The Beck Diet Solution). Some of our dieters do it only once a week, at our meeting, and some do it every morning at home. But whether it’s every day or once a week, weighing yourself is extremely important to weight loss and weight maintenance (Chapter 12 of The Beck Diet Solution). Sometimes our dieters don’t want to weigh in at the meeting if they think they’ve gained weight, but we discussed how it’s most important to weigh in at these times! Not weighing yourself allows you to stick your head in the sand and not face the problem, if there is one.
Brenda says that this is an issue she’s struggled with before. In the past, when she was dieting and losing weight Brenda would weigh herself consistently. But the moment she feared she’d put on a pound or two, she would avoid the scale. This prevented her from identifying and fixing any problems. And even though she didn’t get on the scale, she would feel demoralized, would continue to eat out of control, and then would gain back all the weight she had lost. This time, though, Brenda is doing things differently. She’s weighing in every week during our group meeting and she just made a New Year’s resolution to weigh herself every day at home.