Face It Friday: Emotional Week, NOT Avoiding The Scale & Streaks

To say I didn't want to step foot on the scale today would be an understatement. Why be afraid of the scale? Well it was one emotional week which lead to some off-plan food choices and general merriment that happened over the weekend. For the first time in probably years :P I had three social engagements in one weekend. Ummmm yeah I don't normally have that many in a month. ;) Also not kidding. I don't have much of a life so really the only times I really get very off plan is sheer laziness.

But anyway... this week was a different situation. From the get go I was all over the map with happiness, sadness, anger, loneliness, boredom, hopelessness... I mean you think of the emotion I was probably feeling it.

Now the entire week was not a bust. There were a few times that I realized I was reaching for food out of anger rather than hunger. So I will celebrate those few instances.

Overall, the week was one that I couldn't wait to wipe clean. I thought I would just avoid the weigh-in and just start fresh today. Wellll while looking in the mirror Wednesday night (doing my #30DaysOfPositivity challenge), I told myself there was NO reason to avoid weigh-in and to buck up and just get on the damn scale.

I mean there is no reason I should allow this object to dictate my self-worth SO I devised a plan: accountability.

After completing #wwchat and my #30DaysOfPositivity, I vowed to make Thursday an on-plan kick-ass day! Thursday is the final day of my Weight Watchers week and I wanted to go out on a good foot.

And you know what - it worked. Every time a negative thought came in my head, I reminded myself I was only going to be positive.

I also reached out to my Weight Watchers members and told them I would get on the scale no matter what the next day. I have to live what I preach - right?

Then I set a special label for my Friday morning alarm...

Then my friend Justin made an even better one!!

I was all smiles when he texted me this! After reading these, I was actually amped to get on the scale and use THAT as my week's fresh start.

So this morning the alarm went off, I looked at the finished product of my week.

(I calculated that 92 of that 117 came from booze)

And looked at what Friday would bring...

... a clean slate!

So on the scale I went and...

it was a loss! Sssaaayyy wwhhhaaa??

I thanked the scale gods and jumped off the scale as quickly as possible.

Now I won't be going off and repeating the same actions I took this week just because the scale was kind. Instead I am learning from my tracker (hello feedback) and devising some new strategies to handle emotional eating the next time it happens.

***

Since the beginning of the year I've only missed 3 weigh-ins: 2 because I was out-of-town and 1 because I slept through it. My goal in 2015 was to be more consistent with weigh-ins and tracking and I think the weight record speaks for itself that it is working!!

Consistency was also my goal in 2014 and I didn't follow through. So I'm happy to see Attempt 2 at consistency is starting off on a better foot. :)

***

In addition to not throwing away the entire week just because I had some bumps in the road, I am proud of the streaks I have.

When I felt like everything was slipping away from me this past week, I knew that I had control over one thing: my streaks.

For those wondering: I use the Simple Habits app on my iPhone to track my Streaks.

***

Now facing the scale when I didn't want to and tracking my choices no matter what hasn't ALWAYS been my M.O. There have been plenty of times during this journey that I skipped my meeting and waited a week so I could "lose the gain" or I knew a food choice was soooo bad I "didn't want to see it." But over time I've realized that doesn't help me change the relationship with my scale or my food choices.

Now tracking it no matter what or getting on and seeing the gain, helps the guilt or fear pass quicker then before. And it helps me get back on track faster.

***

How do you motivate yourself to track the good, the bad and the ugly?