Mind Set 4 Throw Out the Scales

When you start a weight loss program, don’t you just love to run to the scales naked every morning to see how many pounds you’ve lost? Of course, we all do that! And we most likely run back to the scales after we’ve pooped to see if it’s inched down a little bit more.

There’s just something so satisfactory about seeing the number of pounds decrease on that dial, like the scales don’t lie.

But do the scales tell the whole truth?

No they don’t.

And aren’t you glad to hear that. Especially when you step on the scales and the number of pounds has remained the same, or heaven forbid, they’ve gone up.

Then you say, “But I’ve been eating from Dr. Jo’s Get Healthy Eating Plan and exercising faithfully every day. Why am I weighing more on the scales?”

Congratulations! You’ve been faithful to the plan and you’re reaping the benefits of gaining more muscle. That’s a good thing. The more muscle you have, the more calories and fat you will burn. Our muscles are the body’s main fat burner.

So when you initially start an exercise program with a healthy diet, the increase in muscle may register as a few pounds on the scale. And that’s a good investment that will pay off eventually with a loss of fat – which is exactly what you want.

Remember, we committed to being specific about what we want. We recognized that saying we want to lose weight is not specific enough. We want to lose fat.

Low calorie diet plans starve us so much that the body starts tearing down muscle to get the nutrients it needs to keep us alive. We may be excited about seeing the pounds go down on the scale, but this whole scenario sets us up for a lot of future disappointment.

As we lose the muscle, we lose the very tissue that burns the fat. So if we ever go back to a more reasonable diet there’s not enough muscle to burn the fat, so it gets stored as flab on our bodies. And that depressing number on the scale goes back up!

So, we go back to the low calorie diet which spirals us into that whole depressing scenario again of losing more muscle mass and decreasing our metabolism.

It’s called yo-yo dieting and that’s not for us! We’re too smart for that.

There is a neat advantage to gaining muscle though. Since muscle is more compact than fat, we start losing inches. Yeah! That was one of our specific goals wasn’t it, to go down 1 dress size at a time.

However, I would still encourage you not to totally focus on measuring yourself frequently. After all, losing inches takes some time too.

So just hang lose. Keep your focus on what great habits you’re developing that will keep you fit, active, alert, vivacious and healthy for the rest of your life. Have fun!

Then one morning you’ll wake up to find weight loss as one of the greatest side effects of your wonderful healthy habits.

So trash the scales and use the tape measure sparingly.

Blessings,

Dr. Jo

p.s. Start your healthy eating habits now. “The best side effect of eating according to Dr. Jo’s Natural Healing Cookbook is weight loss.”