You can’t fool a pair of bathroom scales. Even if you rationalize that one handful of peanuts won’t hurt, they don’t lie. Even if the bag of Fritos is “almost empty” and you’re just finishing them off, they don’t lie. Bathroom scales won’t let you eat more than a tiny bit of pasta or a whole baked potato with sour cream or a slice of birthday cake with ice cream – even if you‘re just helping to celebrate.
Nope, bathroom scales tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me Dr. Atkins.
About ten years ago when my weight had ballooned to near-obese proportions and my Oncologist, Dr. Robert Carey was trying to get my blood pressure under control, I told him that I would have to go on a diet.
He said not to go on a diet, but instead, weigh every day on a good set of digital scales. The bathroom scales would tell me what to eat and how much.
So I did. I weighed every day and began to chip away at the belly fat. I discovered that snacks like chips and salty treats were fatal, so I stopped eating them. Spaghetti is also a killer, so I ate it only rarely and any dessert with ice cream will absolutely make the scales go up. Over about a year, I lost 46 pounds. I held it down for quite a while, then – ignoring the scales – it began creeping back on.
Last year, during the pandemic, I actually lost weight. That’s because we didn’t go over to friends for dinner and eat appetizers and desserts. We stayed home, mostly, and I watched what I ate. I am about 7 pounds away from my goal and still slowly losing weight. But – every now and then – I’ll say to hell with it, I’m eating fried chicken or lasagna or apple pie ala mode, knowing that it will cost me, but if I can put it on, I can also take it off. I’ve also found that those pounds you have recently gained are a lot easier to lose if you work on them immediately.
Meanwhile, I try to be sensible about what I eat, knowing the bathroom scales don’t lie, and I get on them every single morning.