Weighing In

Weighing yourself seems like a simple task, yet so many people seem to get it wrong.  They weigh in too often, or not often enough, or find some other little way to stress over something that shouldn't be more than a bookmark for where they're currently at.  Hopefully this quick little article will help you to realize that the scale is an extremely helpful dieting tool, but ONLY when used correctly and with the correct mindset.

Weigh yourself in the morning- First thing when you wake up, make sure to jump on that scale before putting anything in your belly.  This will make sure that the weight you're seeing is as close to possible to your actual body weight. Surprisingly, if you were to weigh yourself before bed, then as soon as you wake up, you'd see about a 2-3 lb difference (I've seen as much as 5 lbs) due to water evaporation.  Water is heavy, and can really add a few pounds to that figure you see on the scale face.

Weigh in at the same time each day- This one seems like a no-brainer, but I've had people ask me how they gained 3 lbs in one day, and after getting over my initial bafflement and finally asking when they weighed themselves each day I learned that once was before breakfast and the other time was after dinner.  Of course you're going to weigh more!  FOOD WEIGHS SOMETHING!  Make it only in the morning, and save yourself some worry.


Weigh in naked- OK, this one's truly up to you, but if your scale is in the bathroom it shouldn't be too big a deal.  This will provide consistency to your figure that might be taken away by clothes that are different weight. Before you hop in the shower, just hop on the scale real quick.  Easy enough right?

Weigh in after your business is done- Hopefully I don't have to go into too much detail here.  Wake up, empty yourself, then jump on the scale.  Hey, that stuff weighs something, right?  Do you want it counted in your figure?

Don't weigh in Every Day- This will drive you nuts. If you weigh yourself every day, you're not going to see any real trend due to the natural fluctuations in your body.  This could include things like how much water you're retaining that particular day, or how much food's in your belly (although if you followed my advice prior then that shouldn't be an issue).  Things don't stay the same, especially in your body, and trends take a while to show.  I would suggest once or twice a week, and if you're really looking to track what you hope will be fast progress, then every other day is as often as I'd go for.

Weigh in only once a day- Again, this one doesn't seem too hard to remember, but some people just can't keep away from the scale.  Once a day only please, or else you WILL become neurotic about the scale and freak out about any little weight fluctuation.  Like I said, your body composition changes on an hourly basis.  Weigh in when you wake up, figure out how your diet is working, and go about your business.  Don't burn that number into your head.

Weigh yourself on a hard, even surface- Don't set the scale on the carpet, it's as simple as that.  This will skew the results up to and sometimes greater than 4%.  To give you an idea, that'd be like seeing the scale say 173 lbs when actually you weigh 180 lbs.  Not a surprise you want to figure out later, right?

Weigh in on the same scale- Different scales, while all pretty accurate these days, do have their own characteristics.  If you're hopping from scale to scale, you might see differences that aren't really there, and start to stress.  Keep the benchmark consistent and try to use the same scale every day.

DON'T STRESS!!! I can't say this enough.  The scale, while a great tool to view your progress, can also be a really stressful thing.  Some people avoid it, some people weigh in 4 times a day in obsession.  Listen, while your weight is important, it's not the most critical thing in your life.  There are many factors a scale doesn't take into account, one of them being muscle mass (you can gain muscle, lose a pant size, and GAIN weight all at once), the other is overall health.  If you eat healthy, not only will you tend to weigh less, but you'll be much healthier than a "skinnyfat" person who only weighs 138 but eats burgers, Doritos, and cookies for every meal.  Concern yourself more with health than with weight.  The scale is your friend, don't stress out about it.

Keep recording, keep smiling, and as always, GOOD LUCK!

Stress Relieving Food

Eating a poorly balanced diet can do more than change your outward appearance.  In fact, processed food can  degrade your mental state to severely frustrating levels.  Bad food stresses you out!  No one likes stress, it can make every new day a beast to tackle, and can affect things like social relationships with others, work quality, workout quality, and even your sleep cycle.  A healthy diet is one of the greatest ways going to manage stress levels, and there's no doubt in my mind or the mind of top scientists that healthy foods will make you feel a heck of a lot better.  Let's examine what's in healthy food that can really combat stressful situations.

First of all, this won't be one of those "top 10 food" articles for stress relief.  I don't take much stock in those kind of lists, especially because the nutrients those foods contain that somehow make them "top 10" worthy are in fact shared by hundreds of foods that are equally as good for you.  To ignore such amazing diet choices is a very poor and naive idea.

So what foods do the best job of combating stress?  Well that's not a hard question to answer, and I honestly bet you could take a seriously good guess.  Healthy foods like Vegetables, fruits, and whole grains do an amazing job at providing your body with the nutrients you need to produce the hormones needed to fight off excess cortisol, one chemical associated with stress when excreted in excess.

Both Vitamin C and omega 3 fatty acids are incredible combatants of excess cortisol, and therefore can significantly decrease stress levels.  Foods rich in these are most vegetables and fruits (bell peppers, asparagus, tomatoes, green beans, apples, oranges, bananas, etc.), and lots of fish including salmon, tuna, crab, herring, swordfish, and many other varieties.

Foods high in folic acid are also great stress combatants, and once again, these foods include most any vegetable you can think of, especially dark, leafy green vegetables like spinach, asparagus, cucumbers, and many others.  Try a few for dinner tonight!

Another main cause of stress is the excess of free radicals in the body.  Free radicals are atoms that have an unpaired electron in their outermost (valence) shell, which makes them extremely unstable and damaging to human cells.  Certain nutrients have been shown to eliminate free radicals quite effectively.  Foods high in anti-oxidants will do the best job at eliminating these pesky little guys.  Foods high in anti-oxidants include most fruits, like blueberries, pomegranates, apples, bananas, raspberries, strawberries, etc.  A fruit, helping you to feel better?  Who would've guessed.

Certain other nutrients will help to combat free radicals very efficiently as well, including many vitamins and minerals such as vitamins C, B2, and E.  Surprise surprise, most fruits and vegetables are very high in all three of these.  Get some into your diet!


So there you have it.  Simple really, eat well, feel great!  Who knew?  Keep healthy foods in that diet of yours, and you'll do more than keep slim for the holidays.  With all that's going on these days, I'm guessing you could use all the chipper attitude you can muster, right?  Let those healthy foods help you out!

Eat your veggies, keep smiling, and as always, good luck!