Free The Tapping Solution for Weight Loss & Body Confidence by Jessica Ortner Page A

then they should put the scale away. Without fail, in session after session, women continue to obsess about the number they saw on the scale that morning. They report their results like you would confess your sins to a priest, subtly shaming themselves for not meeting their expectations.
    Over and over again throughout the class, women talk about how their clothes feel looser and how they physically feel lighter. Just when I’m about to congratulate them, they share how depressed they feel because when they stepped on the scale this morning, their weight didn’t reflect the big shift they feel. Maybe they gained a pound, stayed the same, or only lost a few pounds. They see the number and feel disappointed. Ugh. How did the scale become our private addiction?
    Calm and confident isn’t a number on the scale.
    — JESSICA ORTNER
    To give us some perspective on how the scale became such an important way to measure our bodies, it’s interesting to look at the history of the scale itself. The first one arrived in the United States from Germany in 1885. It wasn’t until the 1920s and 1930s, however, that the scale was introduced to the general public. Massive machines weighing in at 200 pounds each, scales began to appear on street corners and in department stores, movie theaters, and public restrooms. They soon became a highly lucrative business, costing consumers a penny per weigh and producing millions in profit per year, even during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
    To get a sense of how drastically our relationship to the scale has changed since then, imagine yourself willingly stepping on a scale in public, with dozens of strangers looking on. For most of us, that’s a living nightmare. Weighing ourselves became a private event in the 1940s when technology advances paved the way for the manufacture of smaller, in-home scales.
    Since then, mass culture has slowly but surely brainwashed us into believing that thin means beautiful, happy, worthy, confident, capable, lovable, and successful. As a result, the number we see on the scale has gone from an interesting curiosity to a judgment on our value as women. We know on some deeper level that our worth extends beyond what we weigh, but we continue to place more importance on the number we see on the scale than on how we feel in our own bodies. How can we break this pattern?
    First, let’s discuss the biggest myth about weight—the idea that your weight shouldn’t fluctuate. Biologically speaking, that idea has zero merit, especially for women. As your hormones fluctuate so does your weight, not just during your menstrual cycle but also when your stress level increases. That fluctuation is a natural and healthy process, not something you need to “fix.”
    When we add in lifestyle factors and the effects of stress, the daily and weekly fluctuations you see on the scale become even more understandable. Here’s a partial list of factors that can cause the number on the scale to go up and down, from hour to hour, day to day, and week to week: Changes in diet

Constipation

Dieting

Eating close to bedtime
    Eating foods you’re allergic to

Exercise
    How much water you do or don’t drink

Medications

Menstrual cycle

Sleep

Stress

Supplements

Travel

When you last ate
    When you last drank water or any beverage
    What’s interesting is that the normal and healthy fluctuations in your weight don’t always occur in ways you would expect. For instance, as we’ve seen, when your stress levels rise, your levels of cortisol also rise. In excessive amounts cortisol can cause your body to retain water. Because dieting puts your body under stress, when you first begin a diet your cortisol levels rise, which may cause your body to retain extra water. So when you step on the scale in those early days or weeks of a diet, it may look like you’ve gained weight!
    The same principle can apply to changes in the way you eat. If you begin gravitating toward vegetables and fruits more