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

than you have in the past, your body will notice a difference and may initially retain water; it’s adjusting to these very positive changes in your eating and simultaneously preparing to lose weight.
    I share all of this not so you obsess about what’s affecting the number on the scale but so we can have a more informed discussion about why the scale is such a misleading and self-destructive way to track weight loss. In so many ways the number we see when we step on the scale is meaningless. To break our addiction to the scale, we need to first understand that, and then talk about why it’s so hard for us to trust how our bodies feel. When clients say they feel lighter and their clothes are fitting better, why do they still insist on stepping on the scale?
    RELEARNING HOW TO TRUST YOUR BODY
    During our years of losing and gaining weight, many of us have come to mistrust our bodies. We’ve spent years resisting the body’s natural urges to eat and experience pleasure, and then we’ve tortured ourselves with guilt and shame when we give in to these positive and healthy urges. Over time, the bodies we live in become enemies conspiring to make us gain weight rather than things we love, respect, and care for. Given this mistrust we feel, our reliance on the scale as proof of our weight loss (or not) makes perfect sense. After all, how can we trust the way the body feels when it has been working against us for so long?
    Our inner guidance comes to us first through our feelings and body wisdom—not through intellectual understanding.
    — CHRISTIANE NORTHRUP, M.D.
    The scale, like the mirror, quickly becomes a sort of dictator. Based on whatever number appears, the scale tells you whether you’re allowed to have a good day, whether you’re allowed to feel happy, beautiful, and worthy. The problem is that not trusting your body and punishing yourself for a “bad” number ultimately make it harder, not easier, to lose the weight. Because you can’t trust your own body, you may feel stressed when you don’t step on the scale or when the number on the scale isn’t what you’re hoping for.
    One of my students, Robyn, had a breakthrough about the usefulness of the scale in her own weight loss journey a few weeks into my online class:
    Since week 1, I have thought about your “hide your scale” directive. I immediately liked the idea because I knew that if I was making some effort (in this case, tapping) and not getting results (the number on the scale going down), then I would be adding unnecessary emotional baggage to the pile of issues I already know I need to deal with around my weight and body.
    This morning, I realized that NOT weighing myself is a better way to keep me accountable. By not weighing myself, I am supporting myself. I am holding myself accountable to my commitment to this class and to my own weight loss, and I have to say, it feels empowering. I love the feeling of doing something different! For once, I am not using my weight as a punishment but instead am freeing myself to actually do something good for me.
    The scale is just a machine that’s designed to give you a very basic piece of information—what you weigh at one specific moment in time. It isn’t a judgment and it doesn’t predict what you will weigh tomorrow, next week, or next month. To begin ingraining that idea into your brain, let’s now do some tapping around your relationship with the scale and around relearning how to trust your body.
    Karate Chop: Even though I’ve allowed the scale to measure my worth, I love and accept myself and choose to take my power back. ( Repeat three times. ) Eyebrow: I can’t stop looking at the number.
    Side of Eye: It tells me how I should feel.
    Under Eye: It tells me if I’m being good or bad.
    Under Nose: I’ve lost trust in myself.
    Chin: So I trust in this scale …
    Collarbone: To tell me how I’m doing.
    Under Arm: I have to look at the scale.
    Top of Head: That’s the only way to know