Ep. 4: How to Stop Being a Slave to the Scale

[00:00:00] The Scale The one thing in most of our lives that has the ability to make or break our day.

[00:00:08] The experience that we dread the most at the doctor's office yet continues to string

[00:00:14] us along and fusing us with hope that our efforts haven't been wasted.

[00:00:19] Y'all, it's time to stop being a slave to the scale.

[00:00:27] Welcome to the Nourished to Bloom Podcast where your fate meets your health.

[00:00:32] I'm your host, Kara Trochta, a registered dietitian and certified Catholic coach and I'm

[00:00:36] here to help you cultivate a deeper connection with your body, your spirit, and the nourishment

[00:00:41] that sustains them both.

[00:00:43] In a world filled with noise and confusion about food, health, and body image, the podcast

[00:00:49] offers truth and healing from a Christ-centered perspective.

[00:00:53] Together we'll untangle the deep roots of diet culture and discover what it means to

[00:00:57] truly care for ourselves, through joyful nourishment of mind, body and soul.

[00:01:03] We're here to dive into the transformative power of intuitive eating coupled with the

[00:01:07] rich teachings of our Christian faith.

[00:01:09] With every episode I'll be cheering you on, offering insights, inspiration, and practical

[00:01:14] tools to help you heal your relationship with food and embrace the beauty of your body

[00:01:20] as a temple of the Holy Spirit, with confidence and courage that can only be found in Christ.

[00:01:27] Join me as we journey together towards a more holistic approach to wellness, one that

[00:01:31] honors the wisdom of your body as God's creation, the teachings of our faith and the unique

[00:01:36] purpose you're called to the Thou.

[00:01:39] You were made to bloom, to come into full beauty and health in order to bear good fruit

[00:01:45] for the Lord with your life.

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[00:01:52] of yourself, then you're in the right place and I'm so happy you're here.

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[00:02:33] I used to weigh myself every day.

[00:02:37] How I started my day, and it was that first thing in the morning kind of girl.

[00:02:43] I knew all the tricks to make the number as low as it possibly could.

[00:02:48] I did everything to ensure that there was nothing that could possibly skew the number

[00:02:54] to be higher than what it should be.

[00:02:59] At home, it was getting up in the morning, going to the bathroom, maybe stripping my clothes

[00:03:08] off and weighing naked, right?

[00:03:09] Just not eating or drinking anything until I stopped on that scale.

[00:03:14] Then those tricks also carried over into any time I'd go to the doctor's office.

[00:03:21] I can always remember, especially with my gynecologist and my OBEGEN just that anxiety

[00:03:29] that having to step on the scale would bring in all the tricks, making sure that I went

[00:03:36] to the bathroom as soon as I got there before I stepped on the scale.

[00:03:39] Not eating or drinking before I got there.

[00:03:42] Having the earliest appointment in the morning as possible so then I didn't have to worry

[00:03:46] about whether I ate or drank anything before I stepped on the scale at the doctor's office.

[00:03:52] Wearing lightweight clothes, so definitely not jeans and taking off my jewelry and my shoes

[00:03:58] before I stepped on the scale like all the tricks.

[00:04:02] And remember that mix of hope and dread that came with stepping on the scale?

[00:04:09] There was that hope that the number would finally be where I wanted it to be

[00:04:13] that it would reflect all of the hard work and sacrifice that I had been putting in.

[00:04:19] While at that same moment, that lingering dread of,

[00:04:24] gosh what if the number isn't lower?

[00:04:28] Like please God just let that number go down.

[00:04:32] So just that mix of emotions.

[00:04:36] The first commandment says that we should not have other gods.

[00:04:42] But yet many of us find ourselves in a situation of having a false idol without ever meaning to.

[00:04:49] But if we look at the definition of what an idol is, it's anything that takes our focus off of Jesus.

[00:04:56] And in Jonah chapter 2 verse 8 it says that those who cling to worthless idols turn away from

[00:05:02] God's love for them.

[00:05:07] You might find some really hard truths in this episode and

[00:05:12] the thing about hard truths is they don't usually feel comfortable

[00:05:16] and it was like a punch to the gut.

[00:05:23] Like when I had that moment of realization of how I was

[00:05:26] a slave to the scale and how I was making the scale and the pursuit of weight loss these false idols.

[00:05:33] Because I really, really thought that these behaviors

[00:05:36] and this pursuit was noble and it was for the sake of my health so how could it be bad?

[00:05:44] But the harsh reality was that the scale became that false idol.

[00:05:50] I had the ability to ensure

[00:05:54] or the scale was like the one thing that had the ability to make or break a day.

[00:06:00] It was either going to make sure my day was good or it would make my day bad.

[00:06:06] If the number was down then yeah, all right, hooray.

[00:06:09] Like things were working and it would be a good day.

[00:06:14] But then those like good day thoughts would creep in and it'd be like,

[00:06:17] oh yay the number on the scale was down like let's celebrate.

[00:06:20] And maybe I can cheat a little bit and have a little bit of this or a little bit of that

[00:06:26] which typically led into those behaviors of overeating that we talked about in the last episode.

[00:06:33] And then I'd feel guilty and I'd end up you know like that what the hell effect really took

[00:06:40] place and I'd end up way overeating things and all the foods that I'd sworn off and then you know

[00:06:45] start all over the next day. But if the number was the same or higher than oh man,

[00:06:53] it was going to be a rough day. It led to so much negative self-talk and thoughts of just being

[00:07:00] a failure that nothing ever worked. I should just give up. What does this matter anyway?

[00:07:04] I'll never fix this problem so I might as well just eat whatever I want. But no,

[00:07:08] I can't do that because then that would be bad for me and I would gain weight like just this continuous

[00:07:12] loop. So like typically no matter what the number on the scale said it had the potential

[00:07:19] for me to find myself overeating either way because if the number was down you know the number

[00:07:25] the same or higher I'd get into that like self-loathing cycle and then eat because like what

[00:07:32] did it matter anyway? This nothing was ever going to work. And then I get mad at myself and you

[00:07:37] know have to start all over the next day and over time you may find that the scale

[00:07:44] and your weight loss pursuits may have become an obsession. They may be your fall cycle.

[00:07:52] It's one that you measure your worth and value against.

[00:07:59] It can be so hard to see the problems with this constant pursuit of weight loss because we

[00:08:07] tell ourselves it's for our health, we think it's good, we think it's noble

[00:08:11] because diet culture has tricked us and done a really great job into making us think it's necessary

[00:08:17] for our health. But I want to remind you that each one of us is God's unique creation.

[00:08:26] He created it created all of us to be different sizes, different heights, different weights,

[00:08:32] different colored skin, different color hair, different colored eyes. We don't tell someone

[00:08:37] in a size 8 shoe but they need to make their foot smaller so they can be more worthy or that

[00:08:43] they can be more loved or accepted. We just accept our shoe size for what it is,

[00:08:50] a part of how God created us. Like we may not like our shoe size but like we're not actively trying

[00:08:56] to change it and we need to take that same acceptance and learn how to apply it

[00:09:05] to how we view our bodies and our weight. We need to stop worshipping the false idols of

[00:09:12] the scale and weight loss because they keep us from giving our best selves to the Lord.

[00:09:18] We waste so much time, so much energy and effort on trying to change our bodies that

[00:09:24] we end up putting our life on hold. We say well I'll do that when I lose the weight or I'll do

[00:09:28] that when my body looks this way. And we miss out on experiencing the abundance he has already

[00:09:34] put in our life but yet we still tend to cling to that false abundance that we've been promised

[00:09:42] that would come if you just lost the weight or if you had the perfect body. Like I want you

[00:09:47] to think about any of you who have cades and it's summer and it swimsuit season and you are so

[00:09:55] uncomfortable in your body that you miss out on getting in the pole with the kids or you miss

[00:10:02] out on building the sand castle because you're so worried about what you look like in your swimsuit.

[00:10:09] This is exactly what I'm talking about that the number on the scale, the size of our genes have

[00:10:16] caused many of us to stop living life and just put things on hold until this problem is taking care of.

[00:10:25] But yeah we can't be fully open to Christ, fully living a Christ-centered life if we continue to be at odds

[00:10:32] with our body because it creates conflict with regards to human dignity and it denies

[00:10:42] the beauty and the order and the goodness of you as God's creation, of how God created anything to be

[00:10:50] with order and beauty and goodness. But I get it if I was sitting where you are right now hearing someone

[00:10:57] tell me that the scale is my false idol and probably be a little angry and maybe deny it.

[00:11:04] I tell myself that I wasn't doing that mostly because I'd be too afraid of what life would look like

[00:11:11] if I didn't weigh myself. We think that we need the scale there to keep us in check and on track,

[00:11:19] but the truth is that's what we really need God for. My breakup with a scale with accidental

[00:11:27] I think we were remodeling our bathroom and one of the boys was a toddler at the time and we had a

[00:11:33] glass scale and it was like sitting on top of like a bucket, like a home depot five gallon bucket

[00:11:40] and they either picked it up or they pushed it over or whatever. Anyway it was a glass scale and it

[00:11:44] just shattered into a million pieces and y'all I have to say was the best thing that has ever happened.

[00:11:51] I have not um stepped on a scale outside of like being at a doctor's office since then,

[00:12:04] right which was I think 2018-ish maybe something 2017-2018. So it's been a while

[00:12:12] and it feels so good. It's so free to not like wake up and think about stepping on the scale

[00:12:18] and letting that dictate my day. And it was like that like it's like in the little mermaid

[00:12:25] when the shell that's around Ursula's neck has Ariel's voice trapped in it and when like that breaks

[00:12:32] and Eric comes out of the trance and it's like he saw that he had been controlled and manipulated.

[00:12:37] That's kind of like what it was like my scale shattered and I stopped waiting myself and I was like oh wow

[00:12:44] y'all I'm not saying that you need to go smash your scale although it would be a little like

[00:12:50] you know Moses destroying the golden calf but just get curious about how much influence the

[00:12:58] scale has in your life. It really may help you pause before you step on the scale out of habit

[00:13:07] and like really starts to rethink if that number really matters. And if you want that thing

[00:13:14] to keep having so much control in your life. In his work with theology the body is saying

[00:13:20] hope John Paul the second said that the body and it alone is capable of making visible the invisible

[00:13:28] that which is spiritual and divine. So God created our bodies to be able to make the love

[00:13:38] that he has for us a reality to the world around us. And we're not capable of doing that when

[00:13:46] we're worried about the number on the scale. Like what you're hearing on the nearest to gloom podcasts

[00:13:55] we'd love for you to leave a rating and review. Not only does that help me to know what's

[00:13:59] resonating with you with the listeners but it also helps me reach more women seeking guidance on

[00:14:04] their wellness journey. Thanks again for all the support and encouragement you sure know how to

[00:14:08] make a girl fill blood. See you next week now go blue