Healthy Thursday

Weighing ones self should be a no brainer, yet many people make mistakes when doing this. Most of the medications that are used to treat mental illness come with the side effect of weight gain, some more worse than others. That is why it is important that you watch not only what you eat but also be on the look out for any weight gain.

The recommendation is that a person weight themselves once a week. I do an every other day weigh in so that I can keep up with dietary changes, and exercise so that I can head off the weight gain before it gets out of hand. Some medications no joke can cause a weight gain of a pound a day. If I was doing a weekly weigh in there is a possibility that I cold have gained 7 lbs before catching it.

Weighing in is quite simple, in the morning after I have gone to the bathroom I strip my clothes off and weigh myself. I make sure that I haven't had anything to eat or drink yet. This allows me to get a more accurate picture of my weight. I then use a handy ap to record my weight. I use this ap to also track everything that I have eaten and also any exercise or physical activity that I have engaged in. This allows me to easily see if dietary changes are needed or if I should do a more intense workout to keep the weight gain to minimum.

Another thing that I do is take measurements of my waist weekly, I record this in a text document. This allows me to see if the dietary changes I am making have any effect on bloating. Now my goal is to maintain a steady weight give or take a few pounds. But I assume that this method would work well for those who might be trying to loose weight, although you might want to add extra time between weigh ins so as to not get discouraged at seeing he scale barely move down every day.

It is important to remember that there might still be some weight gain in spite of your best efforts. My own Pdoc warned of this and said that is why he encourages his patients to eat as healthy as possible and to cut all junk food out for a while. This is so that the weight gain is associated with foods that healthy and providing the body with nourishment instead of empty calories. He also recommends increasing physical activity not only for physical health but for mental health as well. Exercise is a great way to help cope with stress and a simple walk can help calm and relax a person.

So readers what are your methods of weighing in? Do you do it once a day, a few times a week or weekly? Has weighing in helped you to make dietary changes and keep the weight gains low? I would love to hear from you.  

Healthy Thursday is a great way that you can share dietary changes, new exercises, stress reduction techniques or just any general things that you have engaged in or changed in your life that has a positive impact. No matter how small or how simple these are things that we do to improve our selves and lessen the effects of our illnesses. Put a link in the comments to your own blog entry for Healthy Thursday.  If you don't have blog then just comment with what your healthy thing is.