My scale hates me.

Hello my faithful readers! Yes, I am alive.

I'm also very frustrated because my scale hates me, but not in the way you're probably thinking. I haven't posted in a couple weeks because I haven't been able to get a consistent weight from week to week. After the 'too good to be true' 19-pound week, I haven't come even close. The scale seems to have lost it's brain!

I did some research and found that a couple things may be affecting it. First, digital scales may actually lose their battery but not give you an error message. As it starts to lose power, it may give the user varying results that get worse with the more weight that's put on. So, my husband could get a good weight but mine was farther off. Also, I had no idea that digital scales are affected by room temperature! Who knew?!? The room where my scale lived gets colder at night during the winter because we shut the doors off to conserve heat. The online resources say that it can take up to 12 hours for the internal workings of the scale return to normal. That's way too late to be of any use to me in weighing first thing in the morning.

So, I replaced the battery and moved the scale into my living room. There's a very low-pile carpet in that room, so to counteract that I placed it on a small piece of plywood. It seems to have helped initially but that didn't last long. I'm at the point of wondering if the scale itself is just worn out and needs to be replaced.

To compound the problem, I'm having a difficult time stepping up and standing on the scale in a consistent way. This is caused by that awful left knee which doesn't straighten out as loosely as it should. It's almost impossible for me to stand equally balanced on both legs. Could this be throwing the scale off as well? Robert doesn't seem to have as much trouble as I do.

So! Where that leaves me is that I'm really not sure WHAT I've done. I don't have any way of knowing for sure if the scale was off for my initial weights, so I may have lost more than I realize. or less. or nothing. It's terribly frustrating but and it leaves me with the feeling that I don't really know if I'm doing any good at all.

And then I listen to my sister. She says to remind myself of what I HAVE done while I'm figuring out the scale. I'm exercising in the water aerobics 2-3 nights a week and really pushing myself during those workouts. I made it through the whole last week of school without dipping one time into the bowls and plates of evil cookies, fudge, brownies, cake....sheesh! In the last two weeks I've significantly ramped up my water intake and successfully made that a part of my normal day. At most meals I've been able to make what I think are much better choices and appropriate for a reduced-carb diet although I haven't completely been able to transition back into the 40-30-30 formula at home. I just haven't had the time to buy everything and go back to specific recipes but I'm still doing pretty well with it. All in all, not too shabby. Regardless of what the scale says exactly, it's just GOT to be down some and if not it will be soon.