Day 5 of Week 5 The Skinny On My Scale

Weight today: lost 1 pound

Total Lost: 9 pounds in 32 days

1/2 cup of oatmeal: 150
2 tsp of sugar: 30
1/3 cup of skim milk:30
total: 210

2 3/4 oz banana: 68
vanilla protein shake: 110
2 saltine crackers:22
1 tbl of powder creamer for coffee:30
with sweet-n-low:0
total: 230
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running total: 440

1 lefse:30
1 jumbo egg:90
1 jumbo egg white: 17
4 oz of raw blueberries: 45
1 tsp of sugar:15
1/2 cup of fat free cottage cheese: 80
1 tbl of powder coffee creamer: 30
with sweet-n-low: 0
total:307
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running total:747

2 saltine crackers:22
2 3/4 oz banana:68
vanilla protein shake: 110
total: 200
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running total: 947

2 saltine crackers:22
1 cup of brown rice: 170
2 tsp of Smart Balance light butter:30
4 1/2 oz of grilled chicken breast:158
1 tsp of Bacon Ranch dressing: 23
1 tbl of powder coffee creamer:30
with sweet-n-low:0
part of a Toffee Crunch bar: 150
total: 583
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running total: 1530

Planned Fitness: 30 minute easy run, and 3 laps around the track at race pace
abdominals

Today's Challenge: staying on course. Going for 10 pounds by Monday. Weekend's are tougher.

Note on Picture: My latest infatuation: 4 oz of raw blueberries: 45 calories, 1 tsp of sugar 15, 1 tbl of light whipped cream: 7 for a delicious, nutritious snack of 67 calories.

Added note: I will be writing an article today about my scale.

The Skinny On My Scale

My scale will make you either laugh or cry. And since I'd rather laugh, why don't you sit back, relax and laugh with me.

Like Sunshine Meg, who commented earlier today, I think I probably purchased the cheapest scale there was at Wal Mart, oh..about seven years ago. If you've ever priced out scales, you know that they can get quite expensive.

So, I went cheap. And cheap, I guess, is what I got.

I'm pretty sure it's mostly accurate. The reason I know this is that I would buy 10 pound bags of sugar (isn't that ironic?) at the store and put it on the scale to try to find zero.

I'm sure ladies you know what I mean. There is this little lever under the scale that when you move it, you can move it either under zero or over zero. But the idea is to get it exactly on zero. But on my scale, zero tends to be elusive. You think you're on zero, so you step on, get a reading...then step off and suddenly it's off zero. So, was that reading really with you on zero or not?

So, you try to find zero again...and again...and again...

Lately, because I know that my 18 month old son is about 20 pounds, I 've been using him to find zero. The only problem with that is that sometimes he's not up yet in the morning when I weigh. Also, it can be hard to find zero when your 20 pound "zero-ing unit" crumples up and flays and resists being put on the scale.

So, finding zero is the first problem. The second issue with my scale is that I need to have Superman eyesight to read the scale. Literally.

The pounds are marked off by 0, 10, 20 ect. All the numbers in between are designated by vertical black slashes. The five pound marks in each ten number set are set off by an ever so slightly, taller vertical mark. The distance between the vertical marks are about the same width apart as the vertical scale marker that tells you what the weight is at. In essence what I'm trying to say here is that...you need Superman eyesight to see what you weigh.

If I bend down and get close, I can see where I'm at, but weighing yourself in a squatting position on the scale just doesn't work. Eventually I have to stand up. And when I do so, ever so slowly, so as to not disturb zero, I have my eyes fixed on the slow upward movement of the scale numbers. Then, when I'm finally still, and have stood...I focus on the black slash marks, and ask these questions.

Is it on the black mark? ...or... Is it more to the right of the black mark? Hmm...I think, maybe it would be better if I focused on whether it appears to be smack dab in the middle of the five pound slash and the 10 pound black slash mark.

And, of course, because there is so little room between slash marks, any little shadow can obscure my ability to read the black slash marks. Hence, the need for positioning the scale so as to allow for as much light as possible on it.

And then this whole procedure could be repeated four or five times in my attempt to make sure that I'm at zero.

I actually wonder with this diet, if my beginning weight was a little off and that perhaps I weighed more. And perhaps that is why it took two weeks to drop this ninth pound.

But for me, before the diet blog came along, this scale worked fine because I was still able to estimate and see progress...eventually. And, hey, I even got pretty good at divining a mostly accurate measurement from my scale.

So, my husband thinks I should get a better scale. To which I reply,

"Do you know how much those nice scales cost?"

I'm still losing weight and looking great, right? And, really, how boring would it be to know instantly what you weigh? C'mon I need some fudge room.

There, wasn't that better than crying?