Tanyanka - I don't have any favorites but the chocolate-raspberry cake sounds YUM! Let us know what you end up making My father will be here for his birthday and I'm already planning on making him a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (and I'm NOT going to care about the points, LOL)

sunarie - Congrats on your loss! Keep workin towards that massage! I see you’ve added another smiley face on your signature, too!

SoMuch - thanks for thinking of me. It’s going to be a VERY long battle. I left him due to domestic violence (and mental abuse as well) and I just found out some bad news from my lawyer yesterday that he is trying to get full custody of our baby and that he already went to a judge and just told them that I took off with his child for no reason and that I was going to flee the country. WTF. Anyway my eating has been kind of off this week… my appetite comes and goes and of course I am craving some sweet food for comfort.

As far as your scale… I think you should listen to everyone else. Don’t get yourself obsessed with the numbers. Just start eating like you used to – maybe even follow the exact menus that you had for a few weeks and I’m sure the lbs will start coming off. Keep in mind fertility treatments can have major effects on your hormones & weight, so it may not come off as fast – so don’t get frustrated!

SoMuchFattitude - Poo at crappy weather! I really wish it'd get cold where I live already though. It doesn't feel like November at all and I wish it would. I keep having to remind myself that my birthday's and Christmas are right around the corner.

As far as the scale...from that blog post you linked it didn't sound like you had a very good relationship with the scale. Personally I don't see anything wrong with daily weighing -if- the gains aren't destroying your mood. Really that's your call though. If you know your mood is going to depend on the number, keep away. I also agree with what TheLunchLady stated regarding the fertility treatments and weight stuff.

TheLunchLady - I am so sorry you're having to go through all that. Divorces are not fun, even when everything goes well, which it sounds like he's not going to be cooperating with you at all :/ Hopefully the false allegations don't stick because.. well there's no proof. Nasty thing to do overall. I know it'll probably add some stress (and I'm sorry I just feel I need to say it), and you may not need to hear it, but be on guard with people like that. My father got custody of my brother and I because he agreed to watch us for my mother when she had to go out of town on business for 3 months. After two weeks he went to the court and said she had left us unattended to. She had no legal document saying he had agreed to watch us so he ended up winning. Something he brags about to this day.. which I think was shitty as all ****. So if you do anything, try to get a notary or something.. document all the stuff. Crappy people are crappy and I don't know what custody laws are like where you live. I do hope everything gets better for you.

On a happier note. I did indeed add another smiley! I forget when exactly I added it.. I think I forgot to for a good bit when I actually hit the mark at the end of October, oh well! I weighed in at 232 even this morning, which is kinda my official weekly weigh-in type day (where I calculate losses for the week/month). With the challenges it seems I have a lot of calculate days, haha. 3lbs to go till massage/mini-goal!

LunchLady and SoMuch: Lots of strenghth to both of you.

Sunarie: Congrats, way to go!

I did my weekly weigh in on Saturday and had a huge drop. 1.7 kg (3.7 lbs) It almost scares me a bit, as it's so much.

Anyways, I'm on vacation for two weeks now. And while I plan to write everything down I eat, the plan is also to maintain during those two weeks. I probably won't check in during that time. Talk to y'all in two weeks!

Oh Lunch, I am so sorry to hear that. I can only imagine how difficult that is. I do agree with Sun, though. Probably best to be WAY over prepared since he sounds a little...crazy.

Sun -- WOOHOO!!! Congrats on the next smiley!

Tan - Enjoy and have fun!! Can't wait to hear all about it.

---

Oh y'all...I know about the scale, but but but...I'm weak. I bought one over the weekend. I am pretty black and white person that likes results. I figured I am so obsessed with all the fertility sh*t and that's driving me crazy (and DH), that I'd rather be obsessed with the weight loss side where I actually have control. I seriously can't seem to lose weight without the daily weighing. Ugh. So, my scale is set up, my excel spreadsheet is back and my running clothes are out. I already feel a little more in control. I did promise myself and DH that I won't try and pack the scale on vacation ever again and that he can take it away if he finds me spending unusual amounts of time in the bathroom screaming obscenities. Progress? Undoubtedly, I'll be writing a whole post on this on my blog.

Speaking of my spreadsheet - we used to have a daily weigh in page for people to track daily or weekly, whatever the wanted on here.

Would anyone be interested in that again?

I have three different challenges that do weekly weigh in's on two different days, and I usually post in a daily weigh-in thread. I can definitely post here too

A scale in itself isn't bad, so don't hound yourself too much. Do try and not let little gains destroy your mood though. Easier said than done. I've become rather accustomed to the fact that I'll have a day or two in a row where I drop a pound each, and then I'll gain nearly a pound back in small increments before dropping again. So gains are just a very normal part of my cycle.

Happy note! New low on the scale today. 231.8! For the Delicious for Christmas Challenge weigh-in that puts me at down 2lbs since the last weigh in for that particular challenge. Woot woot.

I got my way for Thanksgiving too, so that just got a whole lot less stressful. Apparently boyfriend's sister has sports practice over the holiday weekend, so they need to stay in town. Which means we're going there and I don't have to worry about having tons of leftovers I feel an obligation to eat. Boyfriend's mom is even paying for a hotel for us

Updated to add: Tanyanka have a fun and relaxing vacation!

Tanyanka - have fun on vacation!

Sunarie - thanks for your kind words. That is horrible what your dad did! Yes my ex is a bad, bad person. I am glad to have a really good lawyer who has already made an emergency appeal with the judge so that I will have full custody and he will have supervised visits. I don't trust him one bit! It sounds silly but it's another reason for me to keep on WW because when I show up to court I want to look GOOD!

SoMuch - You have to do what you have to do! If a scale helps you, then go for it. I like that you gave your H the authority to revoke it if you abuse it, LOL. I don't weigh myself daily, usually mid-week to make sure it's going down and then on my weigh-in day.

This week was -1.6 lbs! Yesterday my Mom and I went to a big chocolate exhibition here... which means LOTS of chocolate eating. We planned ahead to go so I knew all week to stick to plan and not use any of my extra points and I kept my activity points. I sampled lots of yummy chocolate, ate an eclair, and then we bought these SUPER yummy chocolate cake/brownie like things (I'm not sure how to describe them other than HEAVENLY). So, when we got home, we had to eat a piece, but we froze the rest and we're only going to eat some on Thanksgiving and then we have another for Christmas.

On a happier note, my nephew is coming for Thanksgiving! He is stationed in Germany so he isn't too far away. I haven't seen him since my daughter was first born so it will be nice to catch up.

Sun - WOOHOO! You are rocking those challenges! That's awesome about Thanksgiving. The Holidays can make weight loss even more challenging. I usually end up just throwing it in the bucket and hoping to maintain for the week.

Lunch - I can't fathom what you're dealing with. Glad to hear your lawyer is on point, though. That's got to be comforting! Enjoy your nephew! I'm super close to mine (ages 7 and 9).

---

I'm doing pretty good with the daily weighing, actually. I'm only weighing twice a day (when I wake up and when I go to bed) and not multiple times. It's only been 3 days, but I don't have any anxiety or stress surrounding it and I'm already making better food choices. Maybe it's the push I needed!

TheLunchLady - my dad isn't so bad now.. he's actually improved a lot, most likely because he became legally blind. His new wife has also seemed to soften him a lot. That whole situation happened when I was around 5 (I'm 29, almost 30 now), so I honestly don't remember it.. I only know cause he bragged, my mom told me about it, and some of my dad's friends mentioned it when I worked at the same place he did. But! It's a good lesson learned about how people can be crappy while pretending to be good so I felt compelled to share. Anyway! Good that the situation is helping you keep motivated, lol. Awesome that you get to see your nephew for Thanksgiving, and congrats on the loss! I'm a sucker for chocolate, luckily boyfriend doesn't like it at all so we don't tend to keep any in the house outside of my ice cream bars.. which I can control myself with!

SoMuchFattitude - Glad to hear daily weighing is going well and you aren't stressing over it! Maybe a good break was all you needed. For the challenges, I'm not winning any, but it is kinda fun to participate. I don't know why, but having a bunch of stuff to update kinda helps to keep my on track. I started tracking stuff in the MyFitnessPal app to keep a tab sodium/carb/fat intake in addition to points, plus keep up with some of the friends I'm made on here.. have two daily weigh in threads I'm posting in, and then three different challenges. Most the stuff is on different days so it's not like everything at once, and it's not something I stress over all day.. it's just kinda nice to record stuff, I dunno.. I'm weird.

Need to go grocery shopping again! Have more recipes to try. Out of the 20-30 we've tried, we've found a whole 6 or so that we like so far. Luckily I have another 20-30 or so to go through. I'm hoping to end up with 10-12 recipes to cycle through that both of us like cause neither of us mind repetitive meals. I'd eat subway every day for life if I could, lol. I'm too lazy to go out and get it every day though, so that'd never work... and it'd get expensive.

Sun - Well, my old scale that I broke would flux by like .2, so I think that part of the obsession behind multiple weighings was that it could change and I wanted every damn ounce to count. LOL. My new scale does not flux, so the need to weigh multiple times isn't there.

I totally hear you on the updating stuff. That's part of why I like weighing daily. I track it here, my phone, my spreadsheet, etc. It just helps me keep focus. I track on MFP, too. LOL. I'm a list maker and I'm super organized. I feel - comforted, for lack of a better word, by tracking.

What are your 6 winning recipes?!

I understand how you feel when you say you feel comfortable tracking stuff! That probably fits me too. I also don't really know how to describe it, lol.

I guess I actually have 7 recipes if you could the texas toast pizza one, which isn't something we make often enough because it still feels really fatty to me. No real veggies and texas toast is always pretty greasy. So I save it for when I really, really want some pizza but don't want to either spend the money or use the extra points.

All seven are:
Sesame Chicken
Baked Chicken Quesadillas (I use the recipe posted by Net Knee)
Spicy Teriyaki Chicken
Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Baked Turkey and Jack Cheese Chimichangas (I substitute chicken)
Thai Chicken Skewers with Peanut Sauce
Texas Toast Garlic Bread Pizza

Most the points values are really close to what they're suppose to be. I tend to recalculate everything all the time with my ingredients though, just to make sure. If I remember right the Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps were around 3-4 points per wrap thing, and that was without using any light or low fat cheese. I accidentally got hot buffalo sauce instead of regular with that one, but they were still nummy, just a bit on the spicy side. Next round we're also probably just gonna make a lettuce only salad and put the mixture on top of it versus doing wraps, the wraps were messy :x

Sun - OMG - I LOVE the Sesame Chicken from Skinny Taste. So easy and yummy.

I definitely have a few set, go to recipes.

30-Minute Filet Bourguignonne with Mashed Potatoes
Chicken, Potato, and Leek Pie
Grilled Flank Steak and Onions
Zucchini Casserole

That one is pretty amazing! I was actually surprised at how good the Sesame Chicken came out. The Thai Chicken Skewers were really nummy too. The peanut sauce was interesting.. not bad but not extraordinary, but the chicken with the marinade was really yummy. I don't have a grill so I ended up doing the skewers with the broiler in my oven, lol.

I'll have to try our the Chicken, Potato, and Leek Pie, and the Zucchini Casserole. We don't really do steak in our house. I flat dislike it and boyfriend doesn't think too highly of it either.. we're weird, I know. Zucchini is nummy when cooked right though. There was a recipe at some point I saw where it was Zucchini mini-pizzas. You basically took a big zucchini, did a egg/breadcumb coating on it, cooked it for a tiny bit with that, then put pizza sauce and cheese over it. That's the healthier version of the Texas Toast, but I don't actually use a recipe to make it cause it's so easy. Something similar to this: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/07/z...zza-bites.html

Hey ladies... well I'm up .2 this week. I weighed myself Sat and I was down about a lb, but then I got really lazy about tracking over the weekend and I ate WAY too much yesterday, so it was kind of expected. I really thought I was going to start my period this week (it would be my first post partum period, which I've heard SUCK), but so far just symptoms. Needless to say... I've been consuming too much chocolate!

So I'm back at it today. Tracking EVERYTHING. And I am going to the gym since I got lazy about it last week. Even on Thanksgiving I told myself I will track even if I use all my weekly points. I just want to make it to the -10 lb mark, which is my first mini goal.

TheLunchLady - I did the same. We went to some get-togethers this weekend and I tried to track stuff, but really failed. When I plugged things into MyFitnessPal and tried to get calorie counts and all, I wasn't over.. but I'm sure I forgot to add some stuff I ate, and I couldn't find the exact foods so calorie counts were probably off. That put me at a gain for the first time ever in one of my challenges x.x Was only .8lbs though, and I'm back on track now.

Little bit stressed today. I'm skipping my planned workout because I don't really find working out relaxing even though everyone likes to tell me it's a great stress reliever and I just haven't done it enough yet. Woke up to a text letting me know my step-dad (whom my mom has been married to for over 15 years and I refer to as my dad all the time) is in the hospital. I guess they went last night because he's had chest pains for over a week and they kept him overnight. They're running stress tests today and are currently not sure if it's gastrointestinal related or heart related. No history of heart problems on his side of the family. I'm a bit annoyed that I talked to my mom on the phone last night and she didn't mention it at all, instead I found out via text message (mass text message to all the kids at once). I'm sure she had her reasons though and honestly I'm more worried than I am annoyed. We live on the other side of the country so I can't just go visit him at the hospital either.. and money is low from two weddings/trips, to Washington (where they live) already this year.