Anyone else afraid of the scale?

I know I am! I'm working out, eating healthy... and yet knowing I'm going to get on the scale on Wednesday is just so scary. What if I didn't lose anything after all my hard work? What if I *gulp* gained weight? I'm only aiming to lose 15 pounds (for now - long term goal is more like 50), but I'd like to do it in the next two months. I've only started weighing myself recently (I have only one week of recorded data so far), and while that did show some positive loss, I got sick after the last time I weighed myself and thus didn't go to the gym at all this past week. I also went on a trip this weekend and wasn't able to eat healthily at all. I'm worried I'll get discouraged if it turns out I didn't drop any weight this week and that will kill my motivation/make me really discouraged.

Anyone have any suggestions/inspirations/advice to help kill this fear of the scale?

My favorite platitude: you are what you are.

It's a number.

It doesn't define you.

It's also a very inaccurate way of looking at weight. I mean a pound of fat is a lot bigger than a pound of muscle...like a pound of feathers takes up a lot more volume than a pound of lead! ;-D

I very rarely look at the scale. Instead, I use a belt to determine my "status" of whether or not I'm getting where I want to go. It's a better indicator of how much visceral fat -- the fat that's around your abdomen -- you have.

If you're scared of the scale, track something you can control more directly: e.g., graph the number of minutes you're exercising every day; how many fruits and veggies you eat each day, etc. Then, once or twice a month take a reading of your measurements (waist, hips, upper arms, and thighs -- and anything else you want to measure!), as well as your weight. It will be in a much better perspective.

I hope this helps...