Afternoone everyone! I was on line very early this morning and had a nice big message all typed out to post... then the site went down... ugh. Just getting back on now to see what is going on.

Ayla: Welcome! it is great to have you with us!

meri: I use those kind of tortillas! They are great! My dress... it is actually a skirt with a top but it is semi-formal to say the least, at least for me it is... LOL. The skirt is long, floor length, and a very pretty shimmery silver/gray color, the top is a pretty mauve mixture with long sleeves and a wrap around kind of front to it. I tried to find a picture of it but was not able too... will post one when I eventually wear it.

Bandit: Good luck tonight! I don't do well either unless I exercise, it has always been that way with me... ugh! They are calling for bad weather here also... be safe and take care of yourself!

Judy:I agree with your plans for food over the holiday! I do that, I often have taken FF Hotdogs or Black Bean Burger with me, family does not mind, they are not interested so it is not like I have to fight anyone for my FF hotdogs...LOL.

Judy, Judy, Judy- (what old movie is that from?) That is a GREAT idea to start planning ahead for the 4th of July. I'll get right on that.

Social events are weird for me. I don't really ever have more then one a week, usually. But, it's just that ALL of my girlfriends do WW together. So 99% of the time, I am with one of them. And, I give into peer pressure. Mother's Day, my Leader took me to a church tea. They passed out HUGE pieces of cheesecake. I didn't want any. I told the waiter no thank you. She said we were "out", and I earned it, besides she wanted it and couldn't eat her's unless I did too. Then this past weekend we went Father's day shopping at the big city mall. The two girls I was with were walking on egg shells all day. They didn't want to go through the drive thru because of me. They didn't want to get something at the food court because of me. Now I don't say anything they just know how much weight I have lost. Finally I was tired of feeling like a freak and had a pretzel and lemonade.

I have come to realize I am at a different place then they are. They all have school age children and my leader's youngest is just 1 year old. I have been married almost 20 years. I did have a health scare that has motivated me. But, I still have to wake up everyday (just like they do) and make the choice to exercise. I get greif sometimes because 4 of us started out very close in start off weight. I was the heaviest, but not one by one I have passed them all up. Now I am only 9 pounds away from catching my leader. Her hubbie is trying to pushing her. Two of them bought super fancy treadmills with TVs and everything. I could not do that. I just walk around my neighborhood. The only equipment I bought is a Stability Ball. I don't know, they say they want to lose weight, they buy things. I don't know.

Now I have been good, when I stay within my own little 4 walls. But if we get a pizza, I eat like I did in High School. I am a firm believer that you have to eat a piece of birthday cake when you are at a party. So, I am not completely off the deep end. I never, never, never, use my extra weekly points, and don't count the activity points I earn every day (no less then 4 a day) I am just still working on the emotional connection I (had) with food. I kinda haven't learned (yet) how to eat real food. I stick to my home, and don't buy to much junk, and I just count out my 11 pretzels to make a serving, or my 9 mini Rice Cakes. I eat about 4 frozen dinners a week, because I like the portion control. I don't want to do that forever. I have to learn to eat real food sometime. And I spend a GREAT deal of time worrying that I will just add the weight right back on. And I can't do this all over again.

So, now that I told you more then you ever wanted to know...

Hope ya all still talk to me

Hi turtles:

Msmeri - you are doing great, so for now just keep at it. Sabotagers are all around us & we have to find ways of handling all these situations that got us overweight in the first place. But, you seemed determined and planning ahead will help you lots.

Princess - yes, I got my butt back over to my walking centre tonight and got in 33 laps, and feel good about that. Also stayed completely OP today.

Judy - how you doing?

I made ratatoullie today & it turned out great. I had that will sole for my dinner. Then some strawberries with cool whip for my snack tonight with a cup of tea.

Have to stay on track this weekend!

Thanks for all the warm welcomes turtles!

Msmeri: I don’t frequent sparkpeople but I still go there occasionally. I like to look at the recipes and the articles they have. My sparkpeople name is time2loseit ……..uh oh…You asked me about my puppy dog! You’re in for it now My dog’s name is Jaida. She’s a black lab and spoiled rotten! She’s about 4 years old. She has knee problems though Her kneecap keeps popping out of place and it’s really painful for her. The surgery she needs is $2000 and I just don’t have it. It’s killing me because she’s my baby and I hate when it pops out because she is in pain. Right now I have her on fish oil caplets and her vet said to start her on glucosamine/chondroitin to try and keep the knees hydrated. As for your “friends”…Don’t ever let them make you feel like you’re a freak! You are working on You!!! Don’t let them sabotage you!

Judy: Thanks for the compliment! I’ll be making a big salad too for my 4th of July celebration. What’s a Bubba burger?

Bandit: Thanks for the compliment! We’re having some severe thunderstorms tonight too. I LOVE tortillas with pb and bananas!! I use a tortilla brand called La Tortilla Factory and for a small tortilla it is 0 pts! Your goal of 2# and walking 3 times seems very attainable!

Princess: Thanks for the welcome! I hate when that happens…you get your post all typed out and the site goes down! Your “dress” sounds beautiful!!

The first part of this week was really hard for me for some reason. I thought I was so hungry – I felt like eating the whole refrigerator! I’m not looking forward to this weeks weigh in…that’s for sure! I weigh in on Saturdays.

Until tomorrow...
{hugz}

Morning, turtles:

Ayla - good luck at your weigh in. Your dog sounds lovely and a real company. We have cats and they are fun & company, but not same as a dog. They "do what they want, when they want"

Today, I am going for another walk at centre then quick swim since I have today off work. So might as well get my exercise in before the day passes.

Did good yesterday with everything - now just have to behave over weekend.
Which, for all us is the most difficult.

Have a great OP day, everyone!

Hi Turtles,
Well, it's thunder and lightning right now and I've got a six hour drive ahead of me today. Ugh! Well, it may take more time because I'll have to watch the driving in the rain.

Princess, your dress for the wedding sounds spectacular. Wow, I love the way it sounds. Good luck this week!

Msmeri, wow, your friends really lay a guilt trip on you. Somewhere in your head there's a thought that can be emphasized and it sounds like this, "What I eat has nothing to do with what you eat. And-----what you decide to eat isn't influencing me and what I decide to eat." You have done so very well. You've lost the weight I'd love to lose, so I feel silly offering you advice, but I hear you so clearly and I know you want to continue doing well. I guess what I'm saying is to do the right thing for yourself. It shouldn't make a difference what your friends do or weigh and if you've passed them by in your fabulous weight loss journey, that's okay. They can hop on board any time they want and in the meantime you're doing great!

Ayla, good to see you posting. Sorry about your dog. Wow, that's an expensive surgery! Good luck with your weight this week.

Bandit, great to get in this week and good luck with food over the weekend.

I'm going to make salads for dh and me for our trip and then I'm going to make a shake to sip on the drive up north. After that I'll have to make good decisions in restaurants, etc. (See, I almost said "I'll be at the mercy of menus in restaurants--NO I won't. All of this is a matter of making the best choices all the time. I can do this>)
Gotta run and get some stuff done.
Judy
234.6/?/204.6 getting closer to 30# down.

Hi everyone and happy Friday! Super hot here! Wow! It has just been crazy weather here this year. Food has been really good for this last week... I have high hopes that at the very least I will not see a gain tomorrow at W/I. A loss would be awesome though!

meri: So do you guys just do your meetings at someones house not at an actual Weight Watchers location? In regard to your friends and their comments... March to your own tune and ignore them! You are doing great! Sometimes there could be jealousy in a group that is trying to lose weight together... could that be it?

Judy: I have faith in you! Just think about the next size SMALLER of jeans that you will get all the sooner if you simply make smart choices... =) Thats what I keep telling myself... I don't want to look like a stuffed sausage in that dress come September!

Bandit: Awesome job on the walking at your centre! What are your plans for the weekend?

Ayla: thanks! It is a very pretty outfit and I look forward to wearing it at my son's wedding in September... I am a dog lover too! Have three right now, all very loved and spoiled. we just lost a black lab, her hips were very bad but she had 14 wonderful years with us... but it was time to let her go, she went down hill very quickly at the end. We used the Glucosamine for her for a long time and it helped her... good luck with yours. Would your vet let you make payment arrangements for the surgery?

Princess- yes, yes We just meet at one of the girl's houses. I is quite a sight. There are 5 of us girls (plus her mom) and we meet every Wednesday. We have the WW scale that keeps track of body fat and BMI and everything. Most of us have bought all the materials from E bay. Most of them have the 2008 editions. I was given my FIL stuff so it is from 2009. I also have his online WW membership. But I use SparkPeople more to tell you the truth. We don't have the little food trackers we just all bought journals and we keep track of points, what time we eat, water intake, exercises and durations. 4 of us have husbands and all but 1 (truck driver)comes along cuz the guys talk. We have, are you ready for this...13 kids between us! From the ages of 19 - 1 year old. Normally they don't all come.

Chanda our leader, and her Mom, used to attend real WW meetings before she conceived her now 1 year old son. So I guess she know a bit. More then us anyway. We are all done having children (I think)and not happy with our looks. Two of the girls have 5 kids each, so there body's have been through quite a bit. Each one of us are in a size somewhere in the 20's. Me 28 was tight. Anyway we have dinner together, usually exercise with the gym equipment or play with the Wii fitness things. Recently we started doing Direct TV on demand workouts. Only 2 of us really work out on a regular basis (besides Wed) In the beginning all we could do is walk around the block about 1/2 mile.

Throughout the week, we call, email, send notes, just generally keep each other going. Some times the phone calls turn into confessions of some indulgence we had. But I guess that keeps us accountable.

Every week someone "hosts" the dinner. Next week my husband wants steak sald. So I asked each girl there two favorite topping. Then someone brings drinks, crystal light, diet soda, juice boxes, beer for the guys. And someone brings desert usually Skinny Cow ice creams, Last week I brought Jell-o (The kids devoured) I guess they never had jell-o before. And someone brings kid food, cuz they usually wont eat what we are having. Maybe the 19 and 13 year old, maybe. So there is chicken nuggets, pizza, burritos, mac & cheese, fish stick,s ya know just whatever.

One of the girls is trying the low carb method but we are trying to pull her over to our side. Telling her how unhealthy it is. We do a lot of Hungry Girl recipes and sometimes the Mrs. Sindfield cookbook. where you add veggies pureed into everything so your kids don't know. It's fun, we just did a Mexican Fiesta, I made a 2 point guac recipe using 15oz of baby spring green peas. YUM! We have a black bean pizza night at least once a month. We trade new salad dressings, peanut butter substitutes, sometimes we make splenad cookies.

any you get the picture.

Meri: That sounds like a great time and it sounds like a great bunch of people!


All: DH is away on a fishing trip this weekend so it is just me and the four legged kids. I pulled weeds around the driveway today, ugh! It is just stinking hot out there, but I think I may have lost a pound just in sweat...LOL.

I am going to go for a walk this evening or maybe a bike ride later on, after it cools down a bit. I got side tracked doing the invitations for the bridal shower for my future DIL. We are doing a luau theme party since they are going to Hawaii for their honeymoon.

I need everyones help here... I need some suggestions for food to serve at the bridal shower that is on the low side of the money scale and points friendly if possible. I thought of a large fruit tray... maybe a shrimp tray if I can find some on sale... any other suggestions that would go with the Luau theme?

Have to run but will be back in a bit.

Morning all, just got back from W/I... was down .2 - not great but I will take it. Went for a long walk last night with my future DIL, we walked for about 3 miles so that was really nice, it flew by since I had someone to talk too and keep me company while we walked. Food was really good last week, except last weekend... fathers day I indulged a bit but the rest of the week was great.

So I am a bit behind on my 10 for 10 challenge but hope to catch up this week.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Princess - Down .2 is very good, anything as long as it's going in the down direction means your making progress! And that's what we turtles are all about.

HAWAIIAN LUAU CAKE
3c. flour
2 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 c. oil
3 eggs, beaten
1 (8 oz.) can crushed pineapple, drained
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 c. chopped nuts
2 c. diced bananas

Sift dry ingredients; add remaining until blended. Bake in greased tube pan, 350 degrees for 1 hour, 20 minutes. Place foil over top for last 15 to 20 minutes to prevent cracking.


COOKS.COM

Hi Turtles,
Princess, .2# is still down, but believe me-----I would be disappointed with having a great week with food and working in some exercise and having that number on the scale. It is down, and that's and I do remember that in the past you seem to lose big one week, and then less the next. Keep on doing what you're doing and I think next week will be a really good loss.

As far as your bridal shower food. Are you going to cook? Will it be this summer? Something my friend does is make fruit on skewers. Watermelon is inexpensive in the summer. To make it Hawaiian, you could skewer some pineapple on the very top. I cut up my own pineapples and depending on how many people you're having, that might not be too expensive. She also makes a lot of chicken salad to have with the fruit. I have a billion ideas and I bet Msmeri will too as well as the other turtles!!! This will be fun.

I've got two good cold salad recipes: a WW Cole Slaw and a WW friendly orzo, tomato, spinach and basil salad that feeds a crowd and is easy to make. I also have a curried chicken salad from WW's that is good and points out well.

If you're thinking about doing hot: I've got several recipes for chicken: Chicken and cashews in lettuce cups, chicken with almonds a la South Beach, WW Pineapple Glazed Chicken Thighs ,
Chicken cutlets or tenders on a skewer with WW 0-point Chinese type sauce

Let me know if any of this is useful and I'll post the recipes.

Msmeri, what a friendly supportive group of WW's you've got going! Social evening out with dhs and children and dinner taken care of and losing weight to boot! My idea of heaven. Keep up your good work, and you know we're all pulling for you!

Strange thing happened here. Yesterday morning as we were about to drive upstate, we had thunder storms and lightning. Not fun. We checked the weather report for where we were driving and we would have been in the storm all the way. Maybe if we were 25 years old, we might have tackled the trip, but we called our ds and cancelled. I was disappointed because we wanted to be at the graduation, but the trip looked impossible. We talked to our ds later in the day. We're home for the weekend. We made good use of the time to rest and get a few things done at home and we also dieted really hard. I know this is supposed to be a lifestyle change and it has been for the most part, but I also need to really watch what I eat to lose any weight. Because the last two days have been good, I am now only about a pound above my lowest weight. My challenge, as always, is to keep it off and get to the WW WI with that weight. Then we are out again to a local spot for a 2-day visit with grandson and daughter and I'll have to bring food and be very careful! Okay--=this is way more about me than you need to know.LOL

Princess, good luck with the party. it sounds like so much fun.

Ayla, how are you doing? A Bubba Burger is a frozen hamburger patty available at our NE supermarkets. It has some beef, but it is loaded with fat and it is huge so it points out somewhere between 11-13 points! Ugh--without the roll!! LOL. So the more I think about it, the more I realize there is no way I'll have that for the fourth of July!!!!

Bandit, your plans for the weekend sound great. You're doing so well with your weight. When you want chips or other stuff that is deadly to us, smile----think of all your turtle friends telling you to hang in there and next week your WI will be : Yay!

Lauren, how is your summer going? I keep thinking about Lauren in Lauren jeans (size tiny) and I'm so happy for you!

Lady, how are you doing?

Chrily, stop by and say hi.

Okay, gotta go. Sorry this got so long.
Judy
234.6/?/204.6 and close to 30# down!

MsMeri,
We must have posted at the same time. My dh and I will be having a luau some time this summer, and I 'm going to try your Hawaiian Luan Cake. It sounds super yummy!
Judy

meri: Thanks for the recipe! I looked on line and found a recipe for Kalua Pork that looks like it might be good for the event. I will look for the pork loins on sale and cook it the day of the shower, you are supposed to pull it apart/shread it then throw it in a crock pot to take to the shower... Serve it with some Hawaiian rolls maybe...

Talk soon!

Morning, turtles:

Princess - that pork recipe sounds liked pulled pork & I made in crockport and it was excellent & soooooo easy. At showers I always looked forward to those little sandwiches cut in triangles - egg salad, tuna, ham & they were so good, but seems no one serves those anymore. The fruit kabobs are always nice as well. Maybe a dip with nacho chips, shrimp platter, cheese tray with pickles. Easy dessert is angel food cake (a named brand) mixed with can of crused pineapple & bake as directed. For some reason, the ladies say if it is no name doesn't turn out. This is very good.

Princess - nice job on the weight loss. Anything down is good - just keep it going.

Msmeri - your recipe sounds very good.

Judy - you made good choice staying home, why risk things in bad weather.
And you are really on track with things I am happy to hear. Next week should be awesome at scales for you.
As for myself, I stayed OP all day so was happy with that.

Tonight, I am going to a singles get together with a friend of mine I haven't seen in ages. So that will be nice to catch up with her.

Well, time to get organized. I have leftover fish, chicken parm and lots of salad stuff to get me through the day. And tomorrow I bought a tiny rump roast for my dinner, so looking foward to that.

Have a great OP day & lets get in some extra water, exercise and positive thoughts for the day!