I put the wrong date on the thread I started a few moments ago. Am not going to repeat. The big news is that I was down 2.4 at Saturday's weight loss.


Susan

Go Susan!!! I would be pumped losing 2.4# and you're right! You did it without LA Weightloss, lol. Sounds like you had a pretty productive weekend.

Lala Have a fabulous birthday

Saturday was pretty crazy for me but it all worked out well. The baby shower in the morning was fun; they had brunch and I didn't do too bad. Left there at 1:15 and headed to the mall and picked up a cute necklace and earrings and then off to the bridal show. I had to say that was a little disappointing--the gowns that they had were okay and the color theme seemed to be choclate brown/taupe...ugh! It was nice though to spend time with DS fiance and my friend.

The wedding at the theatre was very nice--they have a beautiful set of steps that the bridesmaids and bride came down (think grand staircase). The colors were deep red for the girls and they looked great. The had tables set up throughout the lobby and the actual ceremony was under the one arch. The bad part was that you couldn't see everything but that was okay. I didn't do bad with eating because they didn't have a whole lot--will admit I had some chocolate covered strawberries (they had a choclate fountain) and a couple pieces of cheese. Stuck with white wine spritzers since I was driving. Overall it was gorgeous. Since the theatre doesn't have bright lights my digital camera didn't get great shots but I'm hoping my trusty 35mm got a couple of good shots.

I can tell I'm in the midst of PMS because I was going from one thing to another yesterday with eating and this morning I feel all puffed up (rings are a little tight) and I didn't sleep well last night. It seems to be a pattern for me in terms of the sleep so I'm guessing I'll be starting early rather than when I figured.

Weather here is crummy this morning--rain/snow mixture which made some of the sidewalks a little icy--we're hovering right around the freezing mark so it's causing a few problems.

Hi to Pam, Lisa, Karynlee! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Susan, Woo-hoo for you!!! That is great. I read your other post--would you post the squash soup recipe? I had not seen The Queen; maybe I should check it out. Good for you for running. You and lala inspired me to sign up to walk a 10K this coming Saturday.

Melissa, Sometimes the bridal shows are not all that thrilling. I remember the year I got married (1976--think Bicentennial). Well, some of the bridesmaids' dresses were red, white and blue! I also remember the year it was fashionable for everyone to wear black. Actually, that still happens. The wedding sounded good. I do hope their photographer got some good shots--I love the grand staircase idea. Sorry about PMS (don't have that any more--yeah!!)

Forgot to tell you about the Symphony wine and cheese event. Well...it was more than that. It was rooms full of tables with different restaurant offerings. I ate way too much!! But it was great. Today's a new day--went to Applebees for lunch and staying OP.

lala, I found out my hotel in London. It's a TravelInn in Kensington. It looks like a modest place, but I won't be there much anyway.

Here's the recipe - it's from Cooking Light. I use butternut squash; it is divine...not really that spicy, as far as I'm concerned.
************************************************** *

If you can't find calabaza pumpkin, butternut squash makes a handy substitute. Typical of most Caribbean cooking, this soup is very spicy. For a mellower version, cut down on the amount of Scotch bonnet pepper in the recipe.

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 1/2 cups chopped peeled calabaza or butternut squash (about 1 pound)
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons minced seeded Scotch bonnet or habanero pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 (15.75-ounce) cans fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 bay leaf

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add squash, onion, celery, pepper, and garlic; sauté for 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 25 minutes or until tender. Discard bay leaf.
Place half of the squash mixture in a blender, and process until smooth. Pour pureed mixture into a bowl; repeat procedure with remaining squash mixture. Return pureed mixture to pan; cook over medium heat 3 minutes or until heated.

Yield: 5 servings (serving size: 1 cup)

NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 117(32% from fat); FAT 4.2g (sat 0.6g,mono 3g,poly 0.4g); PROTEIN 3.8g; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 60mg; SODIUM 518mg; FIBER 2.1g; IRON 1mg; CARBOHYDRATE 17.3g


Susan

Susan, thanks! Sounds good.

Ladies, I came here to confess my horrible eating this morning...I don't know what possessed me but I had a Hershey's chocolate bar (at the WHOLE thing) and a packet of oyster crackers that I put peanut butter on! All before lunch! I did go to the Wellness Center with my buddy and walked but that's not going to erase what I ate.

I'm getting a lot done here in the office with my boss off today--actually got my desk cleaned up too! It looks pretty good if I say so myself.

I bought some of the "new, improved" Boca Chicken patties and have to say they are very good! I had gotten them before and didn't like them so I was a little leery of trying them again but I'm glad I did!

I'll catch up more tomorrow...

Melissa, there must be something in the air because I also overdid it today. Let's just admit it and move on! Is this the week when the students are on break? It must be quiet there.

It's rather quiet here today. Not sure why. We're having very warm weather.

Did I tell all of you that we needed to have our whole electrical panel redone in our house? We found out our panel was one that could catch fire. It was a major expense, but we are now on the new panel. Still some clean up to do, but otherwise it's done.

Tonight I'm headed to a town meeting to discuss visioning. Have your cities and towns done that? That seems to be the new thing down here. There won't be any food there, so that's a good thing for me.

Hi ladies,

Tomorrow is the final weigh in for the winter meltdown at my office. I don't think I'm going to have a 2lb loss to meet my goal, but that's OK. I still managed to take off 4lbs and I'll keep working on it. I have a bit of an upset stomach today so I don't have to worry about overeating before the weigh in

Melissa I would chalk up the Hershey Bar craving to TOM. I've tried the Boca chicken patties and really like them.

Susan thanks for posting the soup recipe it sounds great...I'll definately give that a try. Congrats on your 2.4lb loss, I hope I can do the same tomorrow!

Lisa You do have some fabulous weather out your way...unfortunately just a lot of slushy snow here. I'm so happy daylight savings time starts earlier this year.

Lala Happy Birthday. Hope you had a nice one!

Well ladies still very busy here, this has got to lighten up soon. Hope you all had a great day. Talk to you tomorrow!

Did my WI today--not happy (up 3#), but I shouldn't be surprised. I ate too much at the symphony wine and cheese event. I've been snacking on candy at work. Grr

I'm keeping up my activity points. God only knows what I would weigh if I weren't active.

I need to get focused again.

Lisa: You're right about admitting what happened and then moving on. I made better choices the rest of the day but I knew I had to "fess up". Yes, our students are on break so the campus is very quiet. I managed to get some things off of my desk and need to tackle a couple other piles of paper. Sounds like your weather has been really nice; still snowing here.

Pam: I keep thinking as each day passes we're one step closer to Spring and daylight savings time. It's been so dreary here with snow every day--it's just enough that you need to brush off your car in the morning and a couple of the mornings the sidewalks were icy because we're hovering right around 32-34 degrees. Good luck with your final weigh in for the melt down!

Susan: Thanks for the recipe!

I made the Creamy Asparagus Soup in the new Pure Comfort book from Weight Watchers--it's good and it's satisfying. Very easy to make with no "weird" ingredients that you wouldn't have on hand. I made a double batch so that I can freeze some for lunches.

I'm heading over to my hairdresser at 11:30--the back of my hair is just not laying right and I've been battling with it since I got it cut so I called and asked if he could take a look at it and trim it up a little more. I'm heading to my meeting today and we're having "show and tell" with our favorite foods that we keep on hand at home. It should be a fun meeting.

I'll post more later. Hi to Karynlee, Susan, Lala!!

Want to add another confession regarding bad eating yesterday. Definitely something in the air. I won't go into details, but it wasn't pretty. Afraid my loss on the weekend may have been reversed.

I'm heading out of town this afternoon until Friday so probably won't get a chance to check in again prior to next week. My big news is that I tendered my resignation from this job yesterday. I will stay on until the end of March and then go back to my home organization - the one I was "borrowed" from almost 7 years ago. I don't know yet where I'll land but anything is better than living with the uncertainty of the past several months. A question of funding...(none).

Anyway, I feel better now that the decision has been made. A bit depressed yesterday but better today. Things will work out - and for the better - because I'm committed to that outcome.

Enjoy the rest of the week.

Susan

Susan: Sometimes you just have to take the plunge and as you said, it's got to be better than it was where you were at with the uncertainty. Safe travels!

I just wanted to let everyone know I managed to "stay the same" again this week. I'm doing great with maintaining, just need to get that scale to start moving a little.

A funny thing at my meeting today--one of the bartenders at the wedding reception looked familliar to me and I thought he was from my Wed. meeting but wasn't sure (you know how that goes, you see someone out of where you know them from and can't place them)...in any case, because I wasn't sure I passed up on eating more cheese at the reception and was more aware of what I was doing. So today at the meeting, he says, "Did you have fun on Saturday?" and I told him quite honestly that he saved me from eating too much cheese because I was more aware of it...he laughed and I told him "thanks"

How's everyone else doing? The sun hasn't made an appearance like they were predicting so it's pretty dismal here.

Hi y'all.

Thanks for the bd wishes. Had a great day.

I am also suffering from some contact dermatitis from a lovely scarf my mom knit for me, so I have welts and a rash all over my decolletage and face.

Ick.

More later......

lala

Susan, I'm sure you'll go to a better job. That's hard to make that decision, but with zero funding, you have to do something.

Melissa, hooray for staying the same and after a wedding reception, too. That was very amusing about the guy from your meeting.

lala, sorry about the dermatitis. What was the scarf made of?

After my awful WI, I'm OP today.

Tonight I'm going to My Delicious Dinners. I know that I told you about it. You go to a kitchen where all of the prep is done and you just put together delicious entrees. The good news is--they now post nutritional information and have included WW points for the entrees. I just think that is great!

Hello to Karynlee, Pam, and others.