Good morning!

Cheryll, as far as the scales go I only officially weigh in once a week (this is the weight I change my tickers by and log in fitday.com). But, I am bad about stepping on it more than that just to see what it says. For a while, it was a real problem for me because of all the fluctuations. Now, they don't bother me so much because, well, they are going to happen even during the best of weeks. I would suggest letting your WI at your meetings be your official one and avoiding the scale any other time unless you know whatever you see won't discourage you. I know I've weighed when I felt "thin" and the scale showed an extra two pounds and stepped on when I felt "fat" and saw a two pound loss. So, I think it is safe to say that it takes at least a week for your body to register all of the good things (or bad) that you've done for it.

Hope everyone has a great day. I've got a Drs. appointment this morning. Blech, it's always such a pain. I'm the first appointment of the morning so maybe I won't be in the waiting room until lunchtime!

Wow, all of you are the best kind of friends to have! What a wonderful group this is. I think i will just have to stick around here. Thanks to all of you.

Question: Do any of you go into the food group section of 3fatchicks? I go there sometimes when i need chocolate and need to find a recipe. Well i found this recipe for a chocolate milkshake and decided to give it a try. It was WONDERFUL! I also found a recipe for peaunt butter cookies that are flour-less, so yesterday i had a chocolate milkshake and peaunt butter cookies for a snack. Extremely satisfying and filling. Here is the recipe.

Chocolate Milkshake.
1/2 cup part skim or low fat ricotta cheese. (I used fat free cottage cheese)
1/2 to 2/3 cup skim milk
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
3 packets Splenda
1/2 teaspoon caffein-free instant coffee (I used 1/2 cup of left over regular coffee and just put in more ice to make it thick)
Splash of vanilla
Ice (as much as it takes to make it thick.

Put all ingredients in a blender, and blend until thoroughly mixed.

If you ever get the hanker-in for ice cream, try this one. It tast like your cheating, but your not.

I still have lots to say but must get going for now.
Talk to you tonight.
Gloria

I got quite a compliment last night from my 6 year old. We took them to McDonald's as a special treat after karate last night. He was explaining why fast food is only okay to have sometimes - because you'll go from skinny to fat really fast if you eat it all the time. The he looked at me and said, "Mommy, you aren't nearly as fat as you used to be. In fact, you are almost skinny!" It made my week given that kids his age say what they really think and he hasn't been exposed to enough pop culture to have a warped sense of fat and skinny. It was just the kind of motivation I needed to keep on track.

The next best motivation I've got right now is the swimming pool. The country club we belong to will open the pool mid to late May. My goal is to lose .5 to 1 pound a week between now and then. That won't amount to much but I'm hoping to add a bit more exercise so that I can at least get rid of a little extra jiggle here and there. Anything will be an improvement over last summer - ugh - I felt like a big beached whale. Plus, I'd like to start playing tennis again but I'm not quite mentally prepared to don that ridiculous skirt. Maybe by the time the summer league starts I'll be ready.

One last horn toot: I'm back in my size 12's! I'm not quite ready to start buying new clothes but I do need to get some new tennis shoes so I may just sneak in a REGULAR store and have a little fun trying on jeans that don't have elastic in the waist band!

We are off for a hike through the woods. Hope you all have a great afternoon!

Tricia