Reporting in from last night's italian dinner.... I ordered napoletonia? pasta (tomato sauce pasta) - 1.5 for the tomato sauce and NORMALLY 5.0 for the pasta - lunch serving - I ATE THE WHOLE BOWL DINNER SIZE. Goodness me! I went over my points by 2.5 yesterday (Had a glass of beer too! Bad McPeg). Today I have been ensuring to have my fruit salad (breakfast), had a lovely bread with raisin sandwich with small amount olive oil marg and going to have a no point mixed veggie soup mid-afternoon before going over to our friends for movie and chinese tonight. WALKED to and back to the store for groceries - I have one of those pull carts on wheels because I LOVE WALKING - especially when it's sunny. So hopefully I recovered a few points round trip. Going out again for a walk to the garden centre and back. Try and recover a couple more points and soak up the sun. It is an actually crisp, cold sunny day in Scotland - our area has complete escaped the UK snow during the last week. I love walking in this weather - sheer delight! Planning to take a bottle of strawberry flavoured water because there will be beer and wine and after last night I need to watch today and tomorrow. I enjoyed myself last night - did not touch any cheese garlic bread that surrounded me, nursed my beer throughout the meal and ate like I have never seen food before (tee hee). Ah but I love a good challenge. So that was my adventure last night and today and I walking and stretching. Can't stay on too long - need ta get moving again. Hope everyone hangs in there. Beverly, you are still doing fine because you keep trying new things and you are not quitting on yourself. What a star you are! Yellowhair I am glad to see you recovering and getting back on track again. Fabulous. I agree with your comments on crockpot cooking. Slow cooking is great but so is pressure cooking if you have less time. MaryAnn - okay so ya had a donut. I will have a few when I visit home or maybe just one because I now know better. You can't deny yourself life's small pleasures but you are well armed with knowledge now to recover and not feel bad for enjoying that donut. I know there will always be donuts but it will taste so much better for me if I can achieve my goal by end summer and have one wearing size 12 pants. Then it will be worth it! Big Mama, I know you have had a tough time but you keep coming back. I have absolutely no idea what it's like for you I can only understand food. I admire you for taking care of yourself and still coming back to talk to us. Don't let go - I am reaching out to you and hanging onto your hand! You can do this. Forget yesterday if you had any bad ones and focus on taking care of yourself today. Take some time today to give yourself some pamper time - a nice walk or soak in the tub, get a nice haircut/curl, buy a new pair of funky socks/shirt or something...or simply turn off the phone, close the door and have some quiet time with a good book. Let's make today count - no matter what we do. Life is precious and so are we! Cheers, gotta stroll! McPeg

I can honestly say I have never seen a pink rainbow - wild! Today rain was forecast. We had some earlier but not for the remainder of the day. Cold north winds are heading for us during the next week with rain and colder temps. Have to wear those rain pants to work this week. Nothing worse than arriving at work drenched! Umbrellas are pretty much useless when the winds are high so I strap down with rain gear head to toe. We spent today visiting our aunt - I made sure to have breakfast and very light lunch because I knew there would be about a 12 point chicken wing, pizza and sponge roll for us...there was. I had 2 chicken wings, waved my WW Shopping Guide around and researched the meal before eating (new strategy...this woman always bugs me about having more and I have declined numerous times)...today she was interested in my weight loss. I had a BIT of everything, enjoyed it and told her how happy I was with things. Also chatted about all the opportunities and events I have to decline EACH week at work for hospitality events...so she is getting the message finally. I am always up tight about this visit every other week because I dreaded the who act between us with the food - but I have been sticking to my guns and actually walk my plate right into the kitchen sink as soon as finished and throw it in the dish water. Can't take seconds when your plate is gone. Can't make my point any stronger than that! I want to reach my goal more than a beer, more than a cheesecake, more than a night out...this is the third year running I have tried to do this and the first time I have made it past a certain point with INTEREST and DETERMINATION to continue. I see myself smaller, I have faith and can now see the difference from when I started. It has been slow. Sometimes too slow...so I give myself small rewards, reread the how to guides, dotties site, discovery health site and then, when I finish reading remind myself how disappointed I have been with myself the last few years for giving up. That is the truest feeling I have to motivate me. I am going to reach my goal - no matter how long it takes. It feels great wearing size 12 for the first time in YEARS. I feel great getting this far. I am feeling much better. I pat myself on the back for sticking with it when I was emotionally drained and down - eating right helped me feel better. What motivates you? Cheers for now, McPeg

Good Morning and APRIL FOOLS DAY TODAY!!! Soups I like to make: Yellow Split Pea & Lentil or Carrot, Onion & Zucchini Basically I take the largest cooking pot I have and the heaviest...for the pea/lentil soup, throw in about a cup of split peas, 1/2 cup lentils, chopped up onion, bay leaf and gently simmer for half an hour, add more water if needed and as many chicken broths cubes as I fancy. Let sit for an hour, boil again for another half hour, let sit and do this on and off a few times and then let it sit to cool - the sitting inbetween lets the peas swell and soften more. I figure for WW about 3.5 for a large bowl. My other soup is fast, easy and 0 WW points. I mince an onion, shred the zucchini and carrot, throw in a pot, throw in water and a couple of chicken broth cubes and simmer gently for 20 minutes. You can add milk to this just before serving but then you have to adjust the point value. I prefer not to and just enjoy the flavours. I also enjoy adding 1 point by adding a teaspoon of low fat margarine to my bowl (great flavour boost). Those are my favourite home made soups. I do the pea soup on the weekends and alternate what soup I make so I don't get board. I loved stewed tomato but usually use them to make lowfat pasta sauces by mashing and gently simmering with onion, spices and throw in a beef cube and pour on my pasta followed by a LIGHT sprinkle of parmesean cheese (low fat if I can find it). I hope everyone is going to have a fabulous day today! Alice, really, really happy to see you posting and getting on so well with all of this. Its really not bad at all...if you enjoy cooking then it's like exploring your cooking/foods all over again and an opportunity to get creative. I too love steamed veggies and I agree that they really punch the flavour up! Cheers! Let's make today count! McPeg

Thanks, Wildchild for the invitation. I work out of town four days a week and have been doing so since February. This was when I started losing weight. Prior to this I worked at home and had WAY too much refrigerator access. While I am here I walk in the mornings before work between 45 minute and an hour and do a light weight work out. At home I am able to do a longer weight work out. I just use dumbbells. I have no scale access while I'm out of town so I don't weigh while I'm here. I find that if I don't get enough sleep I don't lose weight. Today I had grocery store sushi for lunch, I wish I had any kind of idea about the calorie count is in this stuff! I had a few fresh figs for dessert. Lots of water all day. I still have at least 50 pounds to lose. Seems like a long long journey sometimes. I really want to be thin right now! I didn't have any patience with WW, I hate sitting still for meetings! And I don't have the fortitude to go back several times and check out the different meeting leaders to see if one suits me better than another. One thing I have noticed about the WW (and many others as well) frozen meals is that the sodium content is rather high. I have just eliminated cookies, chips, crackers, bread and butter, and all fried foods, as well as ice cream. More vegies and fresh fruit and smaller portions. More exercise. So far so good. BarnMom