I made a very yummy recipe last night that I thought I would share. All of the ingredients are on the WW core program. I put about 10 whole frozen strawberries (the kind with no sugar added), 1 cup of skim milk, 3 packets of Splenda sweetner, and a couple of drops of vanilla extract into my blender/smoothie maker and pulsed until the strawberries were ground up. I scooped it in a bowl and ate it with a spoon. It was kind of like a combination smoothie/shake/ice cream. It would have probably been better had I put the bowl in the freezer for a half hour or so to let it set up a little more, but it was nice and tasty!

I belong to a "club" that sends me an annual WW cookbook (Winning recipes for 2007 this year) and the latest one before it comes out during the year. Tuesday, my 2007 book came and inside the box was an envelope marked "Surprise Gift Especially for You" inside the envelope was a special recipe book from Hersheys chocolates and, believe me, there was nothing "weight watchers" about any of the recipes -- there were even lavish pictures with each receipe!!!!!! Oh yeah, in addition there was a Lane Bryant catelog for when you have finished off all the recipes in the Hershey's book LOL. I repackaged all this up and brought it with me to my WW meeting that night. I did a little demonstration of the word "ironic".

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAL!!!!

Yes, yest, yes! Fourteen months, two lengthy plateaus, and 57 pounds gone. Never did I think of quitting but I was certainly challenged along the way.

My new goal is to maintain my weight and obtaining WW lifetime status by the end of 2006.

Happy holiday all.

Congratulations on your achievement. This is certainly worth celebrating!!!

Congrats Suzie on your success! Good luck with your new goal of maintaining! Sure does feel great doesn't it?

By the way, the dessert recipe that I typed above with the strawberries and skim milk is excellent if you take it from the blender, put it in a glass or ceramic bowl and place it in the freezer for 1/2 hour, stirring once at about 15 minutes. It is incredible and tastes like a very light strawberry ice cream. It's about 150 calories, no fat, and no guilt.

Awesome Suzi! I am motivated by your success. I will be at this for a year in Feb., but I don't feel like it has taked too long. I put all my weight on over 12 years and if it takes 18 months to get off then so be it.

CheekEE, you have the greatest attitude about the very long weight loss journey, you are bound to see sucess.

How did everyone do over the Thanksgiving holiday of eating & shopping frenzy? Not unexpectedly, my weight was up a bit at yesterday's WI. As for shopping, have not started my list. My goal for this week is to be 100% OP, get my exercise in, and come up with my Christmas shopping list.

Have a good week all --

I was in Mexico the week before Thanksgiving at an all inclusive, so that and the holiday have put me up 3 pounds int he last three weeks. Not terrible, but not needed! Have so got to get back into my daily excercise and tracking my points...I have been getting laxy with watching the points over the weekends!

Hit the 13.8 pound weight loss mark last night at WI. I've lost a little more than that, but this is my "official" weight loss during my 12 week membership period.

YEAH!!!!

Great job! Hope your success continues.

I am down another .6 as of Saturday!! Woo Hoo. Only 24.4 to go.

Congrats CheekEE! Sounds like you are staying on track despite the holiday temptations! Keep up the good work!

Whoo Hoo losers! This is a tough season but come the first of the year, you'll be so glad you did not let the egg nog, nut bread and other holiday food stuffs get in the way of your healthy eating plan.

This week I'm back to weight loss mode. Trying to get the hang of maintenace is not all that simple and the scales are still up so will get rid of the 1.8 pounds I have added before I give maintenace another serious shot.

Cheekee, Bagweaver and all others with weight loss goals, keep on posting. Now, have an op week --

Suzie - Thanks for the encouragement. I'd partenered with a friend for support, but she rarely goes now. This forum is now my new partner.

Good luck everyone!

You are all inspirational. I have been lurking a long time and all of your posts have been helpful to me. Thanks!

This thread has been a real lifeline for me! I have posted my goals, frusterations, success, failures -- and these postings have kept me honest and accountable. I have been doing this alone, although I have made friedns at my WW meeting. When I started I weighed over 200 pounds and now my weight is in the 140s. I started with a WW diet and ended with a new lifestyle. Have been on CORE for a few months and for me, this is the only way to go -- I love Core!

If you are not familiar with the CORE program you need to check out WW and this is a great time of the year to get things rolling. What would you rather do, eat and drink all the holiday goodies or wear a smaller size by Valentines day?

Down another 1.6! Heck Yeahhhhh

Congrats CheekEE! You'll be at your goal in no time at this rate!

I have been on the go so much recently that I haven't been able to eat as much or as often as I need to in order to maintain. I am actually down a few more pounds than I want to be at this point. It is really strange, but at some point my metabolism flipped and I seem to burn a lot of calories. I have had to eat more times a day and increase my portions just to keep up. I guess they are right when they say that the more muscle you have the more calories you burn.

Big round of applause for CheeKEE, yeah!!

I'm pulling for you too Bagweaver. Hope you have a OP week.

So many stories about maintenance phase and folks like you Thomas that continue to lose weight. I should be so lucky!

Thanks . . .

Any idea of what the new roll-out is supposed to be? I won't be able to make the meeting this week (not even for WI). They told us last week to make sure that we attended.

I was wondering too. My leader said the plan wasn't changing that much....so no telling.

The plan, both Core & Flex have been tweaked! A new formula is used to calculate points for Flex. Snacking on Core is limited to specified foods, anything else costs points.

Both programs are a bit more restrictive for most folks. I see no need to be concerned about not getting this program update ASAP in fact, I'm not sure that I'll even adopt the new rules.

My leader said that the points would be calculated to include height as a factor somehow. My meeting is tomorrow so I will be able to post intelligently on Wednesday.

PS to CheekEE -- Way to go.
PS to Bagweaver -- This thread will be your partner

So, I'm back from my "preview" meeting. There is a questionairre you have to fill out that assigns value to your answers. You add up your score and that's your new "point" target for the day. Some people gained a point or two, others, lost a point or two.. (I lost one point -- but my 5 ft friend lost FIVE -- yet my husband gained 2) It assigns value to your sex, your age, your height, your present weight, and how active your job is. The core plan was "tweeked" too, but I'm a little fuzzy as to what the change was (something about snack items). Let me tell you though, the meeting was packed. I haven't seen any commercials for WW so I really don't know were all the extra people came from (who starts WW a week before Christmas?) Anyway, all my fellow losers, tell me what you think after you go to the preview meeting.