The fun's over! It's time for an Easter (Sunday, March 31) Challenge!

[walkonby]

Lynn, did you see in the news today those poor vacationers on that Carnival Cruise Ship stranded with not many working toilets, no power and no water! The few stories that came through said people were behaving like animals, fighting over food, and there was urine soaked carpets all over,....imagine having that as a memory of a holiday?
You did great losing weight so far! Took about a year you say? So do birthdays!! Happy Weight Loss Birthday!!

[thriftygranny]

Thanks for the encouragement Lynn! I am so glad to hear you lost weight on your cruise. We are in Spain for 5 days and then leave on a Mediteranian cruise for 7 days..France and Italy are the stops. I am so excited, and I want to look and feel fabulous.

[thriftygranny]

I think I would smack the first person i saw peeing anywhere but overboard!!!! human nature is a strange beast isn't it.People loose all their rational when there is a crisis.

Lynn, did you see in the news today those poor vacationers on that Carnival Cruise Ship stranded with not many working toilets, no power and no water! The few stories that came through said people were behaving like animals, fighting over food, and there was urine soaked carpets all over,....imagine having that as a memory of a holiday?
You did great losing weight so far! Took about a year you say? So do birthdays!! Happy Weight Loss Birthday!!

[Granger]

Hi, TG! Oh, Hon, I hear ya about this being a slow-going process!
I honestly don't know what's motivated me this time, after so many diets I've quit on..maybe it has to do with our trip two years ago...a cruise with lots of excursions involving a LOT of walking. I mean...who on earth LOSES weight on a cruise?! Me!
And I'm sick and tired of feeling like the biggest one in the room....the one hiding in shirts over tank tops...and shopping in only TWO stores! I'm SO done with it all! I want to feel like I felt after that cruise. I started my diet a short time after putting most of the weight back on over the winter, and since then have taken 58lbs off! It's taken about a year, but truth be told, I never stuck to it on holidays, etc. I just hopped back on the wagon after misbehaving. Had I stuck to it, I may have lost it faster, but otoh, I probably would have just given up because it would have been to hard, sticking to it without any breaks. Now I have to realize that this isn't a "diet"...it's a new way of life, a new way of eating....like skinny people do! LOL!!!

You'll get there, Hon. It's a war, and sometimes we lose skirmishes, other times we come out on top. It's the war that counts, not the individual battles. As long as we win more than we lose, we're amazing, like Holly says!!!

Thanks for this Lynn. I don't have a lot left to lose and I am sure I have gained again after a loss last week. i keep havingq good week, bad week, so no results. This post is motivating to me to stick with it despite my failures rather than give up entirely...which could see me add 10 lbs or more rather than one or two...I don't want that.

[Patty Smyth]

So far this week is going ok for me.

i really need to start using my winter squash. anyone try any good reipes lately for acorn and buttercup squash?

[Lynn49]

I think I would smack the first person i saw peeing anywhere but overboard!!!! human nature is a strange beast isn't it.People loose all their rational when there is a crisis.

Oh, I love cruising! What ports do you visit? Where do you leave from, Barcelona? That could be the cruise our DD went on. We cruised the eastern Mediterranean....started with a few days in Rome, then Greece, Turkey, and Egypt (my pyramids!!!), then Sicily....it was fabulous! We want to return to just see Rome again....I left my heart there, I really did...

You sure have a good reason to want to be svelte!!Good for you! You'll get there! And of course, we'll require all the details of your cruise and pictures!!

As for that Carnival ship...apparently the toilets all overflowed and sewage leaked onto all the carpets, etc....ewww...I hear ya!
And with no water, no airconditioning, they've taken to sleeping on the decks and in the lifeboats!!
Why on earth have they not been evacuated??!! Surely another ship can off-load them onto itself!! Apparently they're stuck there until Thursday when the last tug-boat gets there. Absolutely ridiculous!
But it's a Carnival cruise.....'nuff said....

[Lynn49]

Lynn, did you see in the news today those poor vacationers on that Carnival Cruise Ship stranded with not many working toilets, no power and no water! The few stories that came through said people were behaving like animals, fighting over food, and there was urine soaked carpets all over,....imagine having that as a memory of a holiday?
You did great losing weight so far! Took about a year you say? So do birthdays!! Happy Weight Loss Birthday!!

Thank you, Walks....you're so sweet...If someone had said to me a year ago...."Hey! You could lose almost 60lbs in a year!", I think I'd have told them to shove it! A year??!! It would have seemed too long for such a "little" loss. But a year goes by pretty quickly, and had I NOT started last year, I'd probably be bigger than I was then!

Kwo1ai.....I cheat, too. I just had a Lemoncello while reading my ipad book and "not" watching basketball this evening, but it's life, you know? Little cheats go a long way to make this way of eating tolerable....not feeling deprived. I still lose weight..maybe not as fast as some, but I get there without giving up. And that's the point: not giving up and celebrating the little battles won!
You'll get there!!! I promise!!

We'll all be so svelte come Easter!!!

[Lynn49]

So far this week is going ok for me.

i really need to start using my winter squash. anyone try any good reipes lately for acorn and buttercup squash?

I have a "to die for" butternut squash soup, if you'd like it. I'm sure you can make a big batch and freeze smaller quantities.
I've even served it to company with a 1/2 "bum up" canned pear in the middle of the bowl...very shmaltzy!

[hollyquaiscer]

And...stop thinking of it as a DIET.....I hate that word It's not a diet my dear friend have embarked on, it's a lifestyle change and an entirely new life DIETS are things you start, stop, struggle with, make yourself feel bad about when you venture in the wrong direction and fight every day of your life. You guy's are making lifestyle changes, doesn't that sound so much better. You never have to start it again, you'll never go off it, and your allowed to celebrate every single occasion just like everyone else. When you eat clean and healthy, you feel good, you don't get depressed and beat yourself up, and you keep JANE unwrapped

[hollyquaiscer]

[Lynn49]

And...stop thinking of it as a DIET.....I hate that word It's not a diet my dear friend have embarked on, it's a lifestyle change and an entirely new life DIETS are things you start, stop, struggle with, make yourself feel bad about when you venture in the wrong direction and fight every day of your life. You guy's are making lifestyle changes, doesn't that sound so much better. You never have to start it again, you'll never go off it, and your allowed to celebrate every single occasion just like everyone else. When you eat clean and healthy, you feel good, you don't get depressed and beat yourself up, and you keep JANE unwrapped

Absolutely true! That's what I meant (up there somewhere) about eating like a skinny person, lol...If I kept eating like a fat person, guess what?! it's not rocket science is it?

I wish my tush looked as cute as that doggie's butt....I love puppy butts!!

[Patty Smyth]

I have a "to die for" butternut squash soup, if you'd like it. I'm sure you can make a big batch and freeze smaller quantities.
I've even served it to company with a 1/2 "bum up" canned pear in the middle of the bowl...very shmaltzy!

Thanks Lynn I have one that i use but canyou post yours too I am always interested in other recipes.

I think I may do my double scalloped potatoes tonight(sweet potatoes and white ones) I already have a tomato orzo soup made so I will do a squash soup later , maybe for the weekend.

[Lynn49]

Thanks Lynn I have one that i use but canyou post yours too I am always interested in other recipes.

I think I may do my double scalloped potatoes tonight(sweet potatoes and white ones) I already have a tomato orzo soup made so I will do a squash soup later , maybe for the weekend.

Absolutely, Patty...I'll post it tomorrow; right now I'm POOPED from the "event" Jenny and I went to this evening....I'm going to start a new thread now......

[Lynn49]

Butternut Squash Soup

(I lost my recipe that was in one of those Liquor store summer books, but I've used
this one since, and it's the same..)

1 large white chopped onion
4 tablespoons margarine
6 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
1 box either chicken or vegetable stock
4 cubes chicken or vegetable bouillon (I use about 2 tbsp of the powdered stuff or to taste)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tbsp hot sauce (we use Frank's Red Hot)
1-2 cans skim evaporated milk (depending on how thick you like your soup)


In a large dutch oven, saute onions in butter or margarine until tender. Add squash, stock, bouillon, black pepper and hot sauce. Bring to boil; cook 20 minutes, or until squash is tender. Add the evaporated milk.
In batches, blend thoroughly in a food processor.
Serve with a bum-up half pear in the middle of your soup bowl if you want to be shmaltzy.
It makes a good amount for a large gathering or to freeze in smaller quantities.
It never lasts long enough around here to freeze, and there's just the two of us!

Enjoy!!

[Lynn49]

I'm not anxious for my weigh-in tomorrow; I must confess I haven't been the model of healthy eating this week.
AND to top it off, hubby walked in with a container of Ferrero Rocher when I asked him to simply buy the buttermilk for my Red Velvet Cupcake recipe I'm making in the morning! Well! It was only polite of me to gobble them up!
He begrudgingly took one...sigh....the man is a rock!!