A TON OF FOOD

Today I went to the WW centers in Lake Ronkonkoma and Selden to pick up all the food that had been donated to our food pantry through the Lose For Good campaign. Over the past six weeks the company has invited member to participate in food drives at their local centers as a celebration of their success.

Meanwhile WW International is matching the amounts of weight loss by members across the country with the costs of supplying food for the hungry to two major relief organizations.

We reckon we picked up over 1600lb from Selden and over 600lb from Lake Ronkonkoma - a ton of food.

Many thanks to all who are helping us to help others.

IT'S HARD

In yesterday's WW groups we were looking at three statements that no one seemed to disagree with at all -

1. It's hard to be overweight
2. It's hard to lose weight
3. It's hard to maintain weight loss

Bottom line - it's all hard!
What we do is choose which hard path we prefer.

Weight loss is never going to be easy, we're fighting genetics, bad habits developed over years and our own heads. But it's a heck of a lot better than dealing with the difficulties of carrying around too many extra pounds.

TORTILLA SOUP

It's going to be cool this weekend, so here's a tasty looking recipe from one of my Miller Place members -

48oz can Light & FF chicken broth
1 large onion, chopped
1 - 2 tbsp (to taste) taco seasoning mix
28oz can crushed tomatoes, drained
4 oz salsa
9oz package Perdue Shortcuts Grilled Chicken Breat (7 Points)
11oz can Del Monte summer crisp corn (3 Points)

Add chicken broth and onion to pan and heat through. Add taco seasoning, tomatoes and salsa. Bring to a boil. Add chicken and corn, reduce heat, cook for 30 minutes.

10 Points in the pot - but how much in a 1 cup serving? Let me know!

TILAPIA

There's no getting around the fact that fish is definitely your friend. Of course what you do with it can easily make it your enemy, like coating it in beer batter and frying it for traditional British fish 'n' chips!

I had tilapia for dinner tonight - a kind of fish I had never heard of before we came to the U.S. - and frying it, as is, in PAM meant it was only 2/3 the amount of points as ounces. Six ounces was a modest four points.

My kind of meal - bang for your buck. Well, for your points anyway.

DINER FOOD

We have friends from North Carolina who visit us now and again - they were here last weekend - and one of their first requests is for us to be able to eat in a Diner. We're always glad to see them and would take them to whatever restaurant they choose, but it's always the same request - seems there's nothing remotely like one of our diners down on the Outer Banks.

We generally go to a diner for brunch on Sundays, after church is over, arriving around noon. I'm ready to eat by then as I leave the house early and don't usually eat a lot during the course of the morning - often not at all, but don't tell my WW leader!

So, what's good - and safe - in a diner? Thankfully there are quite a few choices, but of late I've been going for two poached eggs on a dry toasted English muffin. That works out at six points, with another six thrown in if I add the home fries.

I had the home fries today and enjoyed them. What I love about this program is it's so inclusive. That will be my main meal of the day, but it was good.

You can't beat a New York diner!

PUMPKIN CURRY SOUP

Gill has been making this a lot lately - we love it. Don't be put off if curry is not your thing.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 large cloves garlic finely chopped
1 cup shredded carrot
1 1/2 tsp curry powder (to taste)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
3 cups low sodium, fat free chicken broth
1 15oz can pure pumpkin
1 12oz can non-fat evaporated milk

METHOD
Spray a saucepan with PAM and cook the onions and garlic for 2-3 minutes. Add the carrots and curry powder and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Add broth and pumpkin. Bring to boil, then lower heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in evaporated milk and transfer to belnder or food processor. Blend until smooth.

CORE recipe
1 POINT per cup

CHOICES

This has been a great weekend and a very busy one. We celebrated our church's 10th Anniversary, which meant we saw a lot of good people, had friends visiting and were faced with a lot of food.

Saturday evening we had around 40 people over for a catered party at our house, complete with a whole table of outrageous homemade desserts.

Sunday for lunch we took all our guests to the Indian buffet at The Curry Club in Centereach (my favorite food, for the uninformed).

Sunday evening was another party catered again by Tuscany in Miller Place, with a table full of different desserts - once more from Sarah Jayne's.

There was just too much good stuff on offer, so I made the decision to enjoy the food and deal with the consequences.

Overall I gained a few pounds by the look of it. But I didn't gain the 133 I have lost, nor did I ditch the lifestyle I have developed this past few years. I had some outstanding food in front of me and enjoyed it.

Today I got back to normal!