Remember when the fat-free craze hit big time a few years back? Fat-free chips, cookies, candy, snacks and such? It seemed the whole weight-loss world had boycotted fat forever.

Including me.

Now, I was able to be successful in losing weight on a nearly fat-free diet. Between babies two and three I dropped over 40 excess pounds that I gained during pregnancy. However, there was one slight problem with staying on a low-calorie, nearly fat-free diet.

I was hungry.

All the time!

Since those days I have schooled myself about fat. Is fat always bad? I think I have discovered the answer is no.

In fact, this time around I am trying to make sure I get enough fat. The so called “good” heart-healthy fat.

MUFAs (pronounced moo-fah) are monounsaturated fatty acids, plant-based fats found in some of the world’s most delicious foods–avocado, nuts and seeds, oils, olives, and dark chocolate! Studies show that these good-for-you fats enhance heart health and protect against chronic disease. And now the latest research shows that these dietary superstars may even target fat where it’s hardest to lose–in your belly! (From Prevention.com:)

So now, I try to have some of these everyday. And since fats metabolize slower and stay in your system longer, I feel hungry less often.

Before for an afternoon snack, I would have a fat-free “mock” treat–you know like a low cal, fat-free Twinkie-type snack or some fat-free potato chips or cookies. They tasted great and were around 100-150 calories.

But I was hungry again in less than an hour since they were made of empty white flour carbs and no fat.

Now, for a snack I’ll have a handful of raw almonds or some sliced turkey wrapped around a wedge of avocado and sprinkled with sea salt or even my beloved three squares of dark chocolate–so dark it is almost like baking chocolate!

They taste great, are between 100-150 calories and I am not hungry again for up to three hours.

Yeah good fats!

If you’d like to read up on these MUFAs here are a few links:

Eating MUFAs for a flat belly

Shopping for MUFA foods

Okay…let’s do our regular check in. How was your week?

Mine drove me crazy since I have banished my scale to the barn for a while. I did not have time to fit in exercise except for two days due to a reason that will be explained in a future post. My eating was great on three days and so-so the other four. I am using a pair of jeans for measurement and they fit just like they did last week so I don’t think I have gained but don’t feel a loss either.

How about you?

And what are your musings about the whole fat-free vs. good fat subject?

Leave a comment with your thoughts.

I’ll grab me some dark chocolate and read them!

Sweet Blessings,

First of all…congrats to the winner of my prize from yesterday’s Proverbs 31 Carnival of Giveaways. She is:

Faith: Timestamp February 16, 2010 at 3:22 pm

Send your home address to karen@proverbs31.org so I can ship your gift out asap!

Now back to our regularly scheduled Weight Loss Wednesday post. (If you haven’t joined our little cyber group of girlfriends, don’t fret! Newcomers are always welcome. You can get caught up by clicking on Weight Loss Wednesdays in the side bar.)

________________________________________________________________

I had a hard week.

I planned on it being a great week; especially after stepping on the scale last Wednesday and glancing down at the digital numbers flashing at me. It was then that I realized I was only a tad bit over 10 pounds away from getting back to my lifetime Weight Watchers goal weight.

Man was I pumped.

The end was getting in sight.

Then, this past Thursday, I got sick. A terrible sinus monster invaded my head. It made it throb, pound and feel as if it surely would explode. I couldn’t sleep, or think straight. And I had an entire weekend of thinkin’ ahead of me.

Since I am severely allergic to cold medicine, I had to suffer. I was able to use a nose spray that helps for a few hours, just long enough to make it through playing a “Showcase Showdown Girl” during a game show spoof at our church’s Valentines Day banquet . Other than that, I was miserable.

And worst of all, since I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t smell. Since I couldn’t smell, nothing tasted good. Ya think that woulda helped my weight loss efforts.

It didn’t.

Nothing tasted good.

So I kept tasting.

I went from salty, to sweet, to spicy and back to salty again. On Sunday, I added back in dark chocolate, which I had been fasting from. Sweet hubby even bought me my favorite— Sea-salted dark Chocolate from World Market. It still didn’t do the trick. Could hardly taste it!

I know now my stomach wasn’t hungry; my taste buds were bored and no matter what I ate, I didn’t feel satisfied.

It lasted for three days!!!!

I also gave into a sometimes bad habit I have of hopping on the scale just to “peek” at how I am doing from Wednesday to Wednesday.

By Friday morning, I was down a bit.

But by Monday morning, after my three day quest for something to taste good and fill me up and after downing lots of salt which I normally avoid….I was up over 3 pounds! Ughhhhhhh!

It threw me into a massive blue funk. An “I-might-as-well-throw-in-the-towel-and-shut-down-WLW-on-my-blog-since-I-am-such-a-bad-example” funk.

Seriously.

But the last two days I have settled down and tried to discover if God wants me to do something different.

He does.

He wants me to break up with my scale. My state-of-the-art, Weight Watchers Digital scale.

It is defining me. And it is defeating me.

Even though when we started off last October, I encouraged you all to be defined by obedience and not a number on the scale, (post here) this past weekend, I was not taking my own advice.

So, I am officially breaking up with my scale, ending the love/hate relationship I have with it. Not for good, just for a while.

I have decided to start weighing in only on the first day of the month. I need my motivation to be obedience to God in my eating, not some stupid number on the stinkin’ scale. And I know from losing weight before how crazy addicted I get to hopping on the scale and seeing it go up or down when I am near my goal. It makes me crazy! And I often react by overeating if it doesn’t move as quickly as I’d like, which often drags out losing those last 10-15 pounds for what seems like an eternity!!!

So, I will still check in with you each Wednesday. Just not with my scale.

He and I will just have a once-a-month date and in between, I’ll have my husband hide him somewhere in the house. No….out in the pole barn. Then I’d have to wander 30 yards through several inches of snow to get it!

I hope this works!

Well— how was your week?

I hope it was better than mine. And thanks again for your cyber-presence here. You help me keep in line, and when I don’t, to hit the restart button—which I am doing RIGHT NOW!!!!!

Sweet Blessings,

GIVEAWAY NOTE: Don’t forget to tune in tomorrow. I’ll have an Encouragement for Today devotion running  at Proverbs 31 and on Crosswalk.com on the topic of  marriage and male/female differences. For fun, (and to kick-off an entire week of Valentines Day giveaways—including lots of books), I’ll offer a couples marriage giveaway centered on friends’ Bill and Pam Farrel’s book Men are Like Waffles;Women are Like Spaghetti. Plan to hop on and leave a comment!

Another Wednesday with our Weight Loss Wednesday gals! (If you haven’t joined our little cyber group of girlfriends, don’t fret! Newcomers are always welcome. You can get caught up by clicking on Weight Loss Wednesdays in the side bar.)

Well— It is all set! We will be holding our WLW girlfriends conference call next Tuesday, February 9th, from 9:00-9:55 pm EST. If you’ve never been part of a call like this, you are in for a treat! (calorie-free, of course!) I hope you’ll want to participate. (and remember, you can be a part of the call and just listen, that is fine too!) And the call will be recorded so if you miss it, you can go on-line and listen to it the week or two following as well.

I need to have you email me at karen@proverbs31.org BEFORE 9:00 pm Monday EST. I will email you back with the call-in instructions. There is no cost for this girlfreinds’ get-together other than the phone call (and many of you have free nights and weekends on your cell phone, so have that all charged up and ready to go!) PLEASE put WLW Phone Call in the subject line or I might miss you due to the volume of emails I get. Oh, I can’t wait to chat with you all!

Speaking of chatting, ever talk to yourself? No, I don’t mean audibly, mumbling so others can hear you and wonder if you are actually speaking to them.

I mean in your head.

In your heart.

Whispering to your very soul.

I do this all the time about many topics. When I mess up with my kids, I say to myself, “You are a terrible parent.”

When I let loose my frustration with my oh-so-different-from me husband, letting loathsome words spew out, I say to myself, “What a great marriage role model you are!”

When my home office desk starts to sport a few piles of “attention needed asap” piles of papers, I say to myself, “And you speak and write on how to get organized! Ya’ big fake.”

When for the umpteenth time in my post-baby adult life I am trying to drop pounds and lose inches and get back to a healthy weight, I scream to myself, “Idiot! Can’t keep from shoveling the stupid food in your mouth. You failure! You’ll NEVER be thin. You are destined to be fat. Just give up and eat some cookies—lots of cookies–then polish off the last half of the bag of ranch Doritos followed by a little–no a lot– of Moosetracks ice cream. Why keep trying? You ALWAYS fail!”

Ever been there?

Last week, I challenged you to memorize 1 Corinthians 10:13. Did you? Did you at least read it?

We must start swapping out these episodes of destructive self-talk, exchanging them for sanitizing words instead; words that are true and chock-full of scripture.

So when you begin to mumble or whisper something damaging to your heart about how you NEVER can resist temptation. Stop. Quote the above verse to yourself. (or others you find. www.biblegateway.com is a great place to search for scripture verses on specific topics)

And it doesn’t always have to be scripture that stops our injurious words pointed straight at our soul. Memorize a few phrases to help you sanitize your mental slate, wiping it clean. Here are a few I am using:

• Nothing tastes as good as being fit feels.
• Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t….you are right.
• Satan wants me to focus on food; God wants me to focus on Him.
• This  junk food is NOT my friend. It is the enemy wrapped in a tasty package. WALK AWAY!!!!

How about you? Any other ones you can come up with?

Or, if you memorized 1 Corinthians 10:13, type it out in the comment box below (no cheating and don’t worry if it isn’t totally word perfect!) I’ll give a fun, funky, and colorful set of recipe cards, along with matching measuring cups and spoons, to one gal who does.

Or, just check in and let us know how your week went. Mine was much better. Really watched those BLT’s (bites, licks and tastes) and kicked it up a bit on the exercise. I’m down 2.4 this week.

How about you? Please comment and don’t forget to email me with WLW phone call in the subject line so we can chat it up next Tuesday night. I can’t wait!!!!

____________________________________________________________________________

Congrats to the winner of yesterday’s book giveaway with Mary Demuth. Please email me your home address at karen@proverbs31.org so I can give it to Mary.

The gal receiving a copy of Thin Places is:

Heather

Timestamp: February 2, 2010 at 2:45 pm

Self-Talking Blessings,

GIVEAWAY NOTE: Please plan on joining us Friday for a fun and practical giveaway. I’ll have an Encouragement for Today devotion running  at Proverbs 31 and on Crosswalk.com on the topic of using our time wisely and how to decide when (and when NOT) to multi-task. The giveaway includes a copy of my book The Complete Guide to Getting and Staying Organized and some organizational and “office-y” items. Plan to hop on and leave a comment!

Well, my calendar tells me it is Weight Loss Wednesday again! (If you haven’t joined our little cyber group of girlfriends, don’t fret! Newcomers are always welcome. You can get caught up by clicking on Weight Loss Wednesdays in the side bar.)

How was your week?

Mine was kinda/sorta hard.

I gave up dark chocolate last week. Not forever, just until Valentines Day. I don’t eat a lot of it, just 2-3 small squares a day in the late afternoon as a treat and reward for sticking to my eating plan (and finishing school with the boys for the day–always a good feeling!) The total calories of my little, habitual treat only comes to 80-120 per day but it gives me a delicious (though not overly sweet) treat to look forward to and savor. And, it even is rich in anti-oxidents and contains some good fat too.

And it is ESPECAILLY scrumptious when it is the dark chocolate/pomegranate type.

Uh……that would be the type that our little town’s grocery store had marked down this week from $4.00 per bag to a little over $1.00 per bag.

Yep, six bags of my favorite chocolate in the world beckoned my name when I got groceries last week, just after I’d told all of you I’d given up dark chocolate for a while.

All six bags chanted in unison “Buy me, buy me!!!” Oh, and they had to throw in the fact that they were now less than half the normal price. That appealed to my innate, frugal nature.

I decided to be brave and just walk on by. However, my frugal side argued with my “Be brave and avoid the temptation” side. It just had to look at the out date. If they outdated in the next 2 weeks or so, I shouldn’t buy them because I wasn’t supposed to be eating them.

However, (that frugal inner voice reasoned), if they outdated later, then I should buy them due to the savings I’d enjoy.

Bossy Miss Frugal won out.

They don’t out-date until July. So, I purchased them and had a family member stash them away somewhere I will not find them. Now, you all just pray I stay true to my plan and don’t go rummaging around before Valentines Day looking for them! I’ll let you know how that goes!

My dark chocolate dance and giving up of the treat got me thinking this week about temptation.

Food temptations.

The I-crave-it-so-much-I-can-hardly-stand-it kind of food temptations.

Mine come mostly in the form of salty fat (a plate of Hint of Lime tortilla chips smothered in melted, sharp, shredded cheddar cheese) or sweet dairy fat (ice cream, chocolate malts, full-fat mocha lattes, cheesecake, …you get the picture!)

However, God encourages us, promising to help us fight temptation (and win!). One of the verses I clung to when I lost over  100 pounds a few years back was I Corinthians 10:13.

I love me some I Corinthians 10:13.

I memorized sweet I Corinthians 10:13.

I plastered up several sticky notes around my house sporting I Corinthians 10:13. (Mostly in the kitchen on the fridge and pantry)

Perhaps you’d care to do the same thing. It goes…..

“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

That is from the English Standard Version of the Bible, the one I am currently studying. I love this version because it is the latest word-for-word translation of the Bible (as opposed to phrase-for-phrase translations) and it is written with the English language in mind, unlike older word-for-word translations that read rather choppy. However, perhaps you are a contemporary language gal. If so, here is the verse in The Message version of the Bible:

“No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.”

For those who love to dive into the original Greek or Hebrew meanings of words from the Bible, here is another one of my favortie translations that does just that: the Amplified Version.

“For no temptation (no trial regarded as enticing to sin), [no matter how it comes or where it leads] has overtaken you and laid hold on you that is not common to man [that is, no temptation or trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and that is not adjusted and adapted and belonging to human experience, and such as man can bear]. But God is faithful [to His Word and to His compassionate nature], and He [can be trusted] not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but with the temptation He will [always] also provide the way out (the means of escape to a landing place), that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently.”

Slightly wordy, but oh, so rich!

I began quoting this powerful, promise-packed verse to myself again whenever I was tempted to give in to an unhealthy craving last week, sweetly reminding God He promised me a way of escape…a landing place.

He never failed.

Sometimes the way out was a bowl of slightly thawed, frozen blueberries or blackberries sprinkled with stevia.

Some days it was a steaming cup of orange or apple or passionfruit herb tea, also sweetened with stevia.

Those were on my ’sweet fat’ craving days.

On my ’salty fat’ craving days, often it was some soy crisps (like mini-rice cakes) dipped in salsa. Or some air-popped popcorn misted with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt.

And sometimes, the way of escape had nothing to do with food.

It was to escape to my bedroom, fling myself on my bed and open my Bible or pour out my heart to God about how tempted I was. About how much I didn’t want to give in and how I loved Him so much more than food, but right now the food was chasing and tormenting me and would He, could He, please help me to stand up under it?

He never failed.

My challenge for you this week is to memorize this verse, in whatever translation you’d like. (You can find more translations at www.biblegateway.com) I’ll even give a prize away next week to one gal who does so.

Oh, and the temptation avoidance worked. The scale went down a little more this week. Three fourths of a pound is all. But hey, I’m not gonna fret. That is like losing three sticks of butter–solid fat! (Because, as my Weight Watchers leader use to always say, “If the scale goes down, you lost solid fat. If it spikes up a bit, you are retaining water! )

Now, how was your week? And will you commit to memorizing this amazing verse?

Temptation Escaping Blessings,

Welcome Weight Loss Wednesday gals. Today, you are in for a treat! My friend and our president at Proverbs 31 Ministries, Lysa TerKeurst is joining us with a video blog post. The topic is one I have found to be totally true: You crave what you eat.

While it may be hard at first to stop eating the junk our bodies have been craving, the more we make healthy choices, the more we want to make healthy choices.  Click below to view Lysa’s encouraging words and then join me below for the rest of this post. Here’s Lysa:

So what unhealthy cravings do you desire to give up? Anything you have been eating that is permissible, but not beneficial?

I know for me, even though for our last three months together I have eliminated many unhealthy foods from my diet, I still have a few items I have been feeling God tell me to give up. In fact, my best friend from college just asked me last week if I’d like to join her for a short “cleanse”. For those of you unfamiliar with that term, it is a way of eating that eliminates all foods from your diet except lean meats, non-starchy veggies, nuts and berries.

Yep, no dairy, no wheat, and NO DARK CHOCOLATE!

Now, I have been (and still am) a believer in building treats into your eating as a reward and to keep you on the straight and narrow. (It is permissible.) And I have enjoyed a little dark chocolate each day for our three month journey and have lost over 30 pounds in the process.

However, now I  feel God nudging me to give up the dark chocolate for a while.

From now until Valentine’s Day to be exact.

Ouch!

The reason? I need to obey in my eating because it pleases God, not just so I can reward myself with chocolate.

Anyone else in? Is there something you need to give up for a while, maybe just until Valentine’s Day? Perhaps the craving will subside just as Lysa said.

Please leave a comment with your thoughts on this topic. Or, just let us know how your week went. I love being able to pray for you!

Cravings-Busting Blessings,

It is Weight Loss Wednesday again! (If you haven’t joined our little cyber group of girlfriends, don’t fret! Newcomers are always welcome. You can get caught up by clicking on Weight Loss Wednesdays in the side bar. Just leave a comment on the last post listed there. You can read the others, if you’d like, but it isn’t imperative. Just hop over each Wednesday to join us and check in with how you are doing. You don’t have to tell us what you weigh. You can tell us how much or little the scale moved, if you want. The point is accountability and encouragement for each other. We’d love to have you!)

I want to chat a bit today about planning for success in our weight loss endeavor. Then, I have a way fun announcement that involves you! And as always, let’s all ‘weigh in’ so to speak, sharing how our weeks went.

My week was okay. I kept up my exercise. I was careful how I ate. However, a couple of days I got kind of lazy and frankly, a bit tired of logging in just what foods I consumed each day and how much. Besides, I had taken an entire two weeks off from logging my food intake over the holidays and had lost over 5 pounds in the process!

So, I defiantly decided on a few evenings last week to stop writing down my calories and just ‘be sensible’.

Bad idea!

Over the holidays I was so strict with myself on the days I wanted a treat or goodie that it didn’t really harm me. I still lost. This past week however, I munched on baked sour cream-cheddar chips (my favs!) without really portioning them out; you know, just sort of guessing what a serving on my plate looked like.

And I did the same with a few other foods on a couple different days. As a result, I know I went over my allotted calories, even if only by a little, on at least 4 days last week. And the scale reflected that.

I didn’t gain, but I only lost one pound. At first, I wanted to kick my stupid scale.

Then I wanted to kick my stupid self!

But I quickly did a little mental gymnastics and some adding in my head and realized that, even though I only lost a pound this week, I hit the ‘30 pounds lost’ mark. Yeah!

So, this morning I resolved to not let the runaway calories happen again (even if the foods munched on are healthy. They still have calories!)

That brings us to today’s topic.

How can you plan for success and NOT let the munchies (especially the late night kind) get the best of you? Please share! I’ll give a few first.

Pre-portioning items from a large bag into serving-sized baggies. Had I counted out those yummy, sour cream-cheddar baked chips and placed the servings in individual zip bags, I might not have just kept munching. I would have just taken one small bag out of the cupboard. I’ve read many studies that prove that to be true.

Having raw veggies cleaned, cut and handy in the fridge along with some light dip (homemade or store bought). When I want something crunchy, I don’t like to wait to wash and clean veggies and sometimes, the chip cupboard seems like a quicker choice. However, I have a hard time controlling myself with those pesky chips!

Keep herb tea bags and packets of Stevia (natural, calorie-free sweetener) in my purse at all times. This sure helped me over the holidays. I can sip on something hot and sweet whenever the sweet or salty snacks at a function are calling my name.

Okay, how about you? How was your week? Any ideas for planning for success? Or give me your thoughts on this fun announcement:

Each week when I read your comments, I so wish we could all get together just once. However, since we live all over the country, that is pretty much impossible. But the other night when my Proverbs 31 sisters and I were on a conference teaching call, it hit me.

Let’s do a WLW conference call some evening!

Yes, you and I and all our WLW cyber-sisters chatting it up and encouraging each other from the warmth of our own little homes!

I’d run it much like we do for our P31 calls. I’ll start us off with a devotion/teaching. And then we’ll open the floor for Q & A and discussion.

I know the first time I led a call for a ministry that wanted me to teach on organization, I never thought it would work. How can 60 people all talk at the same time? However, these calls work out fine. Some jump in and add their two-cents worth; others just listen. You know who is talking because we’ll refer to ourselves by our screen name. “Hey–This is mom of 6. I was wondering……”

Oh, doesn’t this sound like fun?

Are you in? I am thinking we may have it at 9 pm EST on a Thursday evening. Your only cost would be for the call and many cell phones are on free nights and weekends by then so it might be totally cost-free!

Well…that’s all for now. Let me know your thoughts and how your week went and any planning for success ideas you have!

Have a great week. I appreciate you ALL!!!

Planning for Success Blessings,

Today we kick off the new year of Weight Loss Wednesdays. Now, if you haven’t joined our little cyber group of girlfriends, don’t fret! Newcomers are always welcome. You can get caught up by clicking on Weight Loss Wednesdays in the side bar. Just leave a comment on the last post listed there. You can read the others, if you’d like, but it isn’t imperative. Just hop over each Wednesday to join us and check in with how you are doing. You don’t have to tell us what you weigh. You can tell us how much or little the scale moved, if you want. The point is accountability and encouragement for each other. We’d love to have you!

It feels so good to be through the holidays and back into my regular routine. While I love taking time off from schooling, blogging, etc and doing up Christmas and New Years big, there is something to be said for normal, daily days. They feel familiar and comforting.

So, how did your eating go over the holidays? Which of the three plans did you choose? Were you glad you did or regretful?

I choose plan number two “opt to sample the goodies in a sensible and occasional manner, savoring them slowly and hope to just maintain my current weight and not gain or lose.”

What it looked like was this:

• Actually planning out at which functions I would sample a treat and at which ones I’d only sip herb tea or decaf coffee.
• Purposefully eating a small salad for lunch on the days I wanted to indulge in a holiday goodie or two in the evening.
• Intentionally waiting until there was only one piece of peanut butter fudge or serving of eggnog left before sampling. That way, if I wanted to binge on more, there wasn’t any!

I also tried to keep up with moving more by walking, doing light weight training and visiting the gym, although I couldn’t always make it there. My goal was just to maintain my current weight or maybe see the scale only go up a pound or so in this two week span since we last met here. That would have been grand!

However, it seems my eating habits and appetite have really changed since we began in October. I just don’t pack away the food like I used to. And I felt full just sampling those Christmas treats. One piece of fudge was plenty instead of 5 or 6.

In fact, I am amazed at just how little food a gal really needs to live.

So, my plan to “sample sensibly” and try to keep moving paid off. I really expected to stay the same weight. However, when I hopped on the scale today, I discovered I actually lost 5.5 pounds.

Ladies, that is a major miracle! 5.5 pounds lost over the two-week holiday span….without writing down my calories; by just being sensible. God is good…..

And I did not starve myself. Over the last two weeks I had fudge and turkey with potatoes and dark chocolate from my stocking and spinach dip and cheese and crackers and four pieces of black forest cake! And I ate out twice too!

The key was, the rest of the time, I ate veggies and lean meats; fruits and whole grains.

It was a fun two weeks “off” my normal routine and the results made me happy. If I had been super strict, eating celery sticks while the rest of the world celebrated, I would have lost more weight. My guess is though, I would have only lasted so long, felt deprived and left out, threw in the towel and gorged.

Then this morning the scale would have showed at least 5.5 pounds in the other direction!

Now it is back to recording my calories and hitting the gym 3 or more days a week.

Normal.

Routine.

Wonderful.

Now, let’s hear how your time away from our little support group has gone. Please still comment even if you gained some or perhaps totally blew it over the holidays. It is a New Year and time to start fresh, right?!?!

And, no matter if you are a regular, a returner or a newbee, please tell us your goal. How much would you like to lose? Or how many sizes would you like to go down? Also, if you have been here since last year, how much weight have you dropped? I’d love to figure out our total and post it next week!

Also, stay tuned to WLW over the next weeks and months. We’ll be having some special guest posts, sharing recipes and winning giveaways!

But most of all, we’ll be encouraging each other on our journey to a healthy lifestyle and weight…..

Now leave your comments. I’ll go first.

My goal is to be a size 10. I started a size 22-24; got down to that size 10; then when I regained weight, I went back up to a 16-18. Right now I am a 14, but some of my 12s are starting to fit. And, since we began in mid-October, I am down 29.4 pounds!

I could NOT have come this far without you all! Thank you!!!!

Your turn- how were your holidays? Or what is your goal? Or how much have you lost by being part of WLW?

Or all of the above!

New Year’s WLW Blessings,