another week down, 6 more to go!

Hello team,
If you have managed to make it through Thanksgiving without cheating, congrats. If you had to cheat, don't be too hard on yourself. YOU JUST BETTER MAKE IT UP WITH EXERCISE POINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL! I think I managed to make up my infraction last week with exercise points, so I am very proud.
I am aware that some of us have been able to lose some weight recently, so that is wonderful. I myself thought the scale wasn't moving much past my initial 4lb loss, but when I stepped on the scale this morning I had lost 7 lbs!!! Congrats also to Amy who lost 8 lbs!
I wanted to share some victories with you. Friday I went to a party which celebrated all birthdays in October, including mine. I brought blue corn chips, spelt bread and water with me. I had some homemade chili someone made for dinner, along with a piece of the spelt bread. I had someone else's homemade salsa with my blue corn chips and I drank my water all night long admidst drunken loudmouths--needless to say, I felt great the next day! However, I did make Isaac's brother put a piece of homemade cake in a baggie in his freezer for me to enjoy at some point in the future, maybe in December sometime. However, at the same time, I will probably tell him this week to go ahead and eat it, as I don't even want it. Why save that for myself? December will bring enough cake and cookies with it, that I don't need to have cake from October too. It did make me feel better at the time to do that though, it helped me deal with it! LOL!
As of tonight I have made it through 2 thanksgiving dinners. At the first one, I had the turkey, roasted veg's, and green beans. For dessert I had some grapes, strawberries and melon. Water to drink.
Tonight I had turkey, gravy, squash, sweet potato, green beans, and beets.
OH OH OH! I have to tell you--I made the Guacamole from the Niagara Challenge book and it was a huge hit! I brought it to the dinner we had tonight. I also made the Nut Balls and the Lemon Squares, but I ended up combining them somewhat.
When I made the lemon squares, I didn't read the instructions well enough, and I just tried to blend it all together at once, but you HAVE to first just blend the nuts and the dates AND THEN add the lemon juice and zest. It doesn't work when you do it all together. So instead of wasting it, I added it to half of my nut balls, and they tasted even better. YUM YUM YUM!! So worth it and sooooo easy! You HAVE to make them! You don't have to do my crazy mistake ones, just do the regular recipe and they will taste real good. Everyone loved them too!
Tomorrow morning I am making the Apple Tart for dessert for my 3rd thanksgiving dinner (lunch) and I have no doubt that everyone will love it. I am also making myself yogurt cheese using cheesecloth and yogurt to go with it.

So, Happy Turkey day and I send you many wishes of strength, but more importantly, if you DO cheat, DON'T beat yourself up over it, just make sure you get back on the wagon and continue on like usual, being strong.

PS--i felt so bad tonight, my Aunt Linda seemed a bit offended when I walked in with guacamole, chips, and nut balls. She said "What, you think I wouldn't take care of you?" and then she proceeded to proudly show me the Ace's Bakery "Multigrain" bread, chips and toasts that she got for me. Second ingredient: white flour. Third ingredient: sugar. Thank god I brought my blue corn chips! She also made broccoli. and covered it with cheese. And made sweet potato: and covered it with sugar. Oh, well, she tried!

Here is Laurieanne's email that she sent me to post for her, so I will include it here:

Title: Losing Inches is Everything!

Hello everyone,

Don't worry Kate, you are not alone in communicating with everyone. Unfortunately the blog is not working for me so I'm just gonna e-mail my comments to everyone...If you want to post it on the blog for me that would be great!
Over the last two weeks I have really enjoyed creating new dishes that are challenge friendly...I really appreciate all the recipes that Bonnie sends us. I made the lasagna roll-ups for my family this week and they were a huge hit. I substituted the tomatoes for a homemade pasta sauce that I conjured up last week and it was truly delicious. The only complaint my husband has with the food is that there just isn't enough room in our freezer for all the fish and extra prep stuff I made!
I haven't weighed myself yet but I have been measuring myself. So far I have lost 3 inches off my waist and 4 inches off my abdomen. Hooray for the challenge.
I am committed to exercising a minimum of thirty minutes every day; usually I do fast walking (which I love to do) as the weather is conducive to my staying committed to this form of exercise. I try to do strength training at least three times a week, however sometimes I only do crunches and core and upper body work as the walking already strengthens my legs and butt. I find that developing a routine for the exercise is key...I usually exercise at lunch. The eating clean part of the challenge has fast become easy as well. What worked for me was to have only natural products in the house and then I'm not tempted...my daughter finds breakfast the hardest as we no longer have sugar cereal in the house...She's getting used to eating wheat muffets and porridge!
By the way Kate, I'm planning a cheat day this Sunday..I'll be visiting a friend's for Thanksgiving and they are not challenge friendly people...so....I'm just gonna have to sacrifice for twenty-four hours and drink all the wine I can! I'll try to keep everyone posted as to my progress. Good luck everybody...stay strong!