Sometimes, it's all about the Food!

We started out our gatherings viewing the BEAUTIUL photos from the hike that some of our team mates went on last week! It was great to see the beauty of our Northwest in those photos, but more exciting to see the faces of our hikers! They had an amazing time!

Hiking is one way to embrace our northwest winter, but snow shoeing is another.  Wendy shared snow shoeing tips at each gathering to get us ready for our snow adventure next weekend. Thanks Wendy for taking the time to educate us and prepare us for a fun outing! I can't wait!

We surprised two lucky adventurers with gifts from our indoor/outdoor activity drawings! Congratulations to Sally (5:30 ) and Becky (7:00) for winning this week!

Although, It's not my favorite thing to do,  I thought it would be important this week to look at some food facts!  We did that Thursday at The Healthy Weigh. We tackled restaurant eating, the healthy weigh :-), looked at some of the miracle foods of this century and learned some new concepts that will help us lose the weight and keep it off for life!

Restaurant eating can be difficult when you're trying to eat healthy. It seems that the menus at our favorite places don't cater to our low fat, low calorie lifestyles. The mantra to remember when eating out is this..."The food you need, is in the kitchen" (of the restaurant that is) You might not see your program foods on the menu, but the food is in the kitchen.  Our job is to get that food on our plate. It will be great to hear the feedback from our adventurers this week as one of their challenges for the week is to go out and eat!

We focused on some of the miracle foods,
 that if abused, can make us fat.  Even though these foods are "good for us" we've got to eat them responsibly. From avocado, to olive oil, the miracle foods will be added back into our diets when we meet our goal weight. And even then, we'll be eating them sparingly.

I shared some fun concepts that I hope will help my healthy weigh friends for life. "Sometimes foods," "Three to One" and the "Calorie Bank" ...had to be there :-)  These concepts have helped me over the years...and I know they'll help my Healthy Weigh friends as well.

Our winners for the week made us proud once again!
Noon: Team "Secret Ninja's" Kellie and Jennifer won for the week with a 2.19% of weight loss!
5:30 : Team "Two Aleutians Resolution" Max and Allison losing 2.02 % for the week!
7:00 : Team "Sisu Sisters" Cindy and Elaine won with 2.06% of weight loss!

Great job you guys! Proud of you!

Our Challenges of the week wont be too difficult!

• Go out and eat...stay on program and bring in your receipt next week.
• Keep your program journal all week and bring it back next week.
• Do 5 indoor/outdoor activities

There's still great things ahead for this Northwest adventure including hearing from Glenda this upcoming week.  Here's to staying the course and following through to the end...that's how Northwesterners do things!!!

Always encouraging you,
Letha