Amber- great site!! Tony- I knew I liked you for more then just your tomatoes! Seriously I carry most of my weight in the middle which I can usually hide pretty well. Minus the 3 times this year people have asked me if I was pregnant. 7 years ago I weighted 105 which was great!! I don't ever expect to get that small again nor am I trying. But I would like to get down to around 120-125. I love to eat, especially sweets. And the holidays are almost here and I LOVE to bake!!!!!! So this is going to be interesting. I am trying to get in more exercize. So hopefully that will help. I agree that weight watchers is expensive. So I won't be going to anymore meetings. I mainly went to get the point counter card. We have a new addition to the family. We are proud foster parents of a 15 yr old girl. We already new her through some friends. She was in a horrible situation so we took her in and now I think it is going to be permanent. We shall see. Anyways we are definately watching our money.

I found that counting points was one of the easiest things I've done. I lost most of the weight that I wanted to lose, but then we had Spring Break and I got off schedule. I haven't been able to make myself get back on the program since then. I've gained a few pounds back and they all seem to be in my stomach, and I hate that!!! I feel sluggish and I know it's because I'm eating the wrong foods. I keep coming here in hopes that I'll get back on the wagon again. So I'm looking for the motivation too! I had got down to 132 lbs. and wanted to be in the 120's. Now I'm 137½, at least I was last week. I still weigh every Wednesday morning. I'll weigh tomorrow and hope that I haven't gained any more. I forgot to mention that there is a chart that tells you how many points you should have a day. I think it's posted somewhere here at the forum. I know that if you are 150 or less that you are supposed to eat 20 points per day, plus you get 35 flex points a week to use (or not to use) whenever you need them. I'll see if I can find the weight chart for you and post the numbers here.

Kate, I lurk over here once in awhile, and happened to see your post. I do smoothies in several ways. Recently I've bought some little push-up containers for freezing and I'm making popsicles that are 'the bomb' - excuse the pun. I'll start with two recipes for popsicles that were given to me 30 years ago, and they easily converted to sugar-free, fat-free. The first is for fudgesicles. Mix a 3 oz box of instant sugar free chocolate pudding mix according to package directions, using nonfat milk. Then blend in a ?13 oz? can of nonfat evaporated milk (not the sweetened kind, just plain evap milk. If you're not watching your fat grams, regular evap milk makes a creamier fudgesicle, but these aint half bad.) Pour into molds and freeze. (If you're not on a diet, a cup or two of brewed flavored coffee and a can of that sweetened evap milk, frozen, is also yummy. But I digress......) The second is for dripless popsicles. It calls for a 3 oz box of any flavor Jell-o, mixed according to package directions. Do not chill. Instead, add a can of evap milk to make a "Dreamsicle", or 2 cups of mixed fruit, (mashed or pureed). Pour into molds and freeze. Now, for what I call a "milkshake", soften 2 tsp. of unflavored gelatin in about 1/2 cup water. Then place this in the microwave until the gelatin has melted and the mixture is kinda like eggwhite. This takes only 30 seconds or so. Into your blender, place whatever kind of fruit strikes your fancy. I like peach, banana or strawberry the best, or a mixture. Maybe about a cup. Add about half cup of water. If you want it like a smoothie you would not add dry milk, but I add 1/3 cup dry milk because I like it better that way. Start the blender, and while it is whirring, pour in the hot gelatin. Then start dropping ice into the blender until the mixture thickens and becomes smooth. Pour into a glass and eat it with a spoon. If your fruit is not sweet enough on its own, add some artificial sweetener or sugar. Smoothies can be made with all kinds of different fruits, and lot of times I just throw frozen fruit into the blender in lots of different combinations: plum and banana with some frozen apple juice concentrate. Canned pineapple and frozen strawberry with some frozen orange juice concentrate. Something tart with something sweet, you know? You can leave out the gelatin if you don't want to go to the trouble, but I like the smooth creaminess it gives to the finished product. You can make a very nice 'cheesecake' by using the gelatin, fat-free cream cheese, some dry milk powder and lemonade concentrate. Of course there's sugar in the lemonade concentrate. You can also make a 'chocolate shake' by using the gelatin mixture recipe, replacing the fruit with 1 cup water and another 1/3 cup of nonfat dry milk powder, and adding maybe a tablespoon of cocoa. I like to go to Allrecipes.com and I notice they're featuring a lot of smoothie recipes there. So if none of these appeal to you, try there. They have a search function you can use, just search on 'smoothie'. I'm not connected to them in any way, I just like the site. Oh, and BTW, lots of things can be frozen and eaten without thawing (besides cookies, but I'm digressing again...). Grapes are delicious frozen, as are blueberries, peaches and apple slices (dip the apple slices in salt water, drain and freeze, 1 tbsp to a gallon -- do the math for smaller quantities, you don't taste it and it keeps the apple from turning). Bananas can be frozen in the skin, but not for a very long tine. To eat, run water over the skin to thaw it a bit, score it down the length of the banana and pry up along one edge. It will peel right off, usually in one piece. The skin will have blackened but the banana inside is still yellow and creamy. My kids used to call frozen banana 'ice cream'. LOL You must eat it while it's frozen though because when it thaws it's not a pretty sight. Watermelon and cantaloupe make wonderful popsicles. The trick is to puree them first. Cantaloupe is wonderful blended into apricot jello for popsicles. I think they have watermelon flavor jello now but I haven't tried it. There are all kinds of possibilities for smoothies, and any smoothie can be made into a popsicle. If you're interested, I bought my popsicle push-up molds at organize.com (not affiliated with them either). They're called cool cones. I like them very much. They don't leak out the bottoms so when I freeze them I set them upright in the freezer and let the 'stems' hang down between the wires of the shelf until they're solid. I hope this helps! --Ilene

Hi Ellen and welcome! I have counted points using the Weight Watchers method, but never actually joined the program. I was able to lose to within 3 pounds of my goal weight. Then I got off the program and haven't been able to make myself get back! I have only gained 6½ lbs back, so that makes me around 10 lbs more than I would like to be and I think all 10 lbs are in my stomach! I hate that!!! I always had a flat stomach until I hit around 47 or 48 and then the weight decided it liked my stomach area. I didn't do any exercising while counting points, but I have started an exercise program of my own the past week and plan to keep it up. Hopefully I can get toned up and build some muscle so that I can get rid of the ab flab! Buglady, thanks for the nice words about my website! I just put info there that really helped me while I was counting points. If you come across more helpful info just let me know and I'll be happy to add it to the webpage. My biggest problem is that at age 55 I still eat like a teenager. I love junk food! I guess I'm really fortunate that I haven't gained more than I have considering my eating habits. MaryAnn (who just finished off some ice cream and a few cookies, and feel like it all went straight to my stomach!)