You don’t know until you ask!

Do you have support from people around you? Or do you feel that your weight loss journey is one that you have to take alone?

It is true that our weight-loss efforts are our own, and that the responsibility of it can not be passed on to someone else. This being said, that doesn’t mean people around you can’t give a helping hand here and there along the way.

Asking for help can be challenging. For one thing, I don’t know about you but for me pride used to get in the way. I used to feel that asking for help was a sign of weakness, a sign that I’m not good enough to figure things out on my own. I know, it’s silly, but still that’s what I thought. I know differently now.

It’s all in “how” and “who” you ask; there are ways to get people around you on board without starting a war within the family or your group of friends. It just takes a little thinking about it.

Tool of the Week

Cookbooks! What can I say? I love them, all of them!

The recipes are delicious, easy, and family friendly. I learned to cook with the Weight Watchers cookbooks (I could not cook eggs when I got married and this is the truth!) and have never found a recipe in them I couldn’t cook.

Make your life easier, and your plate inviting!!!

What’s going on?

Lose for Good:

The campaign is still on!!!

For each lb we lose Weight Watchers is giving $1 to Share Our Strength!

There are Food Drives at the Weight Watchers centers, share what you can. Somebody somewhere needs your help!!

Next week ( Sept. 26th to Oct 2nd) I will be bringing my car close by for my At Works and Travelers so that I can gather food donations. If you are planning to bring a large amount of food, please drop me an email so I can prepare for it. :o)

It would be greatly helpful if you could put your donations in boxes, to make carrying them around easier for me.

The campaign will go on until October 23rd.

In the Kitchen

Ok, usually I go for useful, healthy “meal” recipes. I figure everybody can easily find treats anywhere, right? No need to tempt people. Well, this is different!

This recipe is a mix of a recipe that has been doing the round at Weight Watchers dot com for years, and an idea I saw in Food Network Magazine this week. It’s a little labor intensive, but I think it’s the perfect treat for the Fall!

It is 6 pts, you can save 2 points by skipping the Graham crumbles, or you can turn this into 6 servings. You know, there’s always a way. I think it’s worth the 6 pts!

Pumpkin Mousse Parfaits
Makes 4 parfaits, 6 pts each

15 oz can of pumpkin puree
3 cups cool whip free, divided
1 cup skim milk
2 small boxes of sf/ff vanilla pudding
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (to taste)

1 cup Graham crumbles (divided in 4)

Mousse:

Beat pumpkin, milk, pudding mix and spice together with a whisk. Fold in 1 cup of the Fat Free Cool whip.

Putting it together:

Brush the bottom of each of your parfait glasses with butter substitute (ICBINB or something like that). Pour in each ¼ of the graham crumbs and pour out whatever doesn’t stick.

Delicately put in 1/8 of the pumpkin mousse, add ¼ cup of Cool whip (try not to mix it up so it looks cute), sprinkle with ½ of what’s left of each ¼ cup (after you coated the bottom of the Parfait glasses) of Graham crumbs, then add 1/8 of the Mousse again.

**I cover and refrigerate at that point for about 1 hour to let it set, and finish it up just before serving so it looks prettier.

Just before serving: Add ¼ cup of the Cool whip again and sprinkle with the rest of your Graham Crumbs. I stick a cinnamon stick in there to make it look fuffier. :o)

At Work Corner

If you need anything, let me know! The best way to get to me is always to drop me an email at willow@seamountains.net I will read everything and answer as soon as I can.

If for any reason you can't make your meeting at work, you are more than welcome to attend a meeting at any center - traveler. You have paid for it already!

You can find meetings close to home or to your vacation site at:

www.weightwatchers.com

Here are my meetings:

http://seamountains.net/mtg.html

Fall is there!

Can you believe it? Summer showed up and in came the fog, the cold, right on June 21st. Now Fall is there and we have a heat wave coming. Ha ha! I love San Francisco!!

Never be afraid to email me, I’m there for you!

See you in the meeting room!

Melanie

“Knowledge is power and enthusiasm pulls the switch.”

Steve Droke