When I woke up yesterday morning, I got a little teary right off the bat.  This was my Timehop picture from just 3 years ago.

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He was being so goofy in this picture, but what I can’t believe is that I let him help me shovel snow when he spent the first nine days of 2014 in the hospital.  It’s not that I don’t think about him every day, but when I opened that photo it’s hard to believe how much my life has changed in that short amount of time.

I went to WW before work to meet my sister to weigh in so we don’t have to waste our lunch meeting time waiting at the scale.  I’ve tracked everything for 44 days straight, and even though I’ve not worked out in three weeks because of my cough, expected a loss at the scale today nonetheless.

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Huh.  UP 1.8.  But then I had to look at the big picture – I am still down 13 pounds since Christmas, whatever I do the seven days prior isn’t automatically going to show up just because it’s Weigh In day, and I am in this for the long haul.  No harm, no foul.  Just keep on keeping on.  I am SO happy that my cough is finally gone – only took 3 1/2 weeks.  I plan to get back to the gym tomorrow and plan to take a group exercise class at the Y this weekend.

Last night marked our NINTH Cooking Club dinner!   You can read this post from when it first began.  In August we’ll have kept it up two years already!  Courtney always hosts and provides delicious wine.

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I was going to recap all the recipes in this post, but that would be way too long, so I’ll space it out a bit.  Here is a nice collage of the night though!

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But I have to tell you, while all the food was delicious, I think the dish Head Chef Donna made was my favorite.  She got the recipe from the Neiman Marcus restaurant cookbook.  It’s a Salmon Salad with Hearts of Palm and Melting Goat Cheese.  Not going to lie, most of the cooking shows I watch Chefs always denounce cheese with seafood.  Mainly because if you have fresh seafood why would you want to mask that with cheese.  But goat cheese on salmon?  Pure genius.  This salad came together in no time, as the salmon doesn’t take that long to cook.  Being that I have never cooked salmon at home, I got some pointers from Donna.  She bought the salmon from Costco, so the skin was already taken off.   Just a quick sear on both sides before being topped with the goat cheese and finished in the oven for a few minutes.  #swoon

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I could have just eaten the salmon and goat cheese on its own, but once paired with the salad and the dressing, it pulled everything together.

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That was my plate.  Just one serving of everything.  You would think after a gain of 1.8 I would have restrained myself, but I only go to Cooking Club every other month.  I enjoyed the company, the conversation, the food and the wine.   Some nights just aren’t meant for counting all the points.  That being said, I had 14 points going into dinner, and plan on using 10 points of my weeklies for the meal.   Which means I will have approximately 40 points for yesterday, so the first time in 44 days I will not get a blue dot because I went over the healthy range cap of 37 points.  Again, I don’t mind in the least!  I had a great time and at the end of the day, isn’t that all that really matters?

Can I just show you Courtney’s gorgeous dining room?!

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Hopefully it won’t be 15 degrees the next time we meet in April!  I am secretly hoping that if we get together in the summer (we usually take some time off during the summer) that I can be a head chef for grilling!  Hint, hint Courtney Open-mouthed smile

We made it to Friday!  Hope you have an amazing weekend – make it a great day!