Dates (Not That Kind of Date)

So I went to my monthly lifetime weigh-in at WW this morning. I'm up +0.6 lbs ... but, I'm toootally happy with that since overall I'm under my goal weight by about 5 lbs. I am still testing the lifetime waters and figuring out, as I talk about all the time (and I'm sure you're all bored hearing about :), what to eat and what not to eat and how much to eat and how often to exercise. So, being up .6 is super cool with me. It reaffirms what I have been seeing on my Mom's scale each week and makes me think I am doing pretty well maintaining. I didn't stay for the meeting. I was on the fence and decided to just go home. I think it was the free coffee at home that was calling my name :) whereas there was no free coffee at WW. I need intravenous amounts of coffee in the morning. Not healthy, I know, but we all have to have our vices :)

On Saturday my Mom and I went on a road trip with her hiking group to the China Date Ranch in California. (As an aside, I had no idea Nevada was so close to Arizona and California that you could just drive an hour or so and cross the state lines. Now, granted I lived in Maryland and taught in Virginia, so this shouldn't surprise me, but it does. It makes me feel like a little kid getting to go to a new state! :) I had never been to California!) The "ranch" was on the edge of Death Valley. We went on a 2 hour hike. It was pretty desolate (see pic above), which is kinda depressing, but there were these amazing yellow and purple wild flowers that were thick in some spots and supposedly hadn't grown in the last 100 years. Then we ate at the snack bar - not a healthy place to hang out ... date/chocolate chip cookies, date/walnut muffins, date milkshakes. I was really hoping for a salad or something. I will admit to having a date cookie that was really the size of two cookies. It was good and soft. I also had a couple spoonfuls of my Mom's milkshake. I didn't feel well afterwards. That will teach me to not ignore the Cherrios I brought with me. I mean, we all should have a cookie periodically when we want one, but it's not a healthy option for lunch :)

I had a really interesting conversation with a woman in the hiking group about WW. She was asking me all these questions because she's considering investing in WW stock. She wanted to know if I thought it was a viable company. It was fun giving her all my insights and telling her what I thought the company did well (meetings in Spanish, dedicated men's section on the website, tweaking the program on semi-annual basis, accessible content in the magazine), and what they should add (weekly podcasts of excellent meeting leaders, links and widgets on WW blogs). I miss using my brain on a daily basis so it was a fun conversation. And, of course, I recommended she look into all the stats on the stock on Yahoo! Finance or another type of financial site, which she seems to do and was just adding to her knowledge by asking me questions. Good times!

Hey, one last thing ... I am looking for new blogs. I like to check them daily, so people you know who post multiple times a week would be great! If you have any you love and would recommend, please leave a comment. Thanks!