Hayleigh's 100lb Celebration!!

Last Friday quite a few ladies and Phil gathered to celebrate the awesomeness that is Hayleigh and her astounding pound loss of 100lbs! We gathered at our old home La Cocina. Hay and I used to eat there every week to this day I know exactly what she used to get. So after almost a year of no jumbo margaritas she finally got to enjoy one! The staff at the restaurant didn't even recognize her because of all the weight loss. I had a great time and ate fairly well because I am still working on weight loss efforts... :)

Hayleigh has been using weight watchers and working out regularly. She sticks to the program and tracks everything and pushes herself to strive for more every week. Truly an inspiration! I asked her last week when weight watchers was going to make her a poster for the meetings....maybe someday soon. Hayleigh and I have been friends for almost two years and I am so proud of her accomplishments. She has been an inspiration to me to look at what I am eating and to live a happier life. I am so proud of her and cannot wait to celebrate more and more of the amazing goals so has yet to accomplish. Yay!

The Happiness Project Book Club

Last year I joined a Happiness Project book club off of meetup.com. The club talks about the book so titled by Gretchen Rubin. I went for a few months and loved the group. The stories, laughter, and warmth from the group was amazing. Very rarely have I met people especially complete strangers who I felt close enough to open up to. It was a great place. Then all of a student the group organizers didn't have the time anymore to put in to keep it running. So, the group stopped.

A few weeks ago I was lying in my bed just thinking and I looked at the book on the shelf and thought maybe this would be a good time to see if anyone wanted to start the club up and running again with new team organizers. So, I wrote on the Facebook group page and within a few minutes Kristin wrote back that she would love to get together. I was so excited. Kristin has this amazing calm aura about her that is warm and comforting. She is originally a northern girl like myself and used to be a teacher. Amazing! 

We met last weekend and I invited Caty along because we were going to the movies afterwards and everything seemed to fall into place. We didn't really get to talk a lot about the book but it was nice to be in company with people that wanted to move the group forward and hopefully we will be able to reach out to other people soon.

If you would like to join just let me know and I will invite you to the Facebook group.  :)

Chili Cook Off

Hay and I have entered ourselves into a chili cook off at work. She has an awesome recipe...which betting on her fabulous chicken parm recipe hopefully it will be a winner. However, I wanted to challenge us to make a chicken chili because it is much healthier than beef and because of my genetic mutation I don't eat a lot of red meat (red meat over time has been linked to increases of colon cancer). 

So, Hayleigh and I have been toying with this idea for a month and yesterday when we got together  we bought all of the ingredients and were on our way back to her place when I scrolled down and noticed we were going to need a food processor. Whoopsies. Hayleigh and I then decided due to our hunger and the fact that we had just been paid that we should dine out and try this recipe again later when we have all the necessary ingredients and equipment.

Hay and I have a long list of things that we say that we are going to do but haven't done everything to fruition. But, that is what makes us, us. 

The chili cooking (actual cooking) will continue on Monday. Stay tuned.

Any awesome chili recipes out there?