Coming Home To Laurens Meetings....

During the winter months I had been going to the Greenville office of Weight Watchers to do my weigh ins after my Zumba classes. It was easier to do that because I didn't like driving at night after the Laurens meetings.  But spring is just around the corner and the days are getting longer, so I have decided to come back to my Laurens WW group. Besides, I missed them. They are the group of people who live close to me and I have made some good friends in this group. My leader Eunice is the leader of both groups, which is a very good thing. She does the craziest things in our meetings to get our attention. She definitely goes above and beyond....for sure!

Eunice as our Fairy Godmother

I have been stagnant in my weight loss since the holidays, but I guess that's better than putting on the 10 to 15 pounds I usually do in the winter months. However, I did put on almost 5 pounds within a couple of weeks 3 weeks ago. I was not a happy camper...but it was my own fault. I wasn't tracking. I was eating junk, and by junk I mean jelly beans. I thought that the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays was gonna be tough, but  Valentines and Easter with the chocolate and Starburst Jelly Beans...all I have to say is "Be afraid-be very afraid".  I went through 2 bags of jelly beans in the course of 2 or 3 days. (Can we say "addiction"?  I knew that we could!)  So now when I go to the grocery store, I make a conscious effort to steer clear of the Easter candy isle.

So after I weighed in last week and was given the floor dropping news of my 4.8 pound gain...I went to Eunice and told her I needed help. She knows that I track online...so I gave her my log in info and password so she could check my tracker during the week. It's amazing if you know someone is looking at what you're putting in your mouth how much you'll change. I know I did. The good news is that when I weighed in last night I had lost 3.6 of that 4.8. I'm still behind...but I am determined to work the program to the max and get going in the right direction again.

One of my love...love...loves is peanut butter in my oatmeal. I discovered how much I loved it by trying the overnight oats in a jar (OOIAJ) recipe. The only problem with eating peanut butter in my oatmeal is the points. 5 points for 2 tbsp. plus 4 points for the cooked oats is a grand total of 9 and that's just a little more than I want to use for oatmeal...no matter how much I love it. So, I have decided to do the OOIAJ for special occasions (like when the jar is actually empty instead of plopping a heaping blob of pb in my bowl) and use PB2. Eunice offered to ordered some for us and I finally broke down to give it a try. It wasn't bad. It's not the same thing as real pb...but it was 1 point instead of 5, and that I can live with.

(source)

I have also decided to use the Weight Watcher Harvest Berries & Cream oatmeal as my 'To-Go' meal on my Zumba days.  It's quick, easy and delicious. I add about a half cup of blue berries to it after I microwave it to give it some more volume. And if I'm running late to class...I can nuke it, mix it and take it with me and eat it on the way to class. Very cool.

   

I'm sensing a theme here for my breakfasts....It's kinda strange since I used to be a 'Bacon & Eggs' type of a girl.

Today's lunch was salad greens, mushrooms, cucumber, grape tomatoes, walnuts and Marie's Blue Cheese Yogurt Dressing (2 points for the dressing) and a Weight Watcher Chocolate Smoothie with a good helping of instant espresso powder for good measure.

It was a little overcast this morning....but it wasn't raining. So here is a pic of Me & Charlie. He's my new walking bud. Every time we head out I hear Miranda Lambert's song "Me & Charlie Talkin'" go thru my head...but I change the words to "Me & Charlie Walkin'". Hahaha!

What do you do for exercise? Do you walk? Zumba? Do you do it alone or go with a pal?  I'm trying to find fun ways to get in some exercise....any suggestions?