So. Randomness...

I have not been the best blogger lately, and I think that the extreme cold and negative driveway conditions have had a lot to do with that.  However, I am DONE harping on the ice slick that leads from our garage down to the street and my car because I am feeling hope that the weather starting Sunday will go a long way toward fixing things a bit.  There are two different days next week and the following week that are expected to have FIFTY DEGREE temperatures!!!  I may cry when that happens from sheer relief!

Anyway, I had some GREAT! NEWS! at my Weight Watchers weigh-in this week.  I lost two pounds, and I reached my 5% goal, which was 11.8 lbs. of weight loss!  And since this was my official ticker weigh-in, my ticker now reflects that I have lost fifty-one pounds officially, for real, amen!  In fact, this morning, my home weight was actually 1.5 lbs. less than that (thanks, clothes that I have to wear to my WW meeting), and I am feeling so thrilled by how well this is going!  As I posted on Twitter (you can follow me @MaryKC), I love the PointsPlus program and am thrilled with my experience as a Weight Watchers member!  This was the first meeting that I got "celebrated" at the meeting, and I am sure that I looked like such a dork because I could not stop grinning!  Anyway, as I mentioned in my last post, I have never successfull lost this much weight (my old high was probably in the neighborhood of 35 pounds), and I feel amazing.  And I feel confident that this downward trend will continue!

One thing that I am really trying to do as I get further into this is to do a better job of "working the program."  Without going into detail, Weight Watchers has some "good health guidelines" that are supposed to be met everyday by those of us who are truly following the plan.  They include suggested amounts of different food group servings, suggestions of things to limit in your eating, fluid intake, multivitamin use, and other such things that lend themselves to a balanced diet.  I have traditionally been kind of bad at hitting all these guidelines.  I often forget to take my vitamins.  My diet is often deficient in fruits and veggies.  I sometimes have too much sodium.  However, I am now trying to really embrace every part of the PointsPlus program (and not just the PointsPlus values and tracking of food), and I feel like this will help me meet with continued success on the program.

Anyway, on to the next topic, which is oatmeal.  Thanks to some time spent on the Health & Fitness board on The Nest, I discovered a LOVE of steel cut oats sometime last year.  I use my small slow cooker to make four servings of steel cut oats (and I buy any kind from Bob's Red Mill to McCann's to bulk from the grocery store) at a time, putting one cup of oats in with three cups of water and letting it cook until most of the water has been absorbed (this takes several hours).  I then put it in a larger-sized plastic container and put it in the fridge to cool.  Once cooled, the oats are actually "slice-able," so I can cut a serving out of the container and reheat it in the microwave...two minutes gets it nice and warm and softened back up.  I usually eat the oats with a banana mixed in, along with a tablespoon of chia seeds and either brown sugar, maple syrup, or honey mixed in.  However, I am starting to crave some variety in my oats, so I am setting out on a journey to find other ways to enjoy them!

This morning was my first new way to enjoy my oats.  I mixed in with them 2 tablespoons of strawberry jam (from Jordan Pond House in Acadia National Park...it's THE BEST!!!), along with 1/3 cup of dried cranberries.  YUM!  It was so good!  The tart cranberries and the sweetness of the jam mixed together to create a wonderful taste sensation!  I definitely will have them that way again.  Some of my favorite healthy bloggers share a lot of oatmeal posts, and they often include nut butters in their oats.  I tried this once and was not a fan, but I am planning to give it another try tomorrow.  And since the jelly was so good in my oats this morning, I am going to include jelly in tomorrow's version!

I was going to go to the gym today, but I just can't bring myself to scale my way back down the driveway for only that reason.  I have some things to do tomorrow that will get me out of the house, so instead, I am going to enjoy a day at home with my dog, my NOOK, my DVR, my iPad, and the internet.  I have a Yankee candle burning called "Beach Party," and it smells like sun tan lotion in my kitchen, which is making me very, very happy!  Make it a great day, everyone!

Could it be the light at the end of the tunnel?

First of all, although I am using my official Weight Watchers weight to update my ticker, I am still weighing myself at home and tracking my home weight (first thing in the morning, no clothes, as discussed previously) on FatSecret.com.  I share this because this morning, when I stepped on the scale, I weighed in at 224 pounds!  This means that I have officially lost FIFTY POUNDS (50.6, to be exact)!!!!!!!!  I have never successfully lost 50 pounds before, and it feels SO AMAZING!  I did a little bit of jumping up and down and fist pumping in the bathroom when I saw that number flash up on the scale!  My next goal is 200 pounds, in keeping with setting my goals in 25-pound increments.  This 50-pound weight loss took me roughly 13 months (1/4/10 to 2/8/11), so perhaps by next March, I will be able to celebrate reaching my goal weight!  Can't wait!

So. The weather.  That is the light at the end of the tunnel to which I am referring.  Our driveway right now is downright treacherous.  Thanks to the StabilICERS that I keep on the bottom of my boots, I have not been doing too badly, but my husband has been falling a lot, and we are both pretty frustrated.  I have actually been mostly homebound, thanks to a nasty sinus infection that kept me away from work for the weekend.  I have only been out of the house twice since last Wednesday, and one of those times was to go to the doctor to get some antibiotics.  Tonight, I am going to venture out to yoga because I am feeling almost back to normal, and looking at the weather forecast for the next two weeks, I am not seeing any snow called for, and I am seeing several days in a row of temperatures in the 40s, with a day supposed to reach 47 degrees and a day that includes rain and a high of 49 degrees!  I know that the week after that could bring more snow, as February weather is so, so fickle, but the several days of "warmer" temperatures give me some hope that perhaps some of the ice on the driveway will melt so that walking up and down it does not involve taking your life in your hands, as well as some distant hope that I might be able to drive back up the driveway before the month is over!  And we probably will need an oil delivery in March, so it would be a special bonus if the oil truck would be able to make it up the driveway because we really like heat and hot water in our house.

After several months of being in a dark, dark mood due to the weather (and after the last couple of weeks, which have been THE WORST), it is so nice to be able to think that perhaps there is some kind of end in sight.  It will take a long time for the snow to completely disappear, but it is amazing what the ability to drive up and down a person's driveway can do for her mood.

Make it a great day, everyone!