Staying the course

Yesterday I ate a Mickey ice cream bar on Main Street.

Yes, there I am eating 330 calories of chocolatey, ice creamy goodness.

But don't panic.  My total calories for the day were only 1313.  My target number of calories is now 1333, and that doesn't even count the 115 I burned up walking around the Magic Kingdom. 

It's nice to be able to add a little treat like that now and then into my program.

We also had our photo shoot for our costumes for the show.  Mark looks great as Bob Cratchit.  I have two characters, Mrs. Cratchit and Mrs. Worthington.  They only wanted me to come as the second character because her outfit is more elegant.  Here we are!

We are having our first dress rehearsal this morning at 9:30 a.m.  There will be no set put up yet, but there will be a few people coming in for an audience.   All four shows are sold out, so if cast members have friends who can't come because they will be out of town or couldn't get tickets are now allowed to come to one of these final three rehearsals.  All of the last rehearsals will be dress rehearsals, but only the last one (next Thursday) will have the set put up in its entirety also.

A new week and a little more weight loss

I am pleased to report that my weight is 238.3, which is a loss of 2.4 pounds.  Yay for me! 

That would make me happy except for one thing.  As of Saturday morning, I was 236.5 and I wrote a blog about losing an even forty pounds.  If I had not gotten on the scale Saturday morning, I would be thrilled with a two pound loss for the week, especially considering how many times I ate out and overate.  Instead, I'm upset that I gained 1.8 since Saturday morning. 

This is why I should NOT get on the scale in the middle of the week.  It's a perfect example! 

So now a new week begins.  Today I am eating all my meals at home, but tomorrow we will eat dinner out; on Saturday night we will attend a wine-tasting party with snacks; and on Sunday we are  eating lunch AND dinner out.  I am going to have another fun and busy week, which I love, but it will be a huge challenge to keep the weight loss going.

In general I am now in the scary period.  I have a history of gaining a lot of weight between Halloween and New Year's Day.  I'm sure I'm not alone in this because there are so many holidays and parties.  This time I also have two cruises and three sets of company.  When we have company here in Florida, it always means eating many meals out, often in the theme parks.  Don't get me wrong!  I love my company AND I love eating out, especially at theme parks!  Still, it's a challenge for me.

Saturday, I posted on Facebook that I lost an even forty pounds.  I got so much positive reinforcement for it in the form of dozens of comments and over 80 people clicking that they "liked" it.  I am not posting a retraction now that the loss is a pound and a half or so under forty. I know it will be gone again eventually.  I feel good about my ability to get back on track, and I don't say that lightly.  There have been many times when I could NOT have said that.  I am happily awaiting the day when I can post on Facebook that I have lost EIGHTY pounds!  I just know it will be before the wedding date of July 12.

And now it's Tuesday.

Time flies when you're having fun!

Sunday was GREAT!  We absolutely LOVED the Keys to the Kingdom tour.  It was so well organized that even though it said to be prepared to walk around for five hours, we had plenty of opportunity to sit down here and there.  Even bathroom breaks were planned, plus the lunch at Harbor House was all prepared and ready for us when we arrived.  When it was over, it was revealed that our guide, Michael from Buffalo, was giving his first tour!  "NO WAY," we all said. He was so excellent.  There was lots of applause and a presentation to him of a special pointer stick that the guides use.  Michael had been carrying a pop up umbrella as a pointer!  LOL!  We rode Jungle Cruise and Haunted Mansion with no waiting as part of the tour.  I just cannot say enough good things about this experience.  All thanks to Evey and Eric for this fabulous gift.

When we were done saying goodbye to Michael, we went immediately to Town Hall to write him a commendation and bumped into Al and Barbara!  Cool!  We spent a few hours with them and rode Little Mermaid, People Mover, and Buzz Lightyear.  Al gave Mark some tips for hitting the high scoring targets, so he maxed his points to the highest possible, 999,999, while I barely got 22,000.  I can never hit anything in there.  Sigh.

Then we flew over the monorail to Epcot for some dinner at the Food and Wine Festival.  We ate both entrees at the Vegan kiosk, and Mark also had the red wine pairing there.  Then we went to the new Scotland kiosk for vegetarian haggis and the salmon entree, plus the dessert (SO YUMMY!), and a drink.  Mark had the beer pairing with the salmon while I had a Scotch cocktail called a Loch Lomond, also very yummy.  We got home by 7:30 p.m., so it was an awesome day.

Yesterday we slept in!  LOL!!  We were tired from several long days of busy, busy, busy.  We took the time to catch up on our TV shows.  I watched two episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and two episodes of Survivor. We also listened to another hour or so of our next book for the literary talk in November.  This time it is Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. I'm sure I read it before, but it's fun listening to it with Mark.  I also had a Starliters rehearsal last night which included dancing, and we went to the gym for our weight routines and a 35 minute walk.  I kept my calories to about 1100 yesterday, too.  Good day!

Today we are heading for line dancing in about an hour, then I have a mani/pedi before heading to a Guys and Dolls rehearsal tonight.

Despite a lot of eating out this week, I am still hoping for a good result on the scale tomorrow morning.  I have had a lot of exercise and very busy hours.  I hope that helps along with yesterday and tomorrow of 1100 calories.  We shall see.

Here are a few pictures of us from Sunday.  Hm...okay...this is new. I have no idea why they are all sideways, but I can't figure out how to straighten them out on this blog. I can straighten them out in Picasa, which is where I always take my pictures.  They are straight when I look at them there, but they were sideways when I first took them off my cellphone.  I guess Picasa doesn't keep the fixed up versions when you go to grab them for some other site.  Oh, well, lean to your left or rotate your laptop!  LOL!

Vegan food using the Gardein chicken and beef products.  Yummy.

No pictures are allowed on the Keys to the Kingdom tour, but we took a picture of ourselves right before we left, wearing our badge and our listening device.

Number 1,000!!!

First, I need to say Mazel Tov and Congratulations to ME!  This entry is my 1,000 blog entry!

Wow!  I have written a thousand blog entries in four years.  I am quite pleasantly surprised.

Now for even more exciting news: I lost two more pounds!  I am now one pound LESS than when I took off for the cruise.  I almost couldn't believe it when I saw the scale say 236.5 this morning.

I have now lost a whopping FORTY pounds since June 6 when we returned from Maryland.

In fact, in just 17 more pounds, I will be at my pre-cancer weight!  That is definitely the next goal.  It doesn't matter if it takes me several months to do that either. I'm sure it will take a lot longer to lose the next 17 pounds than the past forty because of the many challenges in the next few months: Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, a week with Evey and Eric visiting, four days with another friend, two cruises in December, another week with two more friends visiting.  Yes, there are three sets of company coming between Thanksgiving and New Years, two cruises, and several holidays.  Whooeee!!  Big Doings ahead.

Last night Evey sent me an email with a link to a very interesting article.   Actually, it seems to be someone else's blog post.  Here's the link if you'd like to see it, http://www.girlsgonestrong.com/first-bite/

The article is called "The Law of First Bites" and proposes that every bite should taste as good as the first bite.  The girl who wrote this sounds so much like me, which is why Evey sent me the article, I'm sure!  The author writes, "Basically, I’m not the “one piece of chocolate a day” type of girl. I either eat no chocolate, or all the chocolate." That is totally me.  I am better at having NONE of something I like because I will just eat ALL of it. (That's why I didn't go to the dessert table last night.)

She talks about how she has had to learn moderation.  I'm certainly still working on that.  She talks about how she has learned to savor and enjoy the pleasure of those first few bites, but then she recognizes when she is no longer tasting and enjoying the food in the same way, when she is mindlessly gorging on it despite no longer even enjoying it.  I can so relate to that.

Ice cream is like that for me.  I still remember the time I sat at the dining room table back in our old house in Laurel.  Evey was with me as we sat and watched TV.  I got out a half gallon of butter pecan ice cream that was almost completely full and began to eat it, mindlessly, out of the carton.  Pretty soon most of it was gone.  I also realized that my mouth, tongue, and lips were NUMB from the cold. I could barely speak.  I could certainly NOT taste the ice cream.  I told Evey how I was feeling, laughing at how silly I sounded trying to form words with a frozen mouth.  She looked at me, horrified, and said, "Then why are you still eating?  STOP!"  I should have listened, but I continued to eat until the entire half gallon was gone.  Wow!  How stupid.

I'm not sure I have learned moderation yet.  I'm trying to eat more slowly and mostly can do that. I put my spoon or fork down between bites a lot more frequently.  I STILL want to eat the entire carton of ice cream while I watch TV. I don't allow myself to buy half gallons of good ice cream anymore because I know I cannot control it.  Thank goodness for Arctic Zero!  It is a pint of ice cream that has only 150 calories in the entire pint, unlike most pints that have four times that amount.  I can take out a carton and a spoon around 10 p.m. while watching a TV show and eat the entire carton.  It takes me a half an hour to do that. I savor every bite.  I feel full and happy when I'm done.  It is the most wonderful product I know for someone who still has the desire to finish the entire box, bag, or carton of anything!  Is it the world's greatest ice cream?  No.  Are there 31 flavors?  No, only four.  Is it what I want to do about one night a week when my calories allow that sort of snack at night?  ABSOLUTELY!!!!!

I am continuing to work on my eating habits, recognizing my emotional eating and my need to eat it all.  But I've come a long way, for sure!

Tonight's challenge:  wine pairing, multi-course vegetarian dinner party for Breast Cancer.  We prepaid $50 each for this dinner.  It was awesome last year, but there will be many delicious foods to eat.  My game plan is to relax and enjoy everything they serve.  My saving grace will be that I'm not much of a wine drinker, so I probably won't even like most of the wines they bring to pair with the foods.  I also plan to go to the gym today for my weight routine and then either take a long walk or swim some laps in the afternoon to burn up some extra calories in advance.  I am planning my usual low calorie breakfast and lunch to leave most of the day's calories for the dinner. I also plan to step on that scale tomorrow morning again and see what happened.  I'm pretty sure I will NOT be down another two pounds.  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I was back up those two pounds, but I'm also not worried.  I will take them back off again.  It's a life long battle, but I'm currently feeling like I'm winning.

Very close!!!!

I'm almost back to the pre-cruise weight!  This morning I was 238.3, so that is only six tenths over when I left for the cruise.  I bet if I had not had that bad day on Monday, I would have lost the weight in the same amount of time it took to gain it!  Wow!  I will have to remember that for the next cruise.

I got through last night's dinner at the Bistro just fine. I had the veggie flatbread, no olives, which comes with a small green salad.  I ate a good breakfast and lunch and a banana at night.  Perfect day.


Tonight Mark is making a Chicken 7UP (ok, it's going to be diet Sprite!) for our dinner party for the Shalom Club tonight.  There will be candle lighting, kiddush, and challah (Motzi) at The Palms for the whole group at 5:30.  Then we are going to people's houses for dinner.  We volunteered to host, so we didn't have to pay money. Other people paid a small fee to provide the wine and challah and after dinner, the dessert and coffee for when we all reassemble.  So we have three couples joining us for the chicken dinner.  Along with the chicken, we are serving salad, whole wheat rolls, fresh string beans, and a choice of a potato or pastrami knish.  Yum. I can account for all of these calories on my Lose It! program except for the dessert because I don't know what it's going to be.  I hope it's fun doing this.  Apparently, the Shalom Club does it once a year and it's quite popular.

I'm keeping my scale out all week to assess the damage done each day.  So far, no damage! 

The only exercise I'm going to get today is cleaning the house!  I have to sweep and mop and tidy up.  I think that will take about 90 minutes.  That's probably not a lot of calories, but I'm sure it's better than sitting down watching TV for the same amount of time!

A Wild and Crazy Day!

Last night I went to the SOJC choir rehearsal.  It was wonderful.  7 people came, 8 if you include me.  It was like an old-fashioned sing-along!  We did six songs, two were rounds.  I think everyone had a great time.  Then while I was driving us home, I just felt overcome with happiness.  Most every minute of every day I am HAPPY.  I love where I live, my neighborhood, my community, and my house.  I love MARK, obviously!  I love all the activities we do.  I love how healthy I feel right now. 

Is the other shoe going to drop?  I hope not.

I am down another pound today and cracked the 30s at 239.7.  I have lost 4.7 pounds from the 6.8 gained on the cruise.  There's still today and tomorrow to lose the last 2.1.  I don't think I can do two more in two days, but who knows?  Anything is possible.

Yesterday I mentioned that I was going to have another good week with just two meals out and one meal with company at home.  Unfortunately, I already have to amend that.  In any week there are 21 meals to eat.  This week, which began yesterday, will now have the big dinner party at home Friday night and FOUR other meals out, starting with dinner today.  Because our day is jam-packed, Mark realized he wasn't going to have time to make and eat a dinner at home.  We are eating at the Bistro in Solivita. Also dinner Saturday night is out, not a wine-tasting party as I said yesterday.  That party is another time in November.  This Saturday is a whole dinner out at a restaurant for a Relay for Life party.  We will have multiple courses of food served to us, each with a wine pairing.  All the courses will be fish or vegetarian options, so everything can be eaten.  OY!  We did this last year and it was great fun, but last year I wasn't caring what I ate at the time.  Then Sunday we have the lunch out with the Keys to the Kingdom tour, BUT we are then going over to Epcot to eat dinner from the Food and Wine Festival kiosks. There's a Vegan kiosk there, plus two kiosks with cheese trays!  Yum.

So, wish me luck with this week! 

Now to my wild and crazy day.  In just 20 minutes we are heading up to our Scrooge trial rehearsal, which will go from 9 to noon.  Then we will rush home, eat lunch, and make a shopping list.  After lunch, we will drive to the comic book store and then do our grocery shopping at Wal Mart and Publix.  While driving, we will finish the audio book, Moscow Rules.  With any luck, all of that will be done in time to get to the 4 p.m lecture on the that book.  As soon as the lecture is over, we will have dinner at the Bistro and then go to the Thursday night Solivita movie.  Tonight's movie is The Great Gatsby.  Yes, another wild and crazy, jam-packed day of happiness!

Off to rehearsal

In about fifteen minutes, Mark and I are heading up to The Palms for a rehearsal of the Scrooge play.  We got our costumes on Monday, and everyone's outfit is amazing.  The visual look of this show should be quite spectacular.  Eventually, there should be plenty of pictures that I can post.  The acting from everyone in the show is also excellent.  The audience should have a great time.  All four nights of the show are sold out already!

I went to line dancing for an hour and worked up quite a sweat.  Fortunately, the clubhouse where the dancing takes place is next to the pool, so we were able to shower and swim a bit to cool off and relax after the dancing.  We ate a packed lunch poolside in absolutely gorgeous weather.

Next we drove up to Staples so I could get the music for the SOJC choir ready for tonight's rehearsal.  We are starting up again now after the High Holidays, all new music.  It should be fun tonight.  I think Mark is actually joining us this year!

At 3 I had a dentist appointment.  Three of my crowns needed fillings around the base because they were old and chipping and pulling away from the gums.  There was no drilling involved, but there was Novocain and it took a lot longer than I had expected.  I guess I didn't really know what to expect, but I was there 90 minutes.  Anyway, it's all done and over and fine.  Last night I had a Guys and Dolls rehearsal, always fun.

My food was excellent yesterday.  I had only about 1100 calories plus an hour of dancing.  Nice.  This morning I am happy to report my weight is 240.7.  I'm still up three pounds from last Sunday when we left for the cruise, but I'm only up one pound from the last Wednesday weigh-in two weeks ago.  As long as I stay the course and do the right thing, more weight will drop.

This week I will eat all meals at home except for one lunch and one party.  Plus, this Friday we are hosting dinner for 8 for the Shalom Club's progressive dinner.  Mark is cooking an appropriate chicken dish in the crockpot.  Hopefully, I won't overeat that night.  Saturday we are going to another wine tasting party.  When I went the last time, I ate too much cheese and nibbled on too many nuts.  I can only say that I will try to do better this time.  And then on Sunday, we are finally taking the Keys to the Kingdom tour at the Magic Kingdom, which includes lunch out.  We aren't sure where that lunch is because it's part of the package and out of our control, but there will be a LOT of walking on the tour, so I'm sure it won't matter too much about lunch.  Other than that I expect a good week.

Okay, time to go to rehearsal!

Out of Control Stupid

First, I did get two great costumes yesterday.  Our costumer is a GENIUS.  She had a fantastic gray skirt for me that totally fit along with an apron and a couple of different tops and two different hats. I can supply shoes and a white blouse.  Another lady is bringing me gloves and a lace hanky.  That should do it.  Wow!  I was impressed.

Second, I over ate like crazy!  I walked to the party since it was only about 10 houses from ours.  That was good, and we went to water aerobics.  We got there late, so I only had a 30 minute workout instead of 45, but something is always better than nothing.  I went to my Starliters rehearsal for four hours, too.

Unfortunately, I ate too much at the party.  I stayed away from the desserts, but I did eat WAY too much cheese and crackers from my platter as well as some baked ziti, a deviled egg, and assorted other items.  What was really bad is that it set up a cycle of wanting to overeat the rest of the day.  I came home and sat on the lanai for two hours catching up on Amazing Race episodes.  During that time, I ate a 9 ounce can of mixed nuts, which was supposed to go to the party but didn't.  That was 1530 calories of salt and fat.  STUPID!!!!  Of course, I didn't eat an official dinner before rehearsal because I was full from the party and the nuts.  When I got home at 9:30, I ate a can of tuna with three slices of low-cal bread, a big peach, some leftover vegetables, and a sugar free popsicle.  That would have been okay for a late dinner if there had been no nuts and no party.  Plus eating so much that late at night is never a good idea.

I dutifully tried to log it all in on Lose It!, and it came to 3137 calories for the day.  I'm sure there were some days on the ship that came to that same amount.  The day was very high in sodium.
It is also interesting to look at the percentages for the day.  My program calculates the Fats, Carbs, and Protein in both grams and percentages for the day.  Normally, I do very well with mostly carbs, and about equal protein and fat.  For instance, on Sunday, which was a very good day, I had 24 grams of fat for 18%, 188 grams of carbs for 62%, and 61 grams of protein for 20%, a total of 1351 calories.  Sodium levels on Sunday were 1731 grams and fiber was 36 grams.  This is an excellent day.  Compare it to yesterday: 200 grams of fat for 54%, 226 grams of carbs for 27%, and 151 grams of protein for 18%, sodium 3545 grams and fiber 49 grams.  Those percentages are completely reversed from my good days.  Just STUPID!!

Naturally, I am up three pounds today to 244.1, only a few tenths under my Saturday morning weight after the cruise. I have now virtually undone all I did from Saturday and Sunday.  UGH!  Why do I do that?  I really felt out of control yesterday.  The food addiction feelings and cravings that I have fought all my life were taking over my brain yesterday.  It's so damn hard.

OK, today is a new day.  I'm going to line dancing for an hour today.  I'm not attending any parties or going out to eat.  There shouldn't be anything to set me off in the wrong direction.  With any luck, most of the weight is just holding on to water from the very high sodium amount I had yesterday.  We shall see.  I am also going to the dentist for some touch-up fillings around the lower edges of some crowns.  It should be easy to do.  Then at 7 tonight I have a Guys and Dolls rehearsal.  It should be a busy, active day with little chance to overeat. 

Losing it now.

I am happy to report that I am now down 3.5 pounds of the 6.8 that I gained on the cruise.  That's pretty exciting.  I ate a very appropriate 1350 calories yesterday and did my weight routine at The Palms.  Except for shopping in Publix with Mark, which took about 45 minutes, I had no other exercise.  We stayed home, did laundry, and watched a LOT of TV all day.  We also listened to our audio book, Moscow Rules, for about an hour and a half.  We ate lunch during that, and I also worked on my jigsaw puzzle while I listened.  It was a great day!

Today I will be eating lunch out.  It's hard to predict what exactly I will eat since it's a potluck at someone's home.  I am bringing crackers, cheeses, and grapes.  I have planned to eat some of those items and leave about 200 calories to choose something else from the other items that might be there.  If I can stick to that plan, I will have consumed the same 1350 calories as yesterday.  There isn't going to be any exercise today, so I don't want to get crazy at that party.  I have a long Starliters meeting tonight, so at least I'll be out of the house from 5:40 until 9:20!  That's four hours when I'm busy singing and not grazing in the kitchen.  LOL!

This morning I was supposed to go to the oncologist for my six month check up, but she cancelled. I have to call the office soon and reschedule.  Instead I'm going to work on my Starliters music and my SOJC choir music.  Around noon I'm going to assemble the cheese, crackers, and grapes platter for our 1 p.m. Costume Meeting/Luncheon for the Scrooge play.  It will be fun to see everyone's costumes, but I'm afraid they aren't going to have anything there that's going to fit me.  There's less than three weeks until the show, so if they can't find me something in their storage, I'm not going to have much time to find something for myself.  Victorian England in size 24 anyone?

Day of Rest

Our day of rest should be Saturday, but today it's going to be Sunday.

Yesterday we had a slow morning, which was relaxing actually.  Rudy and Georganne packed up the car with all of their stuff.  After spending their last full day in Florida at Epcot, they headed to a hotel near the airport for Georganne's early flight home today.  She should be in the air right now as I'm typing.  Rudy is driving up the coast with a stop tonight in Charlotte, SC, I think.  It was a lot of fun having them visit.  I'm glad Georganne finally got a chance to see our house.

I had a rehearsal with the Chimers group from 10 to 11 a.m.  When I got back, Rudy and Georganne were just about ready to head to Epcot.  Mark and I packed lunch and then headed to the Cove for the Nude-a-Palooza concert. It's an all day event of tribute bands to raise money for Breast Cancer research.  We spent the whole day there last year with some other friends, but this year we just stayed for a few hours.  The performances of "James Taylor," "Barry Manilow," and "Garth Brooks" were all excellent.  We ate a picnic lunch by the lake on a shady bench.  After the third performer, we took a little time to relax in the pool and hot tub before heading to Epcot to meet up with the Larsens at the 5:30 concert over there.  We had a dinner reservation in the German pavilion and then staked out a great spot for viewing Illuminations.  We said good-bye to them at the trams to the parking lot and drove home, tired but happy.

So today we are resting!  Well, almost all day. I didn't set the alarm, so I woke up at 8 a.m., which is seriously sleeping in for me.  Eventually, we are going up to the gym for our workout and then to the grocery store to shop for the next few days.  There's really very little in the house to eat right now.  After shopping, we are just going to catch up on TV shows that we missed last week.  What's more relaxing than that???

I was down one pound this morning.  That's encouraging. Yesterday, I ate a perfect little breakfast and lunch, but I did sort of pig out at the German buffet.  Yum.  Of course, there's lots of walking in Epcot to help out with those pig out calories! Today, all three meals will be eaten at home, so the calories will finally be back to normal.  I'm hoping that if I can get back to normal eating habits and regular exercise, those pesky cruise pounds will melt away.  On the other hand, I'm going to a potluck luncheon tomorrow with the Scrooge cast.  I'm bringing a cheese tray, but there will be plenty of other stuff there to eat.  Lunch will be my big meal tomorrow!

I'll finish up today's blog with a few pictures from Epcot yesterday.

Carnival Imagination, definitely a Fun Ship!

We're back!  We had a blast!

This ship was the smallest one we have been on, at least it looked small!  It holds about 2,000 people and the last three cruises we did were on ships holding over 3,000.  Still, there are lots of advantages to this size ship.  For one, it didn't feel like it took all day to walk from bow to stern.  LOL!

Mark and I loved everything about the cruise, the ports, the entertainment, the food, the cabin...EVERYTHING!  I would highly recommend this little four day cruise.  We got a great rate as Florida residents, but it was pretty cheap for everybody.  At the end of the blog are some pictures from the cruise.

Now for the weight report.  Let me recap.  My game plan was to stay the same on this trip.  We were gone a total of six days, Sunday after breakfast through Friday for dinner at home.  I weighed myself  Sunday morning and then again this morning.

OK, I failed miserably in my plan.  I am up 6.8 pounds.  Yes, that's UP nearly SEVEN pounds in SIX days!  I left at 237.8 and this morning I am 244.4, about what I weighed on Sept. 25.

I did much of what I set out to do:
1.  I went into the gym and pumped iron two days.
2.  I walked a mile around the jogging track one day and we walked around Key West and Cozumel.
3.  I said NO to the bread basket at every dinner.
4.  I limited my drinking to one drink per day.
5.  I said NO to dessert at every lunch except the final day when I had melon and two small cookies from the Chocolate Extravaganza.
6.  We played mini-golf once and took the stairs up and down A LOT of times!  Any time the walk was down 1 through 4 flights, we walked.  Any time it was up 1 or 2 flights, we walked.
7.   I went to a spa event on Body Composition Analysis and talked to a counselor about my body fat composition (hahaha!  Very high!) and weight loss.
8.  I stayed away from the self-serve ice cream machines except twice.  Usually I would hit that machine three to four times EVERY day.
9.   I did NOT eat late night pizza with Mark when he went in the buffet three of the four nights for his late night pizza.  On the first night I took some sauteed mushrooms and onions from the hamburger buffet, on the second night I ate a banana, and on the last night I went to the ice cream machine.  The third night was a Mexican Fiesta buffet.  OY!  We both ate what we shouldn't have that night!
10.  I tried to make reasonable choices of food at all the meals, and I thought I was taking small portions of things at the buffet.

At the spa, I learned the average cruiser gains 1 to 2 pounds per day on a cruise.  Clearly, I was the average cruiser this time.  I'm sure there were cruises where I was way above average.  LOL!

OK, here's what I could have done better:
1.  My one drink per day should have been straight whiskey shots on the rocks, not mixed drinks with lots of sugary calories in the mixers.
2.  I could have skipped dessert in the main dining room every night.
3.  I should have skipped the ENTIRE Mexican Fiesta late night buffet on the third night.  It was amazing!  The salmon enchiladas were unique and delicious.  I didn't take a lot of anything, but just eating a FOURTH dinner at 11 p.m. is completely unnecessary.
4.  Clearly, my portions on the breakfast and lunch buffets were not as small or as low -calorie as they should have been.
5.  I should NOT have had chips, salsa, and quesadillas in the restaurant on Cozumel with my giant margarita.  LOL!  Great afternoon snack, for sure!
6.  I should NOT have gone to the afternoon tea on the last day because I ate several sugary dessert portions that afternoon. 

In December we are going on the Celebrity Constellation with our friends the Herschlers and the Oreskys to celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary.  We have a free, unlimited drink package on this four day cruise, so there WILL be more than one drink per day!  Also, I have decided that this is a PARTY for our anniversary. I want to enjoy it and eat what I like.  Since I just gained about 7 pounds on this six day trip TRYING to behave, I expect to gain about 20 pounds on a six day trip when I'm eating whatever I want.  Geez, that's a crazy thing to think, but it could happen.

Now I have two months to undo this damage.  Just eating at home most of the time and getting back to swimming and lots of walking will make it possible to undo this fairly quickly. I'm sure the food on the ship had a LOT more sodium in it than we use at home, too.  I expect that I can drop these seven pounds in one or two weeks. 

Today I have a short rehearsal with the hand chime group this morning.  Then Mark and I will go to the gym for our work out.  After lunch we are going to the Cove to listen to a few bands. This is an annual breast cancer fund raiser.  Around 4 p.m. we will head over to Epcot, which always involves lots of walking.  Rudy and Georganne are spending the day at Epcot for the Food and Wine Festival.  We will meet them at 5:30 for the concert and then dinner at the Biergarten buffet in the German pavilion.   Hm...hopefully the walking will help.

OK, time to post pictures from the cruise.  Enjoy!

Heading south

Today we are heading south.  We will be driving to Miami Springs shortly after lunch because tomorrow we get on the Carnival Imagination for a four night cruise to Key West and Cozumel.  Nice.  Georganne flew in Thursday evening and got to the house around the same time that Mark and I returned from the Solivita movie.  This time it was the movie about Jackie Robinson, 42.  We really loved it!  So did the entire audience.

Rudy and Georganne treated us out to breakfast at Denny's Friday morning.  Then we sort of split up for the middle of the day because Mark and I had to do our hours in the library.  Rudy and George had some relaxing time around the house and then toured old Kissimmee, looking at the new park area and the old monument tower of the state rocks.  (If you have no idea what that last part means, we'll take you to it whenever you might be here for a visit.)

Meanwhile, yesterday we had fun playing Fantasia Mini-Golf, lunching at Big River Grille in the Boardwalk Resort, and snacking on Tropical Island ice cream.  There's a few pictures at the end of the blog.

On Wednesday, my weight had stayed the same, but by this morning, I'm down two pounds to 237.8  Nice.  My goal is to stay the same between today and Saturday morning when I weigh after we return.  I already outlined by plans for doing that: no seconds at the buffet, limited alcohol, going to the gym, and walking every day.  Hopefully, I'll stick to that plan!  We WILL be eating some Key Lime pie in Key West, though!  How could we not?

I am taking my laptop on the trip, but I won't be posting daily blogs or pictures.  Of course, I will take lots of pictures, but I won't post them until we return.  Our other strategy for keeping costs down on this trip is to limit the minutes on the ship's internet.  That can really rack up your charges! 

Well, Mark's delicious Sunday morning breakfast of homemade low-carb biscuits, scrambled eggs, and vegetarian sausage links is ready!  Time to eat, so time to close out the blog.  Enjoy the pictures from yesterday and have a great week.  I'll check back with you on Saturday!

Every one of us lost the golf ball during the day.  Rudy was first, so this is Georganne and Mark looking for his ball.  It was never found, so he went for a new one.  

Mark was the big winner, only 3 over par!

Mesothelioma

A few days ago, I had a comment on my blog.  That is SO RARE that it really caught my eye!  Any of you readers who notice such things may have seen that comment.  She asked me to email her privately because she had a question, so I did.

She is the Community Outreach Director for the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance. 

She wrote,  "Mesothelioma Awareness Day just passed and our campaign was a huge success! I am contacting bloggers like you in the cancer community to ask for help in continuing to spread awareness. Fortunately, because mesothelioma is a completely preventable cancer (caused only by asbestos exposure), knowing more about the disease and it's risk factors truly does make a difference.

I've attached the mesothelioma facts sheet that I used for the campaign this year. I would love it if you'd be willing to share it on your blog for your community. With your support in raising more awareness, hopefully one day we can get asbestos banned once and for all."


Unfortunately, my computer skills are sort of poor.  LOL!  I could not figure out how to bring her fact sheet to my blog.  I did read it myself.  Here are some of the facts:


Asbestos is still not banned and its fibers are invisible to the naked eye.
It is still the number one form of occupational cancer.
Navy vets are at high risk because there was a lot of asbestos used on ships.

If you want to know more, just google mesothelioma.  There are many great websites that pop up.

As a cancer survivor and former teacher, I am more than happy to educate people on this form of cancer.  If writing my blog today about this particular form of cancer helps even one person learn something new or make a decision to support the cause or change a lifestyle, then I will have done a mitzvah today.

Lost, Found, Stayed the Same?

Well, it's Weigh-in Wednesday.   First, I jumped on at 5:30 in the morning and it showed I was up FOUR pounds.  Then I got on at 7:15 a.m., and it showed I was only up TWO.  Then, I got on again at 8:00, and it showed I was only up two-tenths.  In no case, did it show I lost anything.  Sigh.

OK, I am reporting my weight as 239.9, a gain of two-tenths.

Now begins the process of trying to figure out why.  Two weeks ago when I had stayed the same, I talked about being on a plateau.  Then the next week I dropped four.  It's entirely possible that the same thing is happening this week.  Plateau one week, big drop the next week.  It could happen.

BUT...on Monday we are boarding a cruise ship!  Oh, yeah!  THAT'S an easy place to lose weight.

NOT.

Mark and I are convincing ourselves that we can behave on the ship.  We don't want to spend much money on this particular cruise, so we will cut out most drinking. I won't say ALL drinking because Mark will still have a shot of whiskey on most days.  It's medicinal!  It helps to keep his blood sugars down when he has too many carbs.  It's true, but I won't talk details on that now because that's another whole issue. 

My goal is to stay the same.  If I can go on a four night cruise, Monday through Friday, and not gain any weight, that would be a HUGE accomplishment.  Of course, that's a huge challenge.  Cruise ships are loaded with FREE food, unlimited BUFFETS, unlimited ICE CREAM.  It's just a mine field full of opportunities to overeat.

SO....here's my plan.  NO SECONDS at the buffets.  NEVER go back!  Sounds easy, right?  Also go to the GYM at least twice.  Monday and Wednesday are usually our gym days, so there's no real reason why we can't do our weights on those days on the ship.  WALK!!  Every ship has a jogging track and/or a promenade deck.  There's usually plenty of opportunity to walk around a half hour or more every day. 

I think if I do those three simple things (one trip through the buffet, weights, and walking), I can stay the same.  I won't say lose because the food on the buffet and in the main dining room at night is full of sodium and fat that you often cannot see.  Even if you take the fish, it probably has oils and sodium on it that make it delicious and are mostly undetectable.  So, I hope to stay the same.  That's the bottom line.

Meanwhile, between now and Sunday afternoon when we drive to Miami, there will be no meals in restaurants.  I need to eat only dinner out Sunday night in Miami.  There's a Denny's next to the hotel, so I will get my usual senior tilapia dinner with salad and broccoli.  That's my standard dinner at Denny's, and we have done exactly that for two other cruises out of Miami.  Then we will have a breakfast in the hotel Monday morning before boarding the ship. 

I guess if I could weigh myself on the ship, maybe I'd show a loss next Wednesday.  All ships have scales in the gyms, but unless the ship is in port, they are impossible to use.  A scale cannot find your weight if the ship is moving!  Trust me on that. I have tried.  LOL!  Ha!  I just checked the calendar and learned that we are docked in Cozumel on Wednesday.  OKAY!  I will weigh in on the ship Wednesday morning and report from Mexico.  Cool!

Meanwhile, even though this blog is big, I just want to say one more thing.  I did see the dermatologist Monday, and he removed the suspicious thing on my back. It's healing up nicely, although it is preventing me from swimming for a view days.  I can call his office on Friday at the earliest to get the pathology report.  I hope I'm not kidding myself, but I have a good feeling that it's going to be nothing.  Keep your fingers crossed and say a few prayers that I'm right.

Oh....one other thing!  I got a little solo in the Guys and Dolls concert.  I'll be singing the opening four bars (yeah, I said LITTLE) of "Satin Doll" in a Johnny Mercer medley.  I'll be singing it on Sunday night.  Two other ladies sing it the other two nights. 

Time to RUN.  I have to eat breakfast and get up to the Scrooge rehearsal.

Usual Sunday

Our usual Sunday is to go to a movie at Downtown Disney, then lunch at Pollo Campero, and then a stroll around a park or Downtown Disney.  Today we shall do all of that and end up at a wonderful musical performance here in Solivita. Today's movie choice is George Cloony's Gravity, which is getting great reviews. Vegetarian chili for lunch at Pollo Campero is always a good choice, plus it's a long walk from the car to the movie to the restaurant and back to the car.  The stroll around is at Downtown Disney today because today's Limited Time Magic is 3D Chalk Drawings by professional artists along the sidewalks of Downtown Disney.  It should be pretty cool.

Hopefully the walking will be enough exercise because it's all I'm going to get today.

Yesterday I did 20 minutes on the weight machines, and then I swam a full hour again in the pool at The Palms.  When I did that Thursday morning, I swam 18 1/2 laps in an hour.  Yesterday I did 20 laps.  Yay, for beating my time! 

Unfortunately, my calories have been a little high this week.  
Wednesday 1268
Thursday 1429
Friday 1716
Saturday 1617

Because of the exercise, the Lose It! program only thinks I went over my calories (allotted 1342 per day) on Friday.  Haha!  Normally, I don't like to eat back what I exercised off, but I guess the program accounts for that.  Well, we shall see Wednesday morning if I lose any or not. 

Today we are eating breakfast out at Denny's, lunch at Pollo Campero, and dinner at home.  With a banana and two sugar free Popsicles for a late night snack, my calories today should come to 1266.  At Denny's I will order a 3 egg-white omelet without cheese and only add some veggies.  Last time I added grilled zucchini, peppers, and onions.  I also eat the "seasonal fruit" choice instead of toast and grits without margarine.  They only give you about 1/2 cup of grits in a little bowl.  That makes my breakfast 384.  Lunch at Pollo Campero is a fruit cup and vegetarian chili.  My best guess on that lunch is 401 calories.  For dinner Mark is making another recipe from the Diabetic Living magazine.  This time it is Quinoa Salad with grilled Tuna for 316 calories a cup.  Should be a good day!

Tomorrow I am going to a skin doctor to have something on my back looked at.  A few weeks ago when we were in the pool, Mark noticed an odd spot that he didn't remember being there forever.  I can't touch it, but I tried to see it with mirrors.  It's definitely something to have looked at. I'm sure it's no big deal, and even if it gets removed and turns out it was some form of skin cancer, it's still small and then it will be GONE!  Right?  Still, I'm slightly apprehensive about it, so I'm glad I'm going to go have it looked at tomorrow morning.  I'll keep you posted on what happens.

One Car, Two Car, Old Car, New Car

Did any of you every read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss?  Then you get the reference in my title!

Yesterday, Mark's car, which is 10 years old with 108,000 miles on it, died on the way home from the car repair shop!  Oh, the irony. Last week he had to pay $300 to repair the trunk latch.  It was an expensive part and hard to replace.  Then on the way home from THAT repair, we noticed a horrible noise.  Crazy.  We didn't drive the car for a few days, and then we he started it up, the noise was less.  Still, the car had been loud and running not at all nicely like mine for a long time.  Plus the latch for the HOOD fell off!  So off we went again to the repair shop to have the hood latch repaired and try to find out the reason for the noises.  Hood latch was an easy repair but the noise was the motor mounts.  It was over $600 for the motor mounts.  They called and said we could get it, so off we went around 11:30 yesterday morning to pick it up.  It didn't make it home.

I was a few miles ahead of him in my car, so I was quite surprised to get a phone call as I was approaching our house saying the car had just died about a mile from the entrance to Solivita.  Crazy.

He called AAA, and they came in just over an hour.  The car has been towed back to the repair shop. I was hoping it was something they did with the motor mount and wouldn't cost anything.  No, it was the timing belt, another $400.  Geez.

At this point, Mark has decided to do this repair, bring the car home, and go car shopping in about a month.  Enough is enough.

Rudy is here.

Our friend Rudy arrived last night around 9 p.m.   He is going to stay with us around two weeks.  His wife, Georganne, is arriving next Thursday and staying a bit over a week.  In the middle of the stay is a five day cruise on the Carnival Imagination to Key West and Cozumel.  Going to be fun!

Yesterday Mark had a rehearsal for Scrooge that I did not have to attend. Instead I worked out HARD, 25 minutes of weight lifting followed by an HOUR of lap swimming.  Yay!  I did that in order to prepare for overeating at a potluck dinner at The Palms with our HEAL group.  Mark's new Mediterranean Quinoa and Edamame Toss was delicious!  It was so much fun to go to a potluck where we knew we could eat EVERYTHING!  There was another quionoa dish (not as good as Mark's), shepherd's pie with veggie crumbles, carrots, asparagus, vegan wheat bread, macaroni and cheese with whole wheat noodles and PAREVE cheese, veggie bean chili, Waldorf salad, arugula salad with goat cheese, bean and cheese enchilada, and too many other things to even remember. I took small amounts of almost everything and then went back for seconds on some of my favorites.

For all that exercise and vegan/vegetarian food at dinner, I was rewarded with a two pound weight gain.  Yes, the scale was still out this morning, and I weighed 241.7 this morning.  Disgusting.  I ate my usual small breakfast and lunch and with all that exercise, my Lose It! program said I could eat 1500 calories for dinner.  That's a ridiculous number, and I didn't think I exceeded that.  I can only assume the gain is mostly water from sodium.  Who knows what the people put in their recipes?  Well, we all did, actually.  LOL!  We had to put the recipes out for all to see!  Of course, I never checked those recipes!  LOL!

Today we are going to Denny's for breakfast in just a few minutes with Rudy.  I can eat egg whites and keep the calories under 400. Then we are going to do our favorite water aerobics class at The Cove, pick up Mark's car (new motor mounts installed, very expensive), eat leftover quinoa for lunch, and then finally do some volunteer hours at the library.  For dinner, Mark is making Beef Burgundy in the crock pot from the Diabetic Living Magazine.  I hope I am down that extra two pounds tomorrow, but I won't know.  Mark was mad at me for getting on the scale this morning and for himself for not hiding it Wednesday night.  I'm sure it will be gone by now! 

Broke It!

I broke out of the 240s.  I lost 4.3 pounds this week, making my weight 239.7.  OH YEAH!  That's in the 230s now!  Whooeee!!  I have not been in the thirties since sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas of 2010.  Certainly never since we moved to Florida.  This is very exciting for me.

Last week I wrote about plateaus.  This is a perfect example.  I lost the same amount of weight these past two weeks, 4.3 pounds, as I did the two weeks before, 4.2 pounds.  The difference was that I lost 2.1 each of those first two weeks, then nothing last week (well, actually a .3 gain), then the whole 4.3 lost this week.  So in four weeks, I'm down 8.2 pounds.  That is fantastic.  Two pounds per month is all any healthy weight  loss program ever wants you to lose.  Slow and steady is the goal.

So now for this week.  It has its own challenges.  Our friend Rudy arrives tomorrow night and will be here for a bit over two weeks, including a five day cruise.  We are eating out at a HEAL meeting pot luck tomorrow night.  We will eat breakfast out with Rudy Friday morning and lunch out on Sunday somewhere.  Right now those are the only three meals out that are currently planned, but when you have company, anything can happen.  Hopefully, the exercise will continue.

Here's a summary of calories and exercise for each day last week:
Wednesday  1310 calories eaten;  146 burned in weight lifting and walking
Thursday      1275 calories eaten:  122 burned in walking
Friday         1347  calories eaten; no exercise
Saturday      1365 calories eaten; 320 burned in weight lifting and swimming
Sunday        1216 calories eaten;  209 burned in walking
Monday       1404 calories eaten; 77 burned in weight lifting
Tuesday       1264 calories eaten;  757 burned in line dancing and swimming

This was a great week!  We even splurged and had lunch out yesterday because I knew dinner was going to be very low.  I'm quite pleased with myself right now.

Today will include swimming, at least a half hour, while Mark is getting a hair cut.  We also have a three hour rehearsal for the play, and we are going shopping. I'll walk around the stores with Mark again.  It will be the third week in a row. He appreciates the company and prevents me from throwing anything into the basket that I shouldn't eat.  Plus I get another hour of walking around, albeit slowly.

I hope everyone out there has a great day!  I know I will.

Thinking Pink, and thinking our government is CRAZY!

It's October 1.  Think PINK for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

I am so grateful I found that lump back in June of 2010.  My mammogram that April did NOT find it.  Every woman should get a mammogram, but don't stop there.  Self-examination is critical.  Many women find their own cancers, like I did.  And then be aggressive!  Don't wait around hoping the lump will go away.  I admit I did do that for the first 24 hours. I was on vacation, after all, in another state.  I kept thinking I wasn't really feeling what I knew was there.  Every few minutes I would check to see if it was gone so I wouldn't have to call the doctor.  After 24 hours, I called the doctor.  From that day to the day it was finally removed, along with a lot of lymph nodes, was THREE MONTHS.  I'm still convinced that is one reason it may have been Stage Two by that time, but I had no choice.  That's just how long it took to get a house sold, a house bought, a car moved across country, and many tests done.  So don't wait more than 24 hours if you find a lump or your mammogram comes back questionable.  Get it done!

OK, enough ranting about that.

Now for the next rant.  Our government is shut down.  Ridiculous.  I thought Congress was crazy over the last few years.  At the last election, I was sure they would all get voted out, but NO!  Most were returned to their positions to get to TODAY.  Geez.  I'm sure we are the laughing-stocks of the world this morning.

I remember back in 1996 when the government shut down. Mark was still an active federal employee for NASA at the time.  When that shut down finally ended, they all got their back pay.  This time they are saying there will be no back pay.  So where is all that tax money going?  We are all still paying federal income taxes. I'm pretty sure no one is going to be told to keep that money in his pocket.  Maybe they will apply all those dollars from unpaid salaries today (and for the rest of the shutdown, however long that may be) to the federal deficit.  What do you think?  Hah!  Probably not. Better not go to buy Congress breakfast meetings, or anything else!

I also remember that back in 1996, Lowell was on a big multi-day school field trip to NYC.  They were supposed to tour Ellis Island that day, but they got turned away because the government shut down had just gone into effect.  I'm quite sure there are school kids in the DC area being told they can't go to the Smithsonian on a field trip today.  I'm sure all the tourists in DC will notice the government is shut down when they walk up to those beautiful buildings and find the doors locked.  Just crazy.

OK, enough about that rant, too.

Other than all of this, I am about to go line-dancing and swimming.  Fun.  If the weather is nice, we will kill the day at the pool until around 4:30.  At 5:30 I will be auditioning for a solo for the Guys and Dolls concert in December.  Yesterday, we read through the play for November. It was so funny.  My two parts are both in Act One, so I'm not sure how that is going to work.  I have only three lines as Mrs. Cratchit, but I think they will have to be memorized.  This is a "staged reading," meaning everyone's lines are going to be on paper in front of them, but sort of hidden from the audience.  We need to know it pretty well, but it's like having a little prompter in front of you.  I don't think that's going to work for Mrs. Cratchit's three lines, so I'll memorize those.  My other character is Belle, Scrooge's love interest from his past.  She is a witness, which means my lines will be in front of me up there.  She had quite a lot of lines and closes Act One, so I'm pretty pleased with both my parts.  If you are reading this and live in Solivita, I hope you get tickets to the show!