We're back from a great cruise.

We had ten glorious days on the Celebrity Constellation.  We had dinner most nights with a group of six friends that we have cruised with before.  Next February they will all be back again.  Other than on Facebook, we only see this group once a year on this cruise, so that's kind of cool.

I gained SEVEN pounds.  NOT GOOD.  This morning I was 286.3, up from 279.3 ten days ago when I left.  There is not much to say about that.  It's fairly common for people to gain that much on a cruise.  I didn't do much exercise or even walking at all. I didn't walk the track even once.  We went on shore only two times, and there wasn't much walking around on those times either.  No wonder my clothes were getting tight.

Now we have about four and a half weeks until the next cruise, which is 14 days.  This is the time to do something about this.  Of course, you may remember that I probably said the same thing after the January cruise.

Geez, seriously, though, I now weigh only 9 pounds less than that horrible day in the surgeon's office in April of 2009 when he said 295 was too high for surgery and that I would die.  I cried for thirty minutes in the car when I left his office.  I actually was feeling GOOD about that weight because in January of that year I weighed 322.   Being down 27 pounds in three months made me feel successful.  Then the surgeon said I was NOT.  That did not feel good, but it did spur me on to lose another 90 pounds for that total of 117 pounds.  I met that milestone at the end of February of 2010, and I felt that I had lost so much that I could NEVER gain it all back.  Well, clearly I was wrong. In fact, I did not keep it off even one day.  In March we took off on our big trip across the country and our cruise to Hawaii and the Panama Canal.  I was up 15 pounds by the end of the trip and up another thirty more by the end of 2010.  Since we moved to Florida, I have zigzagged up and down, but more up than down, leading me to this weight today.

So this morning I dragged out my Lose It! program and logged in my weight.  It's the highest I have been since I started the program.  It graphs the weights that are recorded and my graph is a huge zig zag up and down and up and down.  It really reflects the story of my life!

Today I am eating all my meals at home, and I started with an 80 calorie Greek yogurt that I logged into the program.  Soon I will drink my first glass of water for the day.  Mark is leaving for rehearsal pretty soon, and then I'm going to dress and take a walk.  I really need to get back to the daily walking, which I have pretty much abandoned.  At this weight, walking more than 10 to 15 minutes is very hard.  My back will hurt and my legs will go numb.  I know from starting this journey back in 2009 that waling, even that little bit, consistently every day will bring weight loss and the ability to walk more.  I KNOW what to do and how to do it.  Now I just need to put it all into practice.  There is no pretending anymore that I am okay.  I am NOT okay.  My weight is not healthy.

OK, enough of this.  Here are some pictures from the cruise.

First day walking through the ship.  

Mark is watching the spillway party from his favorite spot on deck 11.

Captain's Club cocktail party.  Too much free drinking was probably part of the weight gain!

Second night we had our dinner at the Tuscan Grille.

It was the first elegant night, so we were dressed up.

Unfortunately, Mark got one of those heart episodes after our Tuscan Grille dinner, but it won't be recorded  for the doctor because we are gone too long and away from the monitor.  He laid on this chaise for about an hour.  

Sailing in to Fort de France.  There's the fort!

We watched the Carnival on Mardi Gras from deck ten on the ship.  We couldn't see the actual parade, but we saw this one float head up to the parade.  It was LOUD!

It was the Red Devil's parade, and anyone wearing red and black could walk in the parade.  Hundreds of people got off busses right across from the ship and walked up to the parade, too.  We watched it for three hours!

Dinner with our cruising friends.  The waiter took this, and I guess the ship moved too much to keep the camera still.  LOL!