Two Whole Days of Winter! LOL

Looks like winter is over and spring has sprung.  We had two days of temps in the  40s and overnight below freezing.  Today is spring, rain and 70s.  Saturday is summer, possible record highs for that date, all the way to the mid 80s.  Got to love central Florida!

Today begins five days of Disney fun with Reuben!  Our Maryland rabbi's son has been staying at the Wilderness Lodge with a buddy since Monday.  Tonight we will have dinner with the two of them at Jiko's in the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  Then tomorrow the friend is flying home, but we are picking Reuben up in the morning to spend four more days at Disney and stay at our house.  He flies home Monday evening.  I'm saying all this to explain why there might not be any blogs until Tuesday!  LOL!  It looks like a lot of busy Disney fun coming up.

With Disney fun comes a lot of eating out.  Hopefully all the walking will mitigate the calories.  So far, I haven't done anything to lose weight.  I am still 246.3 this morning.  The good news (if you can call it that) is that all the M&Ms are gone.  So are all the other leftover holiday goodies.  I think I've managed to consume anything in the pantry that looked yummy.  I guess that will force me to start eating right.

This morning we are heading to the monthly NARFE meeting in Plant City.  That involves lunch at Outback, which is fine.  Tilapia, salad, and steamed veggies isn't going to hurt anything.  Then there's the fancy dinner at Jiko's tonight.  Before dinner we will be shopping at BJs for assorted items, picking up Mark's comic books, and doing the weekly grocery shopping at Publix.  Busy day!

I will close this blog with pictures from the end of the cruise.  And if it's still not spring time where you live, hang in there.  It will be eventually.

Our final port of call was Costa Maya, Mexico, where we visited a large area of Mayan ruins.

On the last full day at sea, we participated in this 5k walk, which ended up being just 2.5 miles.

Afternoon tea

Beautiful goodies at the special afternoon Indonesian tea

Mark and Marilyn at the cocktail party hosted for us by Zenith Travel

My complimentary cocktail, a nice way to end the cruise

below freezing in central Florida, OUCH

It was predicted to go below freezing over night, down to 30 degrees here in central Florida.  The high for today will be about 46-48.  That's very cold for this area.  I know it's toasty warm to some of you who may be reading this up north!  LOL!

Don't worry about us.  We can handle it for a few days.  Saturday is predicted to be record highs for the date, mid to upper 80s.  I guess I can bundle up until Friday when it's going to hit 82.

Don't hate us!

I talked a lot yesterday about getting back on track.  I just wish I had practiced what I preached.  I did log in all my calories, so that's why I know I ate over 3000 calories.  Yikes.  Why did I do that, you might ask, when all my meals were at home? Theoretically I had total control over all the meals.  Breakfast was perfect; dinner was perfect.  Lunch was ridiculous.  I don't know why.  I started out with a salad and a can of tuna, my usual good lunch.  To spice it up a bit I added some Bacos and Parmesan cheese.  Not terrible, but too much of each.  Then a piece of Gouda cheese.  Then I ate the leftover Linzer tart cookie that I bought at the Contemporary Resort at Christmas.  There was no calorie count on it, but I estimated about 450 calories for that dang thing.  (Well, it was delicious if that means anything.)  And then I thought, well, I should just be sure all the crap gets cleared out of the pantry.  There were six chocolate truffles in there, leftover from a delicious tower of goodies that Pat and Phil sent us for the holidays.  I ate all six.  There was a calorie count on there, so that was about 300 calories in the box.  Hm...should have stopped there, but NO!  There's MORE!  I went to Mah Jongg at 1 p.m., as I often do on Mondays.  My neighbor was giving away one pound bags of M and Ms because her son had given her FIFTEEN bags of them!  Really?  Who gives someone 15 bags of M and Ms?  So, she insisted everyone take a bag.  I am nothing if not helpful and obedient, so I did not argue. I took my bag.  Then I proceeded to eat about half, maybe a little more than half, of that bag throughout the rest of the day.  Yeah, that's how I had so many calories.

Well, you know what they say...when you fall off a horse...or a wagon...

So today I'm going to try to do better.  I have a mani/ped/hair appointment at 1 p.m., which could totally run right to 4:30 when I have to go to a 5 p.m. rehearsal.  If I don't get to come home to eat dinner, I am going to walk across the street at 6 p.m. to the Bistro and have a slice of pizza for dinner.  I guess that won't be too bad if all I eat today is the slice of pizza and lunch.  Lunch will be noon, just before I head out to the salon.  Breakfast doesn't look like it's happening at all today since it's already 9:40.  I slept in, and I haven't showered or dressed yet.  I might as well just get busy with those things, make a few music recordings for the SOJC choir, and then have lunch and head out.  That means I had better be careful when I get home tonight after rehearsal, around 9:15 p.m.  I will have to be careful not to snack too much and definitely stay out of the M and Ms.

Because I'm a complete masochist, I just got on the scale to see what happened. Lo and Behold!  I'm down a smidge over a pound to 246.3.  I bet that if I can drop a pound with that calorie count that it was just water weight from all the sodium in the cheese yesterday.  Today will require actual work to keep the calories in the 1200 range.  I can do that even if I have a slice of pizza for dinner because I should be out of the house a long time.  Night time snacking is the only possible downfall for me today.  I will just promise to do my best.

Here's a few more pictures from the cruise, days 4 and 5.  Bundle up and stay warm.

It was windy in Gautemala!

All ready for our shore excursion in the bay.

Just walked around the dock in Roatan.

Beautiful day in Honduras.

Enjoying the deck and looking at the Roatan dock.

Swimming on the Lido Deck.  The pool water was about 90 degrees!

Sunset sailaway in Roatan

Specialty dinner that night at the Canaletto restaurant with Jim and Lucie.

2014! Make it a good one.

First, the weight news:  I only gained 1.5 pounds on this 7 day cruise.  I am pretty amazed by that because I made no effort to curb my eating or drinking. I did do a lot of walking, but I never went in the gym at all.

Second, a new change:  I'm now going to stop doing weigh ins on Wednesday.  When I started this blog, I did my weigh ins on Tuesday, mostly because I think the day I wrote the first blog was a Tuesday.  Or it might have been because I used to go to Weight Watchers on Tuesdays years and years ago.  Somewhere along the way I switched it to Wednesdays, and I kind of liked the alliterative sound of Weigh-in Wednesdays.  Ah, so that's over.  Today I weighed in and I'm going to report it and I'm going to stick with Mondays for awhile.  It will also make my Lose It! program on the phone very happy, since it is pre-programmed to make the week Monday through Sunday.  In general I don't love doing it on Mondays because weekends are often times for splurges, so Monday might not look so good.  That's not really true anymore since I'm retired.  Any day of the week is as likely as any other day to be a splurge.

Third, all splurging has to be OVER!  This morning I weighed 247.5, a gain of 15 pounds since December 11, only three and a half weeks.  Geez, I gained almost five pounds a week in those three and a half weeks.  Ridiculous.  So even though I only gained 1.5 pounds this week on this cruise, I had already done the damage earlier.  Ridiculous, I say again.

Now my Lose It! program says I am 147 days from my goal of 200 pounds.  That leaves NO time to screw up now if I want to be 200 at the wedding on July 12.  I have about six months.  If I lost 8 pounds a month, which is averaging 2 pounds per week, I could theoretically lose 48 pounds by the wedding.    That's what I need to do!  There is no going off track now no matter how many holidays or visitors or dinners out there are between now and then.  And there will be PLENTY of all of those things.  There are always plenty of all of those things!

So I will make 2014 a good one.  I will make it a year resolved more than ever to stay on track and do what must be done to reach that goal of 200 by the wedding. 

As for the cruise, it was wonderful.  Mark and I enjoyed being with fellow Solivita travelers.  Taking the bus over and back to Tampa was just so easy!  We were home yesterday by 10:45 a.m.  Sometimes there are cruises where we are barely off the ship by that time.  LOL!

We had perfect weather the entire time. It rained only a little bit as we were leaving Costa Maya on Friday and then most of the day on Saturday.  Saturday was a sea day, so it didn't really matter!  It was warm, but not too hot the entire time.  Perfect.

Now the country is about to be plunged into a deep freeze!  We are going below freezing ourselves tonight, here in central Florida.  Our high tomorrow will only be 46.  Pretty amazing!  Bundle up, everybody!

Here are a few pictures from this cruise.  I'll keep posting a few every day this week.  Enjoy.

Mark at dinner the first night with our Solivita hosts, Al and Maureen

Enjoying the private hot tub in the thermal suite on the second day of the cruise.

Sunset sailaway from Key West

Tuesday was a sea day and the first formal night.  Ready to head out to dinner.

At dinner in the main dining room on the formal night, which was also New Year's Eve.

Jim and Lucie were enjoyable friends to cruise with.

The ship knows how to throw a great New Year's eve party with noisemakers, dancing, and lots of free champagne and food!

Cruisin', AGAIN!

This morning we are heading over to the Village to catch a bus to Tampa.  Our cruise today is on the Holland America Ryndam with the Solivita Travel Club.  We will be riding a bus with the rest of our fellow cruisers, so at least I don't have to do the driving.  It's a rainy day, so I might just sleep on the bus.

This cruise is going to Key West (yes, all three of our recent cruises went there!); Roatan, Honduras; Costa Maya, Mexico; and some port in Guatemala.  Sadly, I have no idea what the name of the town in Guatemala is.  New Year's Eve is a sea day, so that should be fun.  Then New Year's Day is in Honduras.  We went there in 2011 with the Larsens. It's not much, so our plan is to sleep in after partying the night before.  If we stay on board all day in Honduras, that will be just fine with us. 

We return next Sunday, and I'll check my weight Monday morning.  I have no idea how this will go.  With the Larsens in October, I tried to watch my eating and do a lot of exercise. I gained six pounds, a pound a day, which we heard is typical.  On the Constellation last week, where I threw all sensibilities out of the window and ate and drank myself into oblivion, I only gained 3 pounds.  Then I gained more in this week at home with the Herschlers.  I am starting the cruise this morning at 245.9.  Not at all good.

Looking back over my weight since I returned from California at the end of August, I see that I basically lost 13 pounds over a two month stretch and then recently gained them back in about 2 weeks.  Oh, my crazy eating habits!

What I AM determined to do now is enjoy this cruise and then get back on track when we return.  I have the Starliters show to do, which will require energetic, long rehearsals two nights a week.  I have the motivation of being around 210 or less at Lowell and Emily's wedding in July.  I hope those two things will help me get back and stay back on track.

Of course there are challenges between now and then.  We have the cruise and in mid-January we are hosting our Maryland rabbi's son, Reuben Cohen, again for four days of Disney fun and eating.  Usually, the long walking all day helps mitigate the eating in restaurants.  We shall see.  February and March are mostly just full of rehearsals for me and Mark, so I think I can do a lot of exercise and eat all my meals at home.  I'm really looking forward to a few months of eating all my meals at home!

Meanwhile, I am taking my computer with me, but I don't know how much time I will have to use the internet onboard.  I do not promise any more blogs until Monday, January 6.  Then, I will be sure to write a nice long, juicy one full of cruise pictures.

Happy New Year to everybody who reads my blog.  I hope everyone has the BEST year EVER, full of health, happiness, and love.

Here's a few pictures from the last few days with the Herschlers.

We had a princess lunch at the Norway buffet.  Belle posed with everyone as they entered the restaurant.

The menu at the Akershus buffet in Norway.

Princess Aurora with us. 

Mary Poppins with Dave and Evey.

Snow White with us.

Around the World Showcase lake at Epcot.

On the bridge between France and the UK on the way to take the boat back to the Studios.

Dave and Evey's first look at the Osborne Lights.  They were stunned!

It's nearly impossible to describe them.  They are something you just have to experience in person.

On their last day, we took them to historic Kissimmee for the obligatory look at the Monument of States.

Evey is looking up for the Maryland stone.

Mark and Dave at one of the outdoor sculptures.

Boxing Day

We have some friends who emigrated here from Canada, and they still like to celebrate Boxing Day.  Mark and I were invited to their home today for a little wine and socializing, but we declined.  We have our friends Dave and Evey still here, so today is another WDW day.  Our plan today is park hopping from the Studios to Epcot and back to the Studios to end with the Osborne Lights and Fantasmic.  It will be 77 degrees with only a 20% chance of some afternoon showers.

Yesterday we watched the Disney parade and ate a lot of our special snacks from the Contemporary for breakfast.  When we went to see Saving Mr. Banks, the parking was chaotic and Downtown Disney was super crowded.  Still, we got parking and good seats in the theater.  We LOVED the movie, and I highly recommend it to everyone.

I weigh the same today as yesterday, despite eating a ridiculous breakfast, twice as much lunch as usual, and Chinese food for dinner.  I was very happy not to be up several more pounds!  LOL!

This morning I'm having my usual breakfast for the first time in over week.  It feels very good and very healthy to eat Fiber One cereal with blueberries and Greek yogurt.  Yum.  Lunch today will be the buffet in the Norway pavilion at Epcot; dinner will be the Asian salad at the Commissary at the Studios.  There will be so much walking that I'm not too worried about it.

I feel pretty good about my chances of getting back on track once the next cruise is over.  We leave Sunday for another week on a cruise ship, but once we get back from that, we will not be going anywhere for several months and have no company either.  That will allow both Mark and me to focus on our health, eat right, and exercise.  I'm looking forward to it.

Happy Boxing Day!  Enjoy all your presents from yesterday. I hope you won't have to go back to a store to return anything.

Merry Christmas

This morning I was surprised to learn that I had not written a blog yesterday.  For some reason, I thought I wrote one about getting off the cruise.  Well, that was apparently a figment of my imagination.  No blog is posted and nothing was sitting in drafts.  Sorry about that!  LOL!

Now I have a lot of catching up to do.  I barely know where to begin, but I think I will start with the weight.  After all, this is a weight loss blog, or in today's case, a weight gain blog.  This morning my weight was 243.5, a gain of 4.7 pounds since last Wednesday.  I guess it could have been worse because I really have paid NO attention to what I have eaten since then.  I ate anything and everything I wanted on the cruise, plus I drank A LOT. We had a free drink package, so we drank.  Actually, I checked my weight yesterday and it was only a gain of 2.7 pounds, so the other two pounds were just from yesterday.  There was much eating yesterday, too.

I think it could have been worse.  When we went away with the Larsens in October, I gained six pounds in six days.  So yesterday when I checked and realized I had only gained 2.7 pounds in six days, I was actually pretty happy!  It's all relative.  Sadly, I never took those six pounds from the October cruise back off, and I was actually one pound higher when we left than when we got back from that previous cruise.  Oh, well...

Now to the cruise.  It was GREAT!  We stretched out that anniversary celebration over every one of those days.  Our actual anniversary was Saturday, December 21, but the Herschlers and Oreskys had the wait staff in the main dining room bring a cake on Friday night and then again in the specialty restaurant Saturday night.  They both gave us lovely cards in the bar Saturday evening, too.  Then Saturday night we found a bottle of Beaujolais in our cabin, courtesy of the Celebrity Captain's Club Hostess, so we all shared that at dinner on the last night.  It was wonderful having them celebrate and cruise with us.  Maybe there will be a chance to do that again some time in the future.  I would like that.

Today is Christmas day.  My kids are both on the East Coast, which these days doesn't happen very often.  They are both spending the time with their significant others and the in-laws.  Sometimes I get wistful that I can't spend the time with them today, but on the other hand, I know they are having a wonderful day and are surrounded by people who love them as much as I do.  What else could a mother want for her children?

My much loved brother Kip and his wife Denise and kids Logan and Emily are all on the West Coast, celebrating in their new home in Snohomish, WA.  This has been a busy year for them especially.  I hope they are all having fun wherever they are.  Mark and I are about to watch the Disney Christmas parade on TV and eat a lot of crazy Disney treats that we bought last night at the Contemporary Resort.  Dave and Evey Herschler will be with us to the end of the week.  Later today we are all going over to Downtown Disney again to see the movie Saving Mr. Banks, followed by dinner at the Citrus Garden, a local Chinese restaurant. 

I hope everyone reading this blog is doing something fun with people they love today.  It doesn't matter if you actually celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday or just have the day off from work and are relaxing with the ones you love.  I hope you enjoy your day no matter what. 

Here are a few pictures from the cruise and yesterday at Disney.  Enjoy and have a wonderful holiday.

Preparing for sailaway

Saul and Phyllis at dinner the first night

Evey and Dave the first night

Me and Mark the first night

Me and Phyllis in front of the beautifully decorated staircase on deck 3, our floor.

Evey and Dave at the staircase as we prepare to head out to Nassau.

Evey and I with the flamingos

Phyllis and I wetting our feet in the Caribbean Sea at Nassau

Our bus driver for the tour took the group shot on the beach

Relaxing by the pool in the solarium

Friday night was formal night

Having a coffee and gelato on the last night of the cruise

Dave and Evey outside the Yacht Club resort

The first time Evey and Dave saw the big Lego statues at Downtown Disney, including the spectacular sea monster

Watching the fireworks on Christmas Eve at the TTC.  Can you tell it was a wee bit chilly?

All the goodies I bought at the Contemporary Resort for breakfast Christmas morning with the parade.