Reby's Weight Loss and Breast Cancer Journey: We are finally done cruising for awhile!

Until I opened my blog this morning, I did not realize that February 23 was the last time I wrote. I don't even know why!

Well, there's probably no one looking here anymore, but I'm going to get back to writing more regularly now anyway. I never created this blog for other people. I started it for myself to keep me on track on my diet when I felt that I was losing my motivation. It worked for a long time, right up to the breast cancer and the move to Florida. Then those events and the start of all of our cruising have caused me to completely abandon healthy eating.

This latest cruise on the Celebrity Equinox was from March 3-13. We went with good friends Dave and Evey Herschler and their friends Rod and Judy from Wisconsin and Brina and Brian from Delaware. We were a fun group, that's for sure! It was 10 days with stops at St. Thomas, St. Kitt's, Barbados, and St. Maarten overnight plus four sea days. We were very busy!

I left for the cruise on March 2, going to Fort Lauderdale the day before, weighing 288 and returned at 296. Yeah, I was stunned because that is finally one pound OVER the amount in the doctor's office on April 8, 2009 when the surgeon told me I was likely to die. Well, I had breakfast on the cruise ship on Monday and lunch at Earl of Sandwich on the road home followed by a reasonable dinner and no late night snacking. Tuesday I ate all three meals at home, 1200 calories total. I then dropped all eight of those pounds in two days, weighing 288 again this morning. Boy, did that make me feel a lot better.

I have nine pounds to go because our first cruise of this year, back on January 5, I weighed 279 when we left on the first cruise, the Carnival Magic. This was a lot of weight gained in two and a half months, but cruising will do that to you! Haha! And we booked two more cruises while on this one! We booked 12 days on the Celebrity Silhouette for December 9 or 2018 to the Caribbean, including two islands I have not done yet, Grenada and Dominica, and the big Asian cruise on Celebrity Millennium for March 30, 2019 from Shanghai to Tokyo.

Well, I'm not whining or complaining. I had a blast and enjoyed my food and drink, but now it's time to get serious. There are still 7 cruises booked between October of 2017 and March of 2019, so it is in my very best interests to lost a lot of weight before those happen. LOL!

So my next goal is to get back to 279 before the first cruise in January. Nine pounds could take three to four weeks. So my goal is to be 279 by April 12. That's four weeks and also the second day of Passover. Passover can be a problem for weight loss, but I can do it! In fact that's how the big weight loss started back in 2009. I was at the doctor's office the morning of the first seder, so that weight loss began by eating right at the first seder. That means I can do it again!

Meanwhile, here are some pictures from this most recent cruise on the Celebrity Equinox to St. Thomas, St. Kitt's, Barbados, and an overnight stay on St. Maarten.

Cool and drizzly when we boarded in Fort Lauderdale and the weather stayed that way for the first several days.

Concierge class room on deck 10! Very big, lots of storage, very beautiful

Enjoying some time on the balcony before sail away.

Hi Dave! His cabin is two down from ours. All four couples were in cabins right in a row. Very convenient.

Sail Away party was moved inside due to inclement weather. Very high winds!

First drink of the cruise!

Sail away was unusual. This was not their usual dock. There were very high winds at cross purposes from where we needed to go. We are a very big ship heading straight for that beach and the houses there. It was dicey, but we made it. Unfortunately, the people in the house panicked, took video, and posted it to YouTube, and complained to Celebrity that we almost hit them and ran aground. It was a week of work for the officers and Celebrity, including having divers go under to inspire the hull, to prove that all was well. When we returned, we were at a different dock!

We went to a lot of lectures during the sea days. This was the first one on the first sea day.

Listening to our audio book on the aft deck until the wind and cold drove us inside.

On the second day, I happened to be in the same elevator as our captain, Captain Costas, who left through the middle of the cruise to go to NYC and be announced as the future captain of the brand new ship, Celebrity Edge!