I'm Going Cruising!!!

Yep,,,,I booked our anniversary cruise on Carnival Glory for September and the countdown has begun. I am so very excited! 7 days on a beautiful ship with hubby and our girls with port visits to Nassau, Belize, Cozumel, and Costa Maya. I suspect the next 5 months will drag at a snail's pace! lol While I dread all the amazing foods the ships are known to have, I certainly will allow myself to indulge within reason. Hubby and I have made a vow to make use of the ship gym every day and also to do plenty of walking, both on the ship and in the ports. I told him that since I have been easily maintaining 136/137 for the past few months, I think I'd like to work hard to get back down to at least 130 if not lower before the cruise. I don't necessarily want to "maintain" that weight as I am happy with where I'm at, BUT I figure if I do it then I'll feel more comfy with the cruise splurges. lol In the coming months I"ll be on the lookout for a sexy little evening dress for one of the formal nights as I already have one for the second night. Have any of you been on a cruise...if so, please share your thoughts...what you liked, didn't like, things we "must do/see".

One of Many Reasons Americans are Overweight....

The Class A West Michigan Whitecaps have come up with possibly the most unhealthy ballpark food item in baseball history: the Fifth Third Burger.Named after the bank that sponsors the team, the Fifth Third features 26.7 ounces (five-thirds pounds) of beef, lettuce, tomato, salsa, sour cream, chili and Fritos on an 8-inch sesame seed bun. Total calories: 4,889.The burger costs $20, but the team points out it feeds one to four. A single fan who finishes the burger in one sitting will receive a Fifth Third Burger T-shirt.Mickey Graham, the team's director of marketing, told CNBC he thinks some fans will show up just for the feeding: "We've had people come just for dinner. We take our food pretty seriously."

Its simply unreal to me how I'm sure many people will be tempted to try to scarf down this burger to win a darn t-shirt...or simply because it sounds good to them. Never mind the 5000 calories they'll be consuming! At a time when you can look around our country and see so many overweight people, it annoys me to see businesses coming up with this sort of thing. Heck, even if four people split it, they'd each be consuming nearly 1250 calories.

Spring

The weather has finally been beautiful and it has been wonderful getting out and enjoying it. I met my friend to walk 5 miles yesterday and will be meeting the family after work to do another 5 miles. I can honestly say that I love to walk! Wish I could say I love the gym, but I've come to the conclusion that will never happen. Since my mother reached her own weight loss goal she has started eating more. She has been shocked to find that she continued to lose weight, although I wasn't. I kept telling her she needed to be eating more than she was, but she simply wouldn't listen. So even though she was eating MORE, she actually has been weighing around 143 or so, some days even 141.5. I noticed the same thing when I was trying to lose the last few pounds. I finally figured I was going to go ahead and increase my calories to stop losing and shock, I lost another 3 pounds which put me at 124/125. Since I have been maintaining, as I posted before I found this weight was harder to maintain and I still had to watch my calories quite closely. Not something I really wanted to do for the rest of my life. Don't get me wrong, I always weigh daily and watch my calories accordingly, but I want to be able to eat the pastas and things, just in moderation. By setting my maintenance a little higher, I found that I could eat the things I wanted (in moderation) and easily maintain. Mom is finding this same thing. She was a bit frustrated this morning because she was at 146 even though she ate less yesterday than she did the days before. I told her not to worry about it and since she is up a bit, watch the calories a little closer this week. Getting used to maintaining as opposed to losing is different, but something she'll grow accustomed to just as I did,,,just as you all will when you reach your own goals.

Rainy Days

While we needed some rain, I hated that it pretty much rained all weekend. I'd had plans to go to the local trail and do a 5 mile walk on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and wasn't able to do any of them. Have plans to do it this afternoon too, but it isn't looking good at the moment. The weekend was a busy one but at least there was a little down time too. Friday I spent 2 hours at the doctor's office with my oldest daughter and then at the hospital waiting for an x-ray on her wrist. Earlier in the week she took a spill when the rope on the tire swing broke and her wrist wasn't getting any better. Figured better safe than sorry. Thankfully they called later that day to say the x-rays were normal. Took her back to school and set up with the office that she was to ride the bus home with a friend for a sleepover. She called me after school to say the office never delivered the note so she couldn't get on the other bus. Came home and mom got to get out again to take her to the sleepover. Saturday had to pick her up and go to the local Arts Festival where her chorus group was singing (thankfully the rain held off for awhile). Afterwards she asked to stay for awhile and hang out with her friends and they would bring her home. Got home and sat down, she called to ask me to come get her because it was raining and they weren't going to bring her home after all. Ugh! Back to the festival and back home in time for her other friend to arrive to stay the night. Worked on school projects yesterday as both girls had them. This was an experience....I'd be helping one at the computer and the other was yelling from the dining room that she needed help. After numerous times like that I had a mini-mommy-meltdown and reminded them that I am only one person and cannot possibly be in two places at once and to please have patience. Both projects did get finished thankfully! lol Dieting went well over the weekend and I have been holding pretty at 135 or a little less for the last week which I'm thrilled about. My mom has now officially reached her goal as well at around 142/144 so I am so very happy for her! Go mom!

Spring and Longer Days....

What a wonderful title! I am so excited about warmer weather and longer days! I notice in the winter months that I don't walk nearly as much as I do when the days are longer and I am looking forward to hitting the local trail a lot more often now that I have more daylight hours. The warmer weather also means I can soon start fiddling around in my flower beds more which will give added exercise. The best part is that I feel pretty much back to normal except for a little sinus stuff thats hanging around. My poor parents are STILL sick and its been about a month for them! I feel so sorry for them and hope they are better soon. The weight maintenance continues to go well and I am just happy as can be. My body has settled into a 136/137 zone which is a little higher than I ideally wanted, but this seems to work and seems pretty easy for me to happily maintain. I have found it easy to stay at that weight in spite of weekly after church visits to Baskin Robbins with my family or nightly popcorn snacks while watching tv with my sweet hubby or even on nights of too much pizza or onion rings (it was good though lol). I "liked" being at 130 but I had to work much harder and be alot more strict to stay there. Once I start walking more I am curious to see if I can continue to eat this way and slowly crawl back toward 130, but if not, I could quite easily and quite happily live the rest of my life maintaining at this weight knowing that I don't have to say no when I want pasta or cookies with the kids. I have a really good friend that is trying to lose weight now and finding it difficult to find the will power to get a good start. I told her that being really strict with yourself at the beginning was what helped me out, knowing that in the end, I'd be able to relax and enjoy things more later. I hope she starts to see lower scale numbers soon.

And...Still Sick

Actually, my first bout with this crap only lasted 4 days or so and then I thought it was behind me. Then hubby got sick. And now I'm sick again! Ugh! Yesterday I felt like a truck ran over my head but managed to work all day in spite of it. Went straight home afterwards and climbed into bed for the rest of the night. Hubby brought me supper in bed and I went back to sleep after eating. I feel a little better today and he says I look better (though considering how bad I looked yesterday it didn't take much to be an improvement lol). My poor parents are still fighting it all as they have been without a break for the last 3 weeks! I can't imagine feeling like this for that long. Unfortunately since we have all been sick, I still haven't been back to the gym! In 3 weeks! Gasp! The only exercise I have done in 3 weeks is one 5 mile walk. I am so ready for Spring weather, longer days (which reminds me...don't forget to set clocks ahead this weekend), and more time to be outside in the fresh air. Provided that I continue to feel better I'll be walking this weekend and back to the gym next week. I have to applaud people who are committed to working out even when they are sick. I'm not one of them. I just want to sleep. On a different note, hubby made homemade beer battered onion rings last night with supper. Yep, they were horribly bad for me, but they were quite tasty. More please. lol I managed to not go back for seconds so it was still a successful meal.