Birthday Eve

Here I sit all comfy and cozy thinking about the week ahead at work when suddenly I remembered tomorrow's my birthday.

I never forget my birthday. I plan for it. I plan some more. And for a little extra ... I plan a bit more. I always know what I'm going to make and what my cake or cupcakes will be.

Nothing. It's 6:48PM on the 28th and I have nothing.

So instead of thinking about that, let's talk about 2020.

A new year to me always feels like a clean slate. I have goals, I always do and they're almost always the same.

50+ books
Try new things.
Try to be healthier
Try to save...blah blah blah...

Sometimes I actually break those goals down a bit and really focus on them. They always sit in the back of my mind. Waiting. Hoping I'll fail. They never really seem like I put much thought into them. Maybe for the month of January, then all they do is mock me.

Not this year. No siree...I've got a plan. I've got a little word that will help me focus (ok two little words)

FINISH IT!

That's right. Finish it. I'm the mistress of starting things and suck at finishing things (some things anyhow). I have a laundry list of things I want to accomplish in 2020 and in order to even consider getting half of them done I need a plan. Which I'll figure out eventually. For now...here's the list of things I WANT to do in 2020.

• Travel to a new country
• Travel to a new place around Seattle
• Hike for a day
• Buy a souvenir
• Try a new cocktail
• Pay for a strangers drink or food
• Give things I don't use to charity
• Donate money to a charity
• Do a good deed with no expectations
• Pick up garbage that isn't mine
• Send flowers to someone
• Go on a road trip
• Get a massage
• Go for a walk on a beach
• Watch a sunrise
• Watch a sunset
• Do a self-guided tour in a city
• Quit drinking for a month… hahahah
• Try 10 new restaurants
• Go to Space Needle for dinner/lunch
• Go to the movies
• Read 50 books
• Smash my "honey do list" (that alone is worth 30 items)
• Ride the ferry
• Buy a new piece of furniture
• Complete all the online courses I've bought
• Set an exercise goal each month
• Learn to meditate
• Make a new friend
• Watch a TV series you've been waiting to see
• Complete you movie watching list
• Hand write letters to Aunt Jean & Godma
• Finish your scrapbooking projects that you've started
• Clean out and organize your photos
• Review/revise the Will
• Save 20% more than this year
• Change ONE of your bad habits
• Book a date with friends you never see enough of or haven't seen in forever
• Bake a low carb treat every month
• Visit MOHAI
• Go to Eagle Landing (Burien)
• Go to Seattle Aquarium
• Visit NW Trek
• Visit Tillicum Village
• Go to the top of the Columbia Tower
• Go Wine Tasting at least 10 times
• Give your digital live a good cleaning (music collection, org documents, unsubscribe fro emails, etc)
• Find, review and stick to your 2020 Word - "FINISH IT!"
• Read the "management" and "leadership" books you've purchased
• Push yourself to do all these things 

Phew...I'm tired just looking at that list!

Currently...

Happy December! My favorite month. Its the month I was born (which means the month we celebrate that event). It's the end of a year. It's the holiday season and everyone seems jolly.

I put up a tree this year and that's helping with my jolly side. The cats, however, are systematically taking it down. I've decided for next year, as a fun game, I'm going to use my tree as an advent calendar. Every time the demons knock one off, I'm putting it away. Then by the time Christmas shows up my tree should be bare and I can just put it away.

Ok, so the other part of this time of year that I love is a new year is coming. A new year means new beginnings to me. I have a list. A very long list for sure. I'll write about that later. But in doing my list I thought about what was happening currently, so I thought I'd write about that. So get a cup of coffee and have a look.

Currently Reading: My goal this year was 50 books. I'm reading book 49 right now. If I keep these last two short I can just make my goal. I'm shooting for 50 again next year.

Currently Eating: Still eating Low Carb - ish. I feel off the wagon a bit - well a lot lately. But I'm back to visiting my nutritionist. Back to personal trainer. And back to planning my weekly meals.

Currently Listening to: Christmas Music of all kinds. My most recent favorite is for King & Country Little Drummer Boy. I was introduced to this last year and it's quickly became my favorite.

Currently Watching: The Gilmore Girls, and The Girl More Girls A Year in the Life. The TV did a marathon of Gilmore Girls and I watched all 7 seasons. Then I had to see the latest. The Year in the Life was not great. But I do love me some Gilmore Girls.

Currently Making: Cookies. Tomorrow is the great bit December Cookie Exchange and so I have to make me some cookies.

Currently Feeling: Focused. Working on my plan for 2020 and feeling really focused on it all.

Currently Planning: 2020! It's almost here and I've got a lot to do.

Currently Loving: Traveler's Notebooks. I'm almost done converting all my 12X12 scrapbooks to smaller Traveler's Notebooks. I love the new format and it's been fun reviewing all the years of work.

Happy... it's been a while

I promise myself that I'm going to blog more and then a month or more goes by and I realize my promise is nothing by empty promises.

Let's see, when we last spoke I had just dropped 23 lbs. Which I'm very proud of. What I'm not proud of is that since then I've gained 2 back. In fact, I fluctuate between down 23 and down 19. My focus has been off and I really need to find that motivation again. I'm almost there. Though it seems every time I get motivated a trip or a holiday seem to happen and I use that as an excuse to eat carbs. I've invited carbs back into my life too often now and I need to get a handle on that ASAP.

In early November, the fam went to see Wings Over Washington in downtown Seattle. It's a ride where you are pretend hang gliding over Washington. I had ridden one at California Adventure and loved it. This one, I didn't love. I didn't love the falling feeling and the floating feeling. It's beautiful scenery for sure. I'm glad we did it, but don't feel the need to do it again.

Following that we did the Seattle Great Wheel too. We've done it before with Mom, and I enjoyed it just as much this time as last.

Right now I'm sitting on a deck chair in Gold Beach Oregon watching the waves roll in and out. I'm here with a couple of Scrappy Girlfriends. We rented a beach house (Air BnB) for a long weekend of scrapping. It's such a beautiful area and the house is perfect for hanging out and scrapping. The beach is literally right out the back door.

We found this amazing little Mexican restaurant here in Gold Beach. So amazing we've gone twice. The food is so authentic and so delicious that I would probably eat there every other day if I lived here.

Gold Beach is an interesting little town. It reminds me of Ocean Shores, just more...um...conservative, let's say. The streets definitely roll up at night and you're hard pressed to see anyone on the streets unless they're leaving the local tavern. It's quiet and peaceful and really a nice little get away. We've enjoyed ourselves so much we're talking about coming back next year.

So let's see, since last I checked in .. what else has happened?

A couple of wine tasting adventures
A couple of book clubs (our drinking group with a reading problem)
A couple of Keg family dinners
A couple of Sunday dinners
A whole lot of work
A trip to Charlotte for work (Leadership class that I loved)
And a dinner with a long time friend we've not seen in 20 years.

Every once in a while I like to search through Facebook on friends from the past to see if any of them have accounts. Reconnecting seems to be something I am doing these days. So one Saturday night I typed in a friend from college's name. He's a guy whom Sherrie and I and another friend hung out with all the time. He was a ton of fun and such a part of our lives. Then marriage and kids happened...and well, we know that story all too well.

Anyhow, I stumbled on to his wife's account. It was pretty clear she wasn't an avid Facebooker, but I thought I'd send her a message just in case she ever checked in. Turns out the following week she checked in. We got to talking getting together and suddenly we had a date on the calendar where we'd all meet for dinner.

A couple of Sunday's ago they came over to my place and we got all caught up. It was great to see Mark and Diane after 20 years. So much has happened in 20 years ... it's crazy.

So there you go...that's a quick check in of what's been what in my life. Not a whole lot, but it's something. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get back to scrapping.

23

Officially down 23 lbs.  I feel fantastic. My goal of 25 lbs was by Oct 9th (according to LoseIt that is. I told them my first goal and it told me based on my calorie intake, exercise plan etc how long to hit that goal.) I'm so close.

There are a number of inches that are also gone - which is almost more important than the weight in my opinion. I've been noticing dumb things (correction, they aren't dumb they just may not seem as much of a big deal to an average size person as they do to me) too. Like, chairs.

You know those chairs in waiting rooms that are really uncomfortable? My ass and hips rarely fit in them comfortably. It's always been snug. I've noticed some at work where I fit in them just fine. No longer feeling like I'm going to need baby oil to get me out of them.

I fit into the airplane seat without putting the arm rest up too. And I put on my seatbelt in the plane without asking for an extender. THAT's huge for me. It's always been shameful to me to have to ask, but I had to. This trip to Boston I didn't even have to suck it in for the seat belt to fit.

I met with my nutritionist today and we had a good laugh over my averages for the last 6 weeks. He wants me between 50-70 grams of carbs and 110 grams of protein. My averages while on vacation were 109 g carbs and 50 protein. Completely swapped. Yet, I managed to lose 5 lbs in those 6 weeks since I last saw him.

I stopped taking phentermine too. It was causing my heart to race and it wasn't good. He told me that since it's a stimulant that it does sometimes do that when a person has been on it for 4 months or so. In fact it's been about that for me. So I stopped taking it early Sept and I haven't even noticed.

What I have noticed is I can poop again (sorry TMI), I can sleep again and I'm not having the leg cramps I've had. So I think it's better that I'm off it.

So now what? If I hit my goal by Oct 9th (and a good chance I will), what next? Easy...another 25 lbs. And I need to get my blood work done again to see if my diabetes number went down. I'm sure it has...but I need to confirm it.

It feels good. Did I mention that?

Boston

The fam went to Boston to walk the 3day, and as we do, we decided to be tourists for a couple of days. My intent was to write while we were there, but I didn't. So now that we're home I'm going to give it a shot to remember what we did. 

We left Seattle on the 2nd (Memorial Day). Flying to the east coast takes all day and so we didn't get there until well after 8pm. Our mission was to do and see and do some more. The best part of taking off... this low carb thing made two things possible on the airplane. 

1. I fit comfortably in the seat without pulling up the arm rest
2. I didn't need an extender for the seat belt

Both those things bug the crap out of me when I travel and now that I've lost weight, traveling is comfortable again. 

We flew JetBlue for the first time. I gotta say...I loved them. I'd fly them again. 

Day 1 - Sept 3
The first order of business was to check out the breakfast at the hotel. Nothing overly exciting but it's nice having a free breakfast. It not only cuts down on cost, but time. If you have to go eat breakfast somewhere every day you lost time. Eating in the hotel before you leave...piece of cake. 

We knew the one thing we absolutely wanted to do was the hop on hop off trolley. We do these type of tours every where we go. It's the best way to really see the city and decide what you want to go and see more of. But to get there we had to take the Transit to downtown Boston. 

The "T" as it's called is super easy to navigate. Once you get your ticket, the documentation every where made it easy to figure out where we were going. The shuttle driver from the hotel gave us the stop we needed and off we went. 

We exited the T into the Boston Common. It was HOT and MUGGY. 80F with 89% humidity...Lord.  I'm sure I lost 50 lbs in sweat that day. it was somewhat miserable to be honest. 

After spending the bulk of the morning and early afternoon on the trolley seeing the sights of Boston, we stopped at Quincy Market to find a bit of lunch. Quick to decide we stopped at Ned Devine's.  I had "chowdah" and y'all...the best chowdah I've ever had. I got no photos of it because I inhaled it too quickly. 

Today was also Janet's birthday. We didn't do much celebrating during the day but after we got back to the hotel, we took her to dinner at the Blarney Stone - looked up restaurants in the area of our hotel and found this. 

I was still delusional that I was going to stay on my low carb plan for vacation (despite the chowder earlier) and had these fantastic steak tips. They came with mashed potatoes and Brussel sprouts. I didn't eat either.  This would be the last of me really focusing on staying low carb. Didn't last too long. It's hard when you travel. 

Day 2 - Sept 4

Same as Day 1. We took the T to Boston Common. Only today was all about the Freedom Trail. 

We used the hop on hop off trolley to get to the beginning of the trail at Bunker hill. We walked and walked and walked…then we stopped to have lunch in Little Italy. Fantastic pizza.

But the best part was after when we stopped at Mike's Bakery. We'd seen the boxes all over and wondered what it was all about. Cannoli…that's what it was all about. We swung and all got one. Janet and I split a chocolate mousse one. OH….MY…GOD…I have never tasted anything as good. It was so not sweet and so flavorful. In fact, we were so entranced in eating it we almost walked right past Paul Revere's house…

After we came down from our sugar high, we continued a bit more on the trail. Eventually we had to get back to the hotel because we were headed to my nephew Danny's house for dinner.

Driving out there was an adventure. These drivers here are insane. Lanes are really guidelines. As are traffic lights apparently. Super aggressive drivers who all seem to understand some unspoken rule about traffic "laws" being just guidelines. In fact, the only time they really honk is if the light has turned and you haven't already started going BEFORE it turned. 

On our way out there we saw a thunder storm starting to roll in. As we got closer we saw lightening and heard thunder pretty regularly. Then driving into their driveway we walked into the house and literally the clouds opened up. Two LOUD lighting/thunder strikes happened within feet of his house. The downpour was impressive. Then about 3 minutes later it was gone and it was sunny again.

Danny and his husband Keith entertained us and fed us empenadas and crostini with mozarella and tomatoes on it. Both delicious. Little Lenora was a doll. So enjoyed spending time with them. My thought the entire time is Mom would have been in heaven. She wouldn't have wanted to see anything in Boston she only would have wanted to spend it with Danny and Lenora. 

Day 3 - Sept 5

Today was all about finishing up the freedom trail. We started at Boston Common and walked the second half. During that time we stopped at the state house and had a tour of the building. Impressive for sure. Some beautiful architecture to be sure. Our tour guide was awesome.  Total Boston accent. In fact he said "horse" three times before I understood what he was saying. 

Afterwards, we walked down the street to Beantown Pub and had lunch. Clam chowdah again, along with a side of boston baked beans that were disgusting. Blech. Thank god I ordered the deep fried pickles too. The chowder was good, but not as good as Ned Devine's.

Janet had two funny sayings during lunch that had me in stitches...

"Can I dip my spoon in your chowdah?" and "Anyone want this big pickle?" I don't know why both struck my funny bone, but they did.

After that we visited one of the oldest cemeteries and it's where all the patriot were buried. I love old graveyards and what not. This one did not disappoint. 

We noticed many of the tombstones had a skeleton head and wings behind it. It was, apparently, depicting something but we had no idea what. I had to do some research to find out. 

Turns out...they're called "death heads" 

"A death's head, often with wings and/or crossed bones, was a stylized skull. Some have speculated that winged skulls were intended to symbolize a combination of physical death and spiritual regeneration. ... The death's head, a non-religious symbol was the first imagery employed in gravestone carving."

Now you know...

After that Lori and Janet were in full 3day mode so we left them there and Kathy and I headed back to the hotel.

Except on our way, we had to see ONE more stop on the freedom trail and while it was being renovated it gave Kathy and excuse to go get more cannoli from Mike's. I hung out in Faneuli plaza and watched people. We decided to take the metro from there. Which had us taking the orange line to the red line. While trying to find the orange line I swear it felt like we were walking to the downtown crossing to get the red line. In fact, by the time we did get the orange line, it was just one stop down for the red line.

The 3Day - Fri through Sun

The next three days were all about the 3day. Boston is NOT a place to try to stalk. So Kathy and I found the cheering stations and cheered from there. 

The closing was fantastic. The park was very cool. 

After we all headed to No Name Restaurant for some seafood. Interesting little restaurant. It was recommended by many of the trolley drivers. It was good, but not a place I'd have to go back to. 

Post 3 day Janet, Kathy and I were spending Monday and Tuesday seeing a few more sights around the Boston area. 

Monday Sept 9 was all about Salem. The BEST part about Salem was that my good friend from my childhood Christy joined us. She and her family live in Webster and she met us at the hotel and road with us to Salem. 

Salem wasn't what I expected. For some reason I had in my head it's just a historic little town and nothing else. We took the trolley around town to see the sights. We didn't get much about the Witch trials. We didn't have time to go into the museum which bummed me out a bit, but I was tired and I didn't want to have everyone wait for me. 

We ate at the Tavern on the Green - supposedly the best burger in town. It was good, but wasn't the "best" in my opinion. 

Tuesday, Sept 10 we headed to Cape Cod

It was so freaking beautiful. Well, Cape Cod is the land mass, the towns we stopped at were Hyannis and Provincetown (P Town). We drove around Hyannis to see the mansions and the Kennedy compound. Amazing. None could we afford and most guest houses were bigger than our houses. Impressive. 

We stopped at this little Cafe called Wimpy's for lunch. Again...more fantastic chowder. I had fried shrimp too - which I can't resist ever. 

We continued driving around the cape and ended up at the very tip top of the "toe" of the boot. Walked onto the beach and dipped our toes in the sea...well Kathy and Janet did. My delicate little feet were not happy about the sand/rock combo. 

So that's that. The Boston trip. I really didn't want to go because work was so chaotic and I hated leaving the team down one soul...but it all worked out. I got a chance to do a lot of thinking about work and came to some good decisions that put me in a good place now. 

Next trip...well I'm heading to Gold Beach in November for a scrapbooking thing with my scrap peeps. 

My Give A Damn...

It may or may not be busted. Jury's still out.

What

A

Week

I knew work life would become very chaotic and I knew it would mean more hours and I was basically ok with that. I still had hope. I still saw a future that a new CEO would change a few things. I believed in the hope from my leadership and other people around you.

But...

When I witnessed my foundation show the smallest, well rather large actually, crack this week I felt that small glimmer of hope I had had been snuffed out. I had been riding this wave of hope on someone else's surf board.

What to do now?

On Tuesday I would have told you I was going to move on. Despite how much I love my job, and the people I work with, I didn't have any hope, all I had was despair...and I felt like I was at the bottom of the pit.

Tuesday evening I updated my resume. I did some searches on the Internet for jobs. Found nothing, found some that were meh...but didn't do anything.

Wednesday I ran into a colleague at the water cooler. He asked how my day was and I responded by saying, "It's only 10am...we'll see".

Then he began to tell me a story...seemingly not related to my comment. He tells me that he and his wife get this email that's a photo of the day and it comes with a story behind the photo.  He remembers one where the photo was of a man in the sulfur pits who's job was bringing the sulfur from the volcano crater out to be processed and sold. He was covered in grime. Noxious gases all around him. Over his shoulders was a large log and on the ends were the buckets of sulfur. He was climbing out of the crater with this load.

Then he said that this guys best day looked worse than any day my colleague had had. Which he followed with "It's all about perspective."

Huh...a lesson at the water cooler.

It is about perspective. And it is about attitude. And most the times I'm content with how things are at work and how I deal with them. With the last two weeks and the insanity around the RIFs I think it finally got to me. I finally felt defeated enough to have myself a small pity party. And you know what? I'm ok with that. I know I have choices around whether I stay or leave? And I know that many friends and family don't understand why I stay (sometimes I don't either). But the truth is, I still love my job. I still love the people I work with. Do I wish things were different/better? Yes. Will they get better? Don't know. Am I willing to stay and find out? Yep.

I'm not naive in thinking that this new CEO could come in and not do wonderful things. It could still suck more than not suck. I'm willing to give him a chance, a real chance and try to be open minded about what he's about. I have a deadline in my head that will be the point in which I determine my future there. But in the meantime, I'm going to practice thinking about perspective and how different it is for every one of us.

I'm not mining sulfur. So I guess this is a good day.

Life just gets more crazier

For many years I've said my life theme song is Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne. It seems fitting. There are days where life isn't that crazy, and then there are days where, well, life just sucks.

Its been a rough couple of weeks at work and crazy is putting it mildly. I'd love to say it isn't going to get any crazier, but I fear if just may for a month or so. I still love what I do and enjoy all the people I work with, so that's helpful. But sometimes business decisions make work not so fun or easy.

The stress of work has often sent me into a tailspin with eating. I'm a stress and emotional eater. The more stressed I am, the more I want convenience, the more likely I am to eat fast food. You add any emotion into that mix and it's a horrible combination.

My go to has always been food. Food will save me. Food will make it all better. Food will alleviate the stress. 

Turns out...that's not true. I know! Shocking.

Food will save me, but not the type of food that used to save me. I had three nights last week where I left work late and all I wanted to do was swing into XYZ fast food joint and make dinner easy. I argued with myself all the way home about the options. I told myself lies like, "Just swing into the teriyaki place and just get chicken." I knew I wouldn't. I knew my emotions would yell and scream to get the chicken, rice and gyoza. Surely once I ate that I'd feel better. And I might...for a moment.

Each night the health won. Each night I managed to convince myself that the best thing I could do for myself and my emotions is to stay on plan. If I didn't, it would be ONE more stress that I'd be adding to myself. It wasn't worth it.

I also just discovered that I think I have to give up my Sunday treat of the Starbucks Ham and Cheese croissant. I love these. But my stomach really doesn't. This is the second Sunday in a row that I've gotten one and the second Sunday in a row that I feel gross and can't be too far from the facilities. On the plus side it's cleaning me out. But nope...I think it has to go.

I need bread of some type in my life, so I'm stepping out and trying all sorts of recipes that are low carb. So far it's been hit or miss on how good it us, but I'm convinced I'll find something that works. Today I'm making ranch crackers.

15

I'm rounding up.

My goal was to be 15 lbs down by today and I'm 14.8...so I'm rounding up. One good pee and it would be 15.

I feel great. I'm happy at my progress and proud of myself for sticking to this. I'm convinced this is the right path for me and I'm going to keep pushing forward.

In other non low carb related news, I've been reading like a crazy person. Summer is often full of reruns on TV. I've been known to leave the TV on and completely veg in front of it. I decided about 5 weeks ago to turn off the TV. I watch the news, and maybe a couple little shows, but turn it off by 7. Then I read. I've ready 10 books in the past 5 weeks. Not all are literary WOWs, but some are. I don't have any "rules" around reading heavier books over mushy books. I just want to keep reading and keep the TV off.

Some of my favorites:
The Light Between Oceans. This is the book club book for this month and I was hooked. It's a great story that builds slowly, peaks then let's you down easy. I adored this book.

Speak This is book's audience is probably more teens, but I found it interesting. It's about a girl, a rumor, and the truth. Easy quick read.

Echoes BY FAR the best book I've ready all year. I love Maeve Binchy and this book did not disappoint. I found myself when I was done wondering if the characters made it to the city. I got wrapped up in the lives and the story.

The Girl You Left Behind. Ohhhh this book. I can still feel how I felt when reading this book. Jojo Moyes also wrote Me Before You - which I loved. So I wasn't too surprised this was such a good book. It takes place in WWII and the story is so delicate and so raw that I couldn't put it down.

So get reading. Got any recommendations?

Breakfasts are hard

This low carb thing requires I eat breakfast. I am not a breakfast person, but have learned that I have to be. It does make a difference. All that "it's the most important meal of the day" I think is kinda true.

What makes breakfast hard for me is I'm not an egg fan. I've had to come up with other alternatives.  But what makes it easy for me is I could eat cold pizza for breakfast....in other words, traditional breakfast foods are not required for my breakfast.

So I thought it might be worth dropping a few "recipes" of what I've done for breakfasts.

Bento Boxes
My favorite has been my "Bento Box Breakfast". You see them at Starbucks all the time and those are pricy, but they're easy to make. I bought myself some "bento" lunch boxes on Amazon and use them for  my breakfasts.

Ham Bento - Total Carbs - less than 3, protein around 20 grams
2 oz Black Forest Ham (or any ham you like)
1 hard boiled egg
1 oz hard cheese

I swap out ham with turkey or salami occasionally. Getting the hard boiled egg down is always a struggle for me. I eat it first so I don't say "i'm full" and then not eat it.

I've also done bento boxes with salami, cucumber, cheese and almonds. You can do a combination of anything. The options are endless.

Ham/Cream cheese roll ups
2 oz black forest ham
1 to 2 Tablespoons cream cheese ( you can use the lower fat, but I don't bother)
I spread the cream cheese on the piece of ham and roll it up. It's surprisingly good. Sometimes I've put a green onion in the middle and roll it, but not that often.

Easy Keto Ham and Cheese Rolls
These were fantastic. I did egg "muffins" before, but they were too eggy. These turn out like muffin tops. I've made them with bacon as the protein and ham as the protein. I prefer the bacon. You could toss anything into these too: onions, mushrooms, spinach, etc.

My most recent favorite is these protein, cheese "burrito" rolls.  Mission has carb friendly (I think they're called Carb Balance) tortillas. The wheat tortillas are 13 grams of carbs, but 10 grams of fiber per tortilla - which means it's 3 grams net carbs (carbs minus fiber). I've been taking those and slathering with a combo of mayo and mustard, putting 2 oz ham (or turkey) and 2 oz swiss cheese and roll those babies as a burrito. These have been the perfect breakfast so far.

There are a ton of blogs with Keto friendly, low carb recipes. Again, I'm not doing Keto, but their recipes are exactly what I needed to get this moving forward.

First 4 weeks of the rest of my life

I have officially been eating low carb / high protein for 4 weeks. A lot has changed in those 4 weeks. Here's a small list...

1. Heard the big "D" word...
2. Lost 12 lbs
3. Averaged 68 grams of carbs (should be between 50 - 70)
4. Averaged 87 grams of protein (should be closer to 110)
5. Way too many eggs eaten - blech
6. Averaged 3 gym visits a week
7. Feel fantastic!
8. Learned that eating carbs in large amounts makes me sick
9. I can do this!

It's been quite a trip for 4 weeks. I've learned a lot about food, what's in it, what to avoid, what to eat more of, etc. I have a lot more to learn.

I've learned my body doesn't like large amounts of carbs anymore. The Saturday's when I allowed myself to eat carbs I've felt like crap. So not worth it anymore. And I don't seem to crave it as much now as I did. Though after a big workout I really crave salt and my salt go to has always been chips.

I've learned to read labels. In fact, I fell for some marketing around cauliflower pasta. I was all excited to try it. Only to find out it has as many carbs as regular pasta. You gotta read what's in it. The "diet" world is sneaky and they will misinform.

I probably have a lot more to learn and I look forward to what my life holds ahead of me...with less carbs in me.

A Reading Frenzy

Several years ago, well almost 12 now, I had a goal every year to read 52 books. That's about one book a week. And I found that I did it, and then some, year after year. It was great. I felt like my brain was engaged on a regular basis.

Now these books weren't always masterpieces or epic tales or even good. I didn't expect them to be. I expected to be entertained for a short period of time and move on. In fact, I so often "moved on" immediately. Finishing one book and immediately picking up another. I may not remember most those stories or be able to recount the plot in any of them. But that wasn't the point for me back then. My goal was to read. My goal wasn't to retain.

The key to that success? No cable. I didn't have anything to watch or any way to sit in front of the picture tube and watch endless tales of murder, mayhem, romance, drama etc. I had cancelled my cable to save some coin. And it was worth it 100%.

Over the years my goal has dipped and dropped to where I no longer even have a goal. I think in the back of my head I figure I can read about 12-20 books a year so that's about all I do. 12 of them are likely book club books - so I'm not even doing much work searching out books I want to read.

3 weeks ago I finished a book called The Girl You Left Behind and devoured it in a 24 hour period. I couldn't stop reading it. I couldn't put it down. I had to hear the story of these two women and how they intertwined.

Finished that book and was hungry for another. Then I picked up my selection for book club for July, Love and Ruin - finished that in 2 days. Sorted my Nook by the oldest and started from the bottom. Read a book from one of my favorite fantasy authors, a somewhat trashy novel, a FANTASTIC book by Maeve Binchy called Echoes, picked up Speak - read it in a day and then last night finished Paper Towns by John Green.

All those books are so different and varied stories that I found myself last night comparing this lust for reading I suddenly have to my life style change the HAS to happen.

Historically my "dieting" habit has been a bit like my reading life. I kick ass at it for some time, then fall off and eat God knows what, then I hop back on, fall off, rinse, lather, repeat.

The thing is, now with having some knowledge of what is happening to my body, or could potentially happen to my body, with diabetes looming in the background, I can't afford to have that merry-go-round approach. The last three weeks of reading frenzy coincides with the last three weeks of my low carb/high protein approach. I'm sure one doesn't have to do with the other, but maybe. Maybe reading burns calories? Hah...I wish.

My point is, as much as I hate the idea of having diabetes or dealing with that, I hate the idea of having to eat "healthy" for the rest of my life. The difference for me now is I'm eating healthy FOR my life. And with my history of falling off the wagon, that scares the living crap out of me. I'm doing great now, but it's only been three weeks.

My brain says Yes. My fat ass is skeptical. And my heart lies somewhere in between.

In the books that I've read over this last three weeks there hasn't always been a great A-HA moment and the moral of the story hasn't always been clear or obvious to me. But the moral to my story is I don't have to be perfect. I have to be aware and take each day, each meal, one by one. The big picture is scary and daunting...the little bits of the picture is not. When I started reading Echoes and realized it's a 494 page book. I almost put it down. "That's too many pages", said my brain. But I read the book chapter by chapter. One at a time. And as I did the story unfolded.  Maybe my new life can be the same. Just maybe.

The Big D

I've  now finished three weeks of this low carb/high protein diet. I've lost about 10 lbs (9.8). I feel fantastic. It's challenging, but not difficult - if that makes sense.

Today I met with my doctor to go over my lab results. I haven't had my blood work done for about 4 years and he thought it'd be good to see where we are so we can track my success.

Turns out I am borderline diabetic. Actually, according to the numbers I do have diabetes, but just barely. 6.4AC1 is officially diabetic, I'm at 6.5. He's not overly concerned because I'm on a good path right now and this news gives me yet another reason to get my life more healthy.

In order to help get this under control relatively quickly he wants me to take Victoza - which is a injectible - oh goody - for 6 months. He believes with the way I'm eating, the exercise in my life and this it should drop my AC1 relatively quickly (he didn't say what "relatively quickly" actually means).

I wasn't surprised at this information. I think I kinda secretly knew I might be on the borderline or fully with diabetes. And it's absolutely what I feared. But now I know. I have the data. I know what has to be done. I am thankful that I'm taking these steps now so this doesn't get any worse.

Other numbers that I got is my cholesterol. For 25 years I've been at 149 - but it's up to 150. GASP!! He's not at all worried about that number and was, as they always are, surprised.

Vitamin D is down so he's asking me to take a bit more dosages of Vitamin D. Being in Seattle I'm not surprised this is down. It's like the badge of honor in the Pacific Northwest.

So here we are. I've got information, I've got a plan and I'm ready to get this all under control. I've been saying all along this new way of eating is more about my health than my weight and I meant it. I'm happy with where I am and know where I need to go. Now the real work begins.

Carbs are the Devil

Week one of low carb/high protein eating! I've gotta say it was easier than I had planned. In fact, the fact that I had planned is likely what made it easy.

I know from my past experiences that if I don't take the time to plan and prep that I am destined to make bad choices (lazy wins usually).

Last week I ate 80% on plan. I had a couple of blips primarily because of me, but also social situations which I still have a hard time dealing with.

Here's the deal though - I know that if I go 100% low carb then the weight will drop off. The reality is this, life is life for me. My world revolves around food. Always have. I want the type of life where I can have something carby and still succeed. I'm being cautious most of the time, but open to the fact that I will make bad choices - sometimes on purpose.

Does that make sense?

I want this to be a change for life. Do I know that I will fall off at some point? Maybe. I don't want to, but I might. I am being honest with myself and trying to spin the positive over the negative (not my strong suit). For example, last week I had a small bag of chips. I didn't just toss in the towel. I recognized I purposely ate it and I was ok with that. I moved on to the next meal.

My process is to spend Saturday planning the week's meals and snacks. I use a template I created to put what my plan is for each day. I have it add up total carbs, fiber and protein.  As I add things, I can see how it adjusts my carb count and decide if I can "afford" to have that meal or snack. It feels like a game of jenga some times, but it's also interesting. The things that have carbs in it is astounding. Last week I selected a meal that had a banana in it. Did you knows a 6 in banana has 22 carbs? That's like 1/3rd of what I'm allowed for the day. Sheesh

Once I do my grocery shopping, I then wash veggies, cut lettuce, prep any meat that needs to be cooked during the week, put my snacks together for the week, etc. The fridge is then a well prepped tool that will mean I most likely WON'T make a bad decision.

Here's what I've learned this week about reducing carbs:
1. Fatigue. Lord the fatigue. My brain is trying to process what the hell is happening because I don't have as much glucose in my system and it causes fatigue (there's a chance the fatigue could be low in magnesium too). There were days I'd get home and just want to nap.

2. Carbs are everywhere. My carb total is really net carbs (meaning carbs minus fiber). As I mentioned about the banana - 22g of carbs, and only 1 g fiber. Not overly helpful, but still.

3. High protein blocks you up. Yep. No matter how much water you drink or fiberish items you eat, constipation is real. I'll be asking the doctor about taking extra fiber.

4. Down 5.5 lbs. In one week I'm down 5.5 lbs. I'm sure it's water weight. The first week is always pretty high for me. My goal is between 1 and 1.5 lbs a week.

I also started the personal trainer up again this week. It had been a month and he did not pity me at all. Which I guess is why I am paying him. I didn't get to the gym any other night - the fatigue was so great I just couldn't. I hurt like the dickens on Friday after the work out on Thursday. Ugh. I did get to the gym on Saturday and did the high interval training on the elliptical and then some of the resistance the trainer had showed me. It felt good.

So here we are. A week in. I'm feeling motivated and for the first time in a very long time, I didn't sabotage myself on the weekend. I've eaten pretty well this weekend. I had dinner with friends last night and actually planned on eating carbs. It was my "free" meal. I didn't feel guilty at all and I didn't go all out. Kept it relatively low cal.

I can't wait to see how this next week shakes out. The plan is set and I can't see any reason why I can't succeed this week. One meal at a time.

Low Carb / High Protein - It's a go!

In 2015 I visited a nutritionist who put me on a low carb and high protein eating plan. It worked. I was the problem. I hit a plateau and I stopped all together. Guess who gained all that weight back? Ahhhh this girl. 

Health has been on my mind a lot lately. I'm most likely pre-diabetic (getting blood checked soon) and I really REALLY don't want to be diabetic in any way shape or form. 

I also started thinking about Dad and how judgy I was when he'd eat crazy things and he was diabetic and I'd be all, "Why can't you make better decisions?" And here I am...totally capable of making better decisions...so why not. 

If you've read my blog for the years I've been doing it, or know me in any way, you know dieting is ALWAYS a part of my life. I wish I had the discipline required to really stick to something. Here's the thing...I'm an all or nothing personality and I use that to my disadvantage. 

For example, diets to me mean that I have to deprive myself of things I love. That makes me angry and I then stop. Truth is...it doesn't deprive me. It means I have to be honest about eating all that good unhealthy stuff in moderation. I mean, let's face it, very few of us are "on" our eating plan all the time. But if I can be on it 80% of the time, that's OK with me. Life is life and I want to be able to enjoy it where food is concerned. My life revolves around food. Always have...and it always will. So why not embrace it. 

Here's the thing, I am in control of what I put in my mouth. Let's make it mostly good stuff. 

I started planning and cooking prior to vacation and felt really good about the decisions I was making. Didn't weigh myself much so not sure if any weight was actually lost. The number is just that...a number. I FELT better. That is worth it to me. Also, turns out I didn't gain an ounce on vacation. Which is odd considering how we ate. But I'll take it. 

Anyone interested in joining me and keeping us all accountable, let me know. I'm all in. 

Exercising will start up again tomorrow. I came back with a heckuva cold and just didn't feel the exercising. Trainer begins again tomorrow. 

So, let's talk about what I'm actually doing. 

Carbs. 

Dr. B wants me to be less than 70 grams of net carbs a day. Net carbs is basically carbs minus fiber. So if you have something that's 20 grams of carbs and 5 grams of fiber, you have 15 net grams of carbs. This will be the toughest thing for me. I LOVE my carbs. 

He wants me to be at 110grams of protein a day. This, oddly, is also hard. People get a lot of protein with eggs and I'm not a fan of eggs, so I'll have to figure something out. 

Lastly, he'd like to keep my calories at 1800. That should be easy. 

Now...time to get cooking for dinner. What's for dinner...? Cowboy Style Beef with Veggie Ragout. 

Post Trip Dealing

I say every time I go on vacation, "It's always great to leave. But always great to come home." What is it about home that we love so much? Traveling is exciting. An adventure, seeing new things, experiencing a new culture...and yet we crave, and look forward, to coming home.

I've decided because home is comfortable.

I like home. I like my bed (or recliner). I like my shower. And I miss my kitties...despite them being little demons.

Been home for almost a week and getting back into the swing of things. Brought back one heckuva cold too. Janet and I airborne and Emergence C like crazy people when we travel. We have gallons of Purel at our disposal.  I become a germaphobe when I travel.  Sure that I won't get sick.

And yet...

Now I'm wondering if doing all that actually makes me sick. So next time I travel I'm going to just not do all that and see what happens. I mean, what could possibly happen? I get sick. Just like I am now.

Anywhooo...

Visited a dietitian on Tuesday to start a new low carb high protein plan. I did this in 2015 and was successful for a time on it. Like all "diets" I tend to not think about how I have to change my life and just want to lose weight.  These days my mind is more on health and what I need to do to become more healthy, weight # be damned.  I've read a lot on low carb and have watched a number of friends be successful on it. I cannot go cold turkey because I know myself that an "all or nothing" approach just makes me want to cheat. So I'm going to ease into this.

Dr. wants me to be less than 70 grams of Carbs a day. He originally started with 50 and I said that wasn't a possibility to begin with. I explained my "all or nothing" mentality and he adjusted for me. Truthfully even getting close to 70 grams a day will be tough. These are also "net carbs" not all carbs. What that means is if something has 20 carbs in it and 5 grams of fiber, then I count 15 carbs.

My protein intake should be about 120grams a day...which is a LOT of protein.

I really want to focus on this and get myself into a better shape. I have no goal on weight at this moment. I may, but for now my goal is to just focus on eating well and working out regularly.

Let the games begin!

That's a Wrap

Sitting here in the hotel in Copenhagen I find myself reflecting on the vacation. It's one of my most favorite times of the vacation - which sounds weird I know - but I love to think about all the things I've learned, what I'd do different for the next, things to keep doing, etc. Basically a post mortem.

A friend of mine told me that she often looks at he favorite, least favorite and the just okay after each day. I did that with the group when we went to Scotland. It's pretty common that we all have the same favorites, but there are times when we don't.

Janet asked me today my favorites.

Copenhagen and the time we spent there is by far the favorite. Seeing so much of the city and getting to spend time with good friend from TASIS, Claudia. That was awesome. So much history I didn't know but was glad to have learned.

The cruise was harder to find a favorite. This wasn't my most favorite cruise, but it still ranks up there. Norway is a beautiful country. Too bad we couldn't see some of it because of the rain and, for me, because my foot wasn't playing well with others. I missed out on a few towns and walking around them because of the sore foot.

Of the stops on the cruise, Geiranger was my favorite, followed by Stavanger and the fjords we didn't see because of rain. Geiranger was just beautiful. Gorgeous weather, all types of weather in one day and such beauty all around. Stavanger, the fact the rain, cold and wind were about made me laugh. You fly half way around the world to see something and Mother nature has her own plans. The fact we stood in front of this boat with our camera's ready, wet and frozen makes me smile. It's one of my favorite moments.

Least favorite was Kristiansand. Our excursion was boring and didn't offer anything interesting. The little town we stopped in was cute, but closed up tight so couldn't even go into shops. The boat ride was fun to be on a boat, but we were basically floating around looking at everyone's summer homes.

I'm certainly not disappointed in coming on this trip. Never disappointed in traveling. And, as I said, Norway is beautiful. It did not surpass the Barcelona cruise, Ireland or Scotland though.

Royal Caribbean cruise line wasn't great. I found I compared everything to Norwegian - which is my favorite, and Royal Caribbean just didn't meet the expectation. The cabin was nice, clean and large enough to not feel closed in. The main dining experience was great (other than we had to sit with other people and that's not one of my favorite things. It turned out nice though.). Their buffet/cafeteria options sucked. Nothing great upstairs. A ton of disrespectful rude people and the food was just meh.

On a scale of one to 10, I would give this trip a solid 7.

Now, time to get home. Earn more $$. Get more vacation and plan the next trip - which is actually Boston in Sept - then a cruise in May.

Signing off from Denmark. See you all back in the states.

Kristiansand, Norway

The last port of call...and guess what SUNSHINE!

Our excursion today left the ship at 7:15 AM. We had to get up pretty early to get ready, get breakfast, bathroom break and get to the bus. But we did it.

We were off to see Lillisand by land and by sea. I didn't really do any research on Lillisand so I wasn't really sure what to expect. It's a small town just out of Kristainsand that is quaint and cute. NONE of the shops were open because we were there so early, so it was a rather pointless stop. In fact, several people were grumbling that it wasn't worth it because it was all closed up.

I found it interesting in that I love the white houses and the small streets that make up small towns. Was it great? Nope. But it was something different and in Norway.

After that we hopped on a scooner to tour around the many, many islands in this area. It was 32F outside so being on an open boat was freezing. I am not sure I'll thaw before September. But it was a sunny day and the the area is beautiful. Tons of white houses dotted the coast line with their little red boat houses in front. All summer homes. All handed down in the families from generation to generation.

We were back at the ship by 11am. Janet and I needed a cup of something hot and lunch. We took a quick break then Janet headed out to see the town, and I opted for a lazy afternoon in the sun. I sat out on our deck in the sun and just soaked it all in.

Tomorrow is another sea day then we are back in Copenhagen. This trip has gone so fast that I can't believe it's almost over. Ah well, all good things my come to an end.  It just means we have to start planning our next trip.

Stavanger, Norway

Day 3 on the ports of call, Stavanger Norway. Stavanger is "famous" for its oil - oh yah and a few of the most amazing, and famous, fjords around.

It's the third largest city in Norway (behind Oslo and Bergen) and has about 150,000 people living here.

The tour today took us out on a boat in the rain, cold, and wind. We were to tour the Lysefjord - which is one of the most picturesque of them all...only we couldn't see most of it. The clouds hung low and wouldn't burn off today. My main point I wanted to see was the famous cliff Preikestolen or Pulpit rock.

Here's what it looks like from above - and do notice there is no fence around it. Nothing stopping you and gravity...

Or this...it's way the hell up there 1900 Feet from sea level...

Here's what you'd see if you were on the water and zoomed in slightly and there weren't any clouds.

Here's what we saw...

I guess we really didn't have it as bad as the people who paid to do a 4 hour hike to Pulpit Rock in the rain, wind and cold only to get there to see nothing.

We did see some beautiful scenery though, despite the low clouds and the frozen tundra. I'd love to do this particular tour again when it was sunny, I can just imagine how beautiful it is.

Lysefjord means light fjord, and is said to be derived from the lightly colored granite rocks along its sides. The fjord was carved by the action of glaciers in the ice ages and was flooded by the sea when the later glaciers retreated. End to end, it measures 26 mi with rocky walls falling nearly vertically over 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) into the water. Not only is the fjord long and narrow, it is in places as deep as the mountains are high. Starting at a depth of only 43 ft deep where it meets the sea near Forsand village, the Lysefjord then heads inland and drops to a depth of over 1,300 ft below the Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock).

To say it was breathtaking really doesn't do it justice. It's like photos of the grand canyon, you really can't "see" how large it is in a photo.

Halfway through the trip we stopped a little house on the waterfront and had Norwegian waffles and hot coffee. So delicious and so warm. 

Tomorrow were off to our last port of call, Kristiansand. Hope for sun...I know it's up there somewhere.

Bergen, Norway

Who's bright idea was it to come to Norway in May? Wow...it's cold today. Rainy and windy.  If both of those stopped it'd be a beautiful day.

Bergen is the second largest city in Norway (Oslo being the largest). It has 250,000 people who live here. I really couldn't figure out what industry was here for the people to work, but their unemployment is super low so there must be something.

We got off the ship this morning around 10 and took a city tour and that tour would eventually stop at an Ice Bar.

It was raining so hard this morning we really couldn't get any good photos from the bus, plus Bergen isn't overly interesting. There's not a lot of history here. The one piece of history they do have is this is where the Black Plague started in Norway.

Some town folk saw this boat adrift and decided to bring it in. All on board were dead, but there was still food. Thinking they no longer needed said food, which was grain, they brought it into town. The grain, of course had rats in it who had fleas that were carrying the plague. The rest, as they say, is history. The plague wiped out 50% of Norway's population.

The best part of today was the stop at the Magic Ice Bar. An entire bar made of solid blocks of ice. It's sub-zero in the bar so they give you gloves and parkas to wear inside. Thank god they did or I would have froze. It was so cool (pardon the pun) inside. They poured us a welcome drink from a bottle called Frost - I'm still trying to find it on the Internet. Our tour guide said it was 20% alcohol but it really didn't taste that strong. Whatever it was, it certainly warmed us up.

Back on the boat, we're spending the afternoon just laying around and trying to keep warm. Did I mention it was cold today? When we got on the bus it was 45F. But the wind...sheesh...it was cold.

Geiranger, Norway

We arrived in beautiful Geiranger this morning at 7am. When we threw back the curtains we were stunned at the beauty all around us.

The geirangerfjord is one of the most spectacular sights I've ever seen. The fjord is 260 meters deep while surrounding mountains are 1600 to 1700 meters high. Yah, I didn't have a clue how high or deep that was either, so handy Google converted it for me.

1600 meters is 5249 feet. 1700 is 5577 feet. 260 meters deep is 853 feet deep.

The mountains that surrounds this fjord is covered in the most amazing waterfalls. Every time you turn around there's another waterfall.

We took a scenic view and fjord museum trip today. We stopped at two view points high in the mountains on different ends of this part of the fjord. The first they called Eagles Bent. The road to get up there was the most amazing switch back.

The view from the top looked back towards the village of Geiranger.  200 people live in Geirganger and they host 650,000 tourists a year. Most the town shuts down from Sept to May when no one can really get to Geiranger.

From this view point we headed to the Fjord center. They had a museum in it that showed how the early settlers lived and farmed this area. There's not much to farm here that's for sure. Most of the farms are deserted.

The Fjord Center

Following that we went up to our last view point, flydalsjuvet viewpoint. Don't even ask me how to pronounce it. Once we got to the top and hopped out of the bus...it started snowing. Not heavy or anything, but snow all the same. I looked at Janet and said, "I don't think we've ever had snow on one of our trips.".

Leaving Geiranger we sailed past one of the waterfalls I was hoping to see the Seven Sisters. It's 1370 ft tall, and is the 39th tallest waterfall in Norway. Let that sink in for a moment...it's the 39th...that means there are 38 that are taller and this one felt REALLY tall.

As I've been writing this I've been watching the majestic fjord pass by our window. We've just made it out of the fjord back to open sea and the boat is rocking a bit. WEEEEE...

Tomorrow we're in Bergen. We're doing a city tour and a stop at an Ice bar. Can't wait to see that.

Copenhagen - Part 1, 2 and 3...

Hello from Beautiful Copenhagen!

Well, technically we're no longer in Copenhagen but currently cruising up the Denmark coast on our way to Norway. I haven't had a reliable network connection, or a real trusting electricity converter so my computer died. But now on a US based ship I have our brand of electricity and everything...I mean EVERYTHING is charging.

We hopped on the ship today around noon and will be on the  Royal Caribbean Serenade of the Seas for 7 nights and 8 days. These cruise ships are very much floating cities. They're massive and this one is no difference. I'm not sure how many total on board, but we do know it's only 400 Americans. Which I noticed right away. It's very European, Asian and Indian. A nice diversity.

Before I get too far into the cruise, let's talk Copenhagen. We spent 3 lovely days there touring the city and hanging with my BFF from high School Claudia. It was such a riot to see her again. It's true what they say about good friends...no matter how much time passes, you pick up right where you left off. She's a delightful person I'm so glad we've remained friends all these years.

We got in VERY late on the 22nd after what felt like the world's longest flight. We left right on time on fancy Virgin Atlantic airlines (I'm so in love with this airline). When Janet and I got to the airport I discovered I had mistyped Janet's last name and missed the "p" in Wraspir. The ticket counter supervisor (John) and his pal Kay took care of us. John spent an hour calling all over hell's half acre to make sure the name change was corrected everywhere so we'd not run into trouble. And then he upgraded us for them taking so long. So I said to him, "Let me get this straight...I screwed up and you're upgrading me?" He just smiled and said he felt it took him too long to straighten out. Ok.

So we got premium seats which meant we had a TON of leg room. Nothing else special. But it's Virgin so everything was special.

That lovely flight followed with an 8 hour layover in Heathrow. We had to go to SAS - our next airline - to make sure the name change worked and there'd be no problems. It was in a completely different terminal. And after me hobbling over to it we only had about 5.5 hours before the flight and we figured it was probably safer to just wait it out. We went and grabbed some breakfast and coffee and just hung around the airport. I joked with Janet about feeling like we were living in the airport now.

The flight on SAS was only 2 hours, but a completely different experience. They charge for everything. You want a coke? It'll cost ya.

We landed and got in a cab and were at our hotel by 10pm. It was still VERY light out. I hadn't thought about being this far north and having it be daylight longer.

Our hotel was fantastic. Mrs. Landlord recommended it and we loved it. The Copenhagen Plaza is central, it's clean, it's old but nice. It was perfect. They put us in a top floor room (6th floor) overlooking the famous Tivoli gardens. So from our bed we could watch all the rides in Tivoli. Then our last night there, last night, they had a spectacular fireworks show that we watched snuggled in our own beds. I highly recommend this place. It was right next to one of the Tivoli gardens exits and the train station, but once we figured out closing the windows at night, it wasn't bad at all.

As is usual for us, we did the Hop on Hop off bus, with an added bonus of a canal cruise. So we got up and met Claudia bright and early on Thursday and off we went to ride the bus. It was a beautiful day in Copenhagen and we really lucked out with that weather. In fact, I laughed because I took my sunscreen off my packing list because I figured I was coming to Copenhagen and wouldn't need it. I got a bit burnt on Thursday. 

That afternoon Claudia had to leave to go pick up her kids and so Janet and I hopped on the canal cruise and we cruised through all the canals in Copenhagen. Fascinating. And in some areas some serious money on the water. Tons of nice boats and expensive looking house boats. It was just great.

On Friday morning, same thing. We met Claudia for breakfast and coffee, hopped on the bus and headed to the royal palace to watch the changing of the guards. I love stuff like this. All the tradition. All the pomp and circumstance that goes on. They certainly aren't as fancy as they would be if the queen was in town, but I loved it all the same. Claudia mentioned that if we left a bit early and found a cafe along this one road to sit and eat, we'd see the guard march down the street. By the time we got sat out side, had our beers and ordered lunch we had forgotten all about the guard. I happened to glance down the street and they were right there!

Before I go any further...let me tell you about the food. I wasn't really sure what to expect. I had done some research and had read about all the seafood they have and I wasn't really looking forward to three days of fish. Turns out that is a part of the cuisine, but not the only part. They have these opened faced sandwiches called...Smørrebrød. There are so many options to choose from. You can have pickled herring or roast beef. Chicken Salad or shrimp. Everywhere we went for lunch that's what we had. I had fried fish on one. I had roast beef with these amazing sauces and small salads on the. I had Danish meatballs on one...the list goes on. I decided I think I'm going to do a Sunday dinner with these guys...The bread is almost always rye bread and as Claudia put it, just a holder for the good stuff. It's not necessarily something they "eat" all the time. We did. We couldn't shovel it in fast enough. 

For other meals I had fried fish... of course...I had a chicken coq au vin that was out of this world.

And the beer...oh boy. When we were in Ireland all I talked about was wanting to drink Guinness. What I found was a whole world of other Irish beers that I loved. Denmark was similar. I came over assuming Carlsberg was all there was...and it is delicious. But they also have this beer called Tuborg that was so much better than Carlsberg. I drank both...a couple of times. 

That's really Copenhagen in a nutshell. I couldn't possibly list all the things we saw and did. Heck, most of you are on FB and already see that I'm sure. 

I've been a bit bummed because my foot is acting up and it's slowing me down. Janet's a good sport about it and I've told her a couple of times to "leave me behind" and she won't. I was really hoping it would work itself out by now...but alas it did not. I feel like an old broken lady...now I know what Mom felt like. 

Tomorrow is a day at sea as we make our way up the coast of Denmark. We'll go up and over to Norway landing in Geiranger on Tuesday. So stay tuned.

Denmark / Norway or Bust....

And we're off...or just about.

Janet and I are headed out to see the world again. This time Denmark and Norway.  We booked this trip a year ago and it's come up so quickly I barely had time to research. To be fair, I've not done nearly the research I normally do, but I feel prepared all the same. I'll be pleasantly surprised on things I learn THERE instead of before.

The bags are packed and they've been thoroughly CAT scanned. These two have been suspicious for a

couple of days now...since the blue bag came out. They know. They've been down this road before and know it'll be a couple of weeks before they see me BUT really cool cat sitters come by and spoil them.

We are spending Wed - Saturday in Copenhagen seeing the sights and me getting a chance to see my high school BFF from TASIS who lives there. I'm so excited to see her. It's been about 10 years since we last saw each other. Funny thing about old friends, regardless of the time that passes between visits, you pick up right where you left off. Your past has bonded you together forever.

On Sunday May 26th, Janet and I will board a Royal Caribbean cruise ship and head out to see Norway...well part of it. To be fair... just about a 1/3 of the coast and that's it. Norway is a long, huge country it seems.

We start in Copenhagen and cruise on up to Geiranger to see one of the majestic fjords there. Then we ping pong down the coast stopping at Bergen, Stavanger, and Kristiansand. Once we do all that we land back in Copenhagen.

Norway wasn't originally on my bucket list, but so many friends have gone and I fell in love with the scenery and the beauty that I think Norway will be. One of my friends, who's a Seatlle girl through and through, said that she felt Norway more beautiful than the Seattle area...which is hard to do for those of us who live here. We shall see.

Stay tuned for more details on our trip.

Ohhh the burn....

I'm still riding that motivation wave. I'm going to do that as long as I can and try to remind myself that every day is another day towards feeling better, making a habit, and treating myself the way I deserve. 

Yesterday was the first official personal trainer session. I spent hours prior trying to think of an excuse to not "be able to make it". Even the idea of having paid for this wasn't really enough to keep my head in the game. As the day progressed I finally realized what I was doing and just stopped. It's amazing how YEARS of habit really is a dangerous thing. 

I got there and met up with Zohan the Great (that's what I'm calling him and he thinks it's hilarious). Our first task was to measure every single part of my body and *gasp* do a BMI test. I didn't even ask what my BMI was because I think I know it's AT LEAST in the 40%. At any rate, he wrote it down in his magical booklet about me and he'll tell me where I've improved. 

We measured all the normal stuff, chest, abdomen, hips and then we measured each limb - top and bottom of  the limb), my neck, and my shoulders.  All those measurements he gave me so we can track. We'll be measuring every 2 weeks...which seems like a lot, BUT that means I have to get my butt in gear to actually make changes. He's convinced in two weeks we'll see changes. I'm skeptical, but that's Negative Jenn talking. 

He put me on a resistance machine last night for upper strength. There were three different exercise for arms and each one was done in 45 second intervals. By the end of it I was shaking. My arms were so tired that they trembled. I get done with the last one and as we're walking away he says, "You know you can take it slower and break in between if you want." Now you tell me. I suspected it was a test but at least now I know it's about quality and not quantity. 

Our last adventure was on the elliptical. He had previously told me he didn't want me doing the elliptical - but what he meant was how I was doing the elliptical. He set up a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) for me that KICKED....MY....A$$. Oh Lord...and what's worse, I only did half of what he wants me to do. 

His motivation towards me is a welcome change to the inner dialog I have with myself all the time. How did I get here? How did I get so negative about myself? It's gradual I'll tell you that. I used to feel relatively carefree and positive about almost everything. Then something happened - when it started I don't know, but it did and now I have to dig myself out of it. 

Oh and by the way...you remember that homework of I mentioned a couple of days ago? One of them was to do a push up every time I open the fridge. Do you know how many times I open the fridge when I'm home? My water is in there...let's just say it's a lot and I'm behind in the number of Push Ups. 

Last thing...little win for me yesterday. After my work out (from 5-6) I was starving. My brain said to just swing by Jersey Mike's and grab a sandwich. I mean I'm right there. It would be simple. I'd be able to eat immediately when I got home, blah blah blah. Excuse Excuse Excuse...Then my other brain kicked in and told me that I had healthy stuff at home and it wouldn't take more than 30 minutes to cook it. I'd survive. And you know what, I'm glad I did. I did survive and I felt way better about what I ate than what I would have felt like. That's one in the "W" Column.