If My FitBit Could Cry

If my FitBit could cry, it would have cried over last week’s totals.  And it would have cried loudly, dropping very large tears.

After patting myself on the back for walking 67 mileson vacation AND being in second place among my FitBit friends I quickly dropped to last place with a teeny tiny weekly total of 12,868 and  whopping 9.90 total miles.

(hangs head in shame)

 

 

I’m working to correct that this week!

I was actually thinking a good goal would be to strive for 10,000 steps each day.  I am on day two of getting up at 3:30am (I usually get up at 4am) and walking on the treadmill before my workdays.  I have such a tough time finding the motivation to exercise after my 10-hour work day. 

 

 

So far so good.  By waking up at 3:30am I can get in some activity before work and also get my FitBit totals to increase.  I am also thinking that if I pack my workout clothes I can also encourage myself to go to the YMCA a few nights a week after work as well for some extra activity. 

Yesterday was the first time we have seen sun is days (okay not as many days for me as we were in Hawaii for two weeks).  Regardless, while I had no plans to walk after work I just couldn't resist the sunshine.  It was also nice to just go for a leisure walk and not have to worry about getting my heart rate up.  I also invited one of my good friends along for the walk.  Hello Dutch Bros!

 

I got my tushy into gear and went to the Y after my WW meeting on Tuesday. It felt good to walk the track and earn some steps. I also talked Kenyon into “Mall Walking” before the mall actually opened on Wednesday. It is a nice way to earn steps and change up my usual routine.

 

Hawaii: Port Of Call - Kona

We originally had plans to book an excursion through the ship in Kona and use our $50 on board credit. However, we were feeling tired and after listening to our tour bus driver in Hilo talk NON-STOP we needed a down day. So we decided to just wander around Kona on foot.

 

 

Kona is a tender port so you have to catch a tender boat to the dock. The lines were long and it was HOT. But we eventually got to land.

 

 

 

 

We headed first to Hilo Hattie's, an Hawaiian store known well on the islands. They sell a lot of traditional clothing. It was funny later to see the 80 year old couples in matching Hawaiian dresses and shirts. I asked Kenyon if he would do that for me and he said no. Hey, I was pushing my luck in even getting him to wear the kukua nut lei for a photo!

 

I really liked the free water they were offering as you entered the door. It was a very hot day in Kona! We headed to Walmart to buy some Coke Zero and ended up walking much farther than planned. Looks are deceiving and we thought it was closer than it really was. We also picked up a calendar at Hilo Hattie's to mail to my mother-in-law with a Hawaii postmark (which she loved).

 

After walking for five miles we ended up back by the water and I spotted at a shaved ice place. It was overly priced and the sugar free flavors were basically just water. But I ate it as I was thirsty and hot! I also thought I earned a yummy alcoholic drink for all my walking! They had free WiFi so Kenyon was willing to sit with me while I had my drink.

 

 

We headed back to the ship early as there wasn't much to do.

 

 

You can read more about my Hawaii travel:
Hawaii: All Day Travel
Hawaii: Pearl Harbor - USS Arizona
Hawaii: Pearl Harbor Part 2
Hawaii: Dole Pineapple Plantation
Hawaii: North Shore
Hawaii: The Food
Hawaii: NCL Pride of America
Hawaii: Pride of America - The Entertainment
Hawaii: Port Of Call - Maui
Hawaii: Port Of Call - Hilo

Weekly WI - Almost February

I had my weekly WI today.  It was ugly!

But, it isn’t the end of the world (you all knew I was going to say that didn’t you?)

I am actually in a pretty good mental place right now.  Yes, this is the highest weight on record since I entered into maintenance almost five years ago.  However, it is also a higher weight than normal after coming back from vacation.  I lost five of my 10 pounds gained on vacation so I can’t be too hard on myself.

I made quite a few changes last week:

·        I didn’t eat cheese.  I was eating a lot of cheese recently.  I really love smoked Gouda so I was eating it almost every day.  I was weighing it and most days it was only 0.5 to 1 oz.  However, that is one small change that I can easily make.  Less cheese and/or just eliminate it all together for a little while. 

·        I also changed up my breakfast from the usual eggs and frozen potatoes to oatmeal again.  I like oatmeal I just think I was a little burnt out on it.  I also am adding in some cottage cheese at the end of cooking (weird but good) and I think it is holding me over longer.

·        I didn’t partake in French fries on my trooper ride-a-long.  I was able to ride with one of our troopers on Friday and we ended up at a burger place at lunch.  They had a “homemade veggie burger” which I usually find to be quite good.  I ordered that but didn’t order fries.  The trooper I was riding with was not ordering fries so it made my choice a little easier.  I had packed an apple and carrots in my snack bag so I had those when we got back into the car.  It worked out well.

·        I didn’t have chips and salsa at the Mexican restaurant.  Kenyon wanted to go to dinner on Friday night, unplanned, and since I had already passed on the fries I decided right then and there that I would not have chips and salsa.  Instead I would just eat all of my fajitas.  It was TOUGH!  The wait at the restaurant was long and I was hungry.  The wait for food was even longer.  I stayed strong though and guzzled my water.

·        I also reduced my sugar intake.  My friend Dawny cautioned me on feeling deprived.  I realized that feeling deprived is really all in your head.  Yes, it is easy to think that I NEED dessert.  I had dessert for lots of days on vacation.  So really, I am okay with taking a break. I ate a lot more fruit this week and chewed a lot of gum!  I knew that after my WI on Tuesday I would be having something yummy.  And I did!  FYI – I only had a small bit of cake then froze the rest.

·        Lastly, I vetoed Kenyon’s vote on eating out another day last week.  We have gift cards from Christmas and we have not felt like cooking since returning from vacation.  After going out on Friday night I knew we didn’t really need to go out on Saturday night.  Plus, the wait for a table on Friday was quite long.  We decided to eat out yesterday and next Tuesday.  I like to splurge a little after my WI.  It helps keep me on track through the week.

I had not planned to tackle so many changes this week but this is how my week ended up.  When I brought this up in my WW meeting they actually thought I should have started with just one change and build from there.  My only plan for last week was to make small food changes.  I am happy with how my week went.  I am going to continue to make small changes as well as change up my routine to hopefully get in more activity.

I’ll leave that for another post.

Hawaii: Port Of Call - Hilo

Hilo, on the big Island was our second stop. Volcanos National Park was on the agenda for this port.

We booked through Roberts Hawaii for our tour. It included a stop at Mauha Loa macadamia nut factory, an orchid nursery, a candy factory, and Rainbow Falls.

I knew this would be an all day tour with no lunch stops. I read reviews/tips that suggests bringing a reuseable lunch bag and some ziplock baggies for packing your own lunch. Our ship usually had meat, cheese, and bread out at breakfast so we planned to make sandwiches. It ended up being really easy because the 24/7 room service option had a turkey and BLT sandwich available. We got a couple of each and packed ice in double ziplock bags. I added fruit from the ship and some crackers I had on hand for snacks. Inatant lunch!

There was the ability to purchase food at the nut factory but we were already all set!

The nut factory was fun but really just a tourist stop. The factory tour was closed but we could look in at them through windows above. It made me think of the old cheese factory in Nampa. We had really good samples. Same with the chocolate factory. Nothing exciting to see but yummy samples.

Volcanos National Park was a highlight for the trip. I couldn't wait to see it. I wish we could have seen lava though. The park is large so our tour driver took us to various parts. We saw a crater with steam at the visitor center then walked along the area where lava once flowed. We then took a small hike through a nature center and into a lava tube. It was really neat.

The orchid nursery was a very pretty stop. I love flowers!

Our final stop in Hilo was Rainbow Falls. It was a quick stop with just a quick photo op.

Our excursion took the whole day in Hilo and I really wanted to get back on the ship for a lei making class so our tour was it for this port.

You can read more about my Hawaii travel:
Hawaii: All Day Travel
Hawaii: Pearl Harbor - USS Arizona
Hawaii: Pearl Harbor Part 2
Hawaii: Dole Pineapple Plantation
Hawaii: North Shore
Hawaii: The Food
Hawaii: NCL Pride of America
Hawaii: Pride of America - The Entertainment
Hawaii: Port Of Call - Maui

Hawaii: Port Of Call - Maui

Our first port was Maui. It was an overnight port and whale watching was my top priority!

I booked some tours through an off-ship group called Roberts Hawaii. I had seen good reviews and they offered a guarantee to get you to your next port of you missed the ship. My kind of guarantee! They were great and we enjoyed all three tours. We also booked through them for our shuttle to/from the airport and pier.

Our first excursion was sunset at Haleakala Crater. It was a drive to 10,000 feet in elevation to watch the sunset. We left 80+ degree weather and landed in 30 degree weather. It was also a VERY windy road! Our driver gave us such great information about the island during our drive. Unfortuntally it was really cloudy so you couldn't see much.

We could see our shadows on the clouds though so that was fun.

We also had a slight clearing where we could briefly see the crater!

Sadly, just in the last moments of sunset though the clouds rolled in and we were robbed of our photo and viewing opportunity.

I had done plenty of research ahead of time and decided we would do a sunrise whale watching tour through Pacific Whale Foundation on our second day in Maui. This is a non-profit research based company. It was fantastic! I highly recommend this company if you are ever in Maui. We booked through the one in Ma'alaea. Our ship captain and crew were very knowledgable and we saw many whales!

Hard to see but that is a dolphin right under our boat

A sea turtle

I did get a short video that I had hoped to share with you.  However, I am having trouble getting it into the blog.  I will keep working on it.

I have to put a shout out to William at Maui Taxi for providing our transportation to the whale watching tour. We had to be picked up at the pier at 5:15am. The taxi I had made previous arrangements with was not reliable. I called William at 7:45pm the night before and he was agreeable to meet us at the pier the following morning. I really appreciated it!

Despite our early wake up time after our late bedtime, we hopped on the the bus and went to see some of Lahina, on the other side of the island. It was a beautiful port town and very commercial! Shopping! Shopping! Shopping! There was a Princess ship tendered on that side.

Thankfully we took the early bus back to the ship because road construction turned our hour bus ride into two and a half hours!


On to the next port we go!

You can read more about my Hawaii travel:

Hawaii: All Day Travel
Hawaii: Pearl Harbor - USS Arizona
Hawaii: Pearl Harbor Part 2
Hawaii: Dole Pineapple Plantation
Hawaii: North Shore
Hawaii: The Food
Hawaii: NCL Pride of America
Hawaii: Pride of America - The Entertainment