Weekly WI: Ehhhh….

I attended the ILETS conference the last two days, adding to the list of my busy work life these days.  It’s the 35th year and we were given a challenge coin.  It is really neat.

My Weekly Weigh-in was not much of a change from last week.  I have no idea what is causing my body to hang on to this extra weight and it continues to tax my mental space too.  I’m ending this month higher than April, 2.8 pounds higher.  Dang.

I’m still determined to bring the scale down before my (hopeful) employ May weigh-in next week.  I did some reflecting and will have three weeks post-cruise to complete my employee weigh-in which I hope will take some stress and anxiety away.  So far the last few days have been high points days so I need to reign it back in.  It is difficult to feel like you are doing all the right things and not seeing results.

I completed my April Apple Watch Activity Challenge. 

Waiting to see what May brings and in the meantime, I need to move my body.  All this sitting the last couple of days has taken its toll on my bum hip.

Saturday Check-In

 Good Morning!  Happy Saturday.

It has been a little bit of an “off week” but I have managed not to blow my points out of the water each day.  I’m feeling some sort of internal struggle and still seem to be craving all the carbs.  I have no idea what that is all about. The Hubs is going low carb and having a lot of success with it.  Me, I’m wishing I had a moment alone so I could stuff my face with carbs and not derail is progress!  I tell ya, the struggle is real.

I’ve conditioned myself that I can have a high point day and get back on track pretty easily the next day…most of the time.  I almost ordered pizza and breadsticks at work last night but a coworker talked me out of it.  The ironic this is my planned meal for the night was a pita pizza, which was delicious when mealtime rolled around.  I left work still craving carbs.  It is weird and I hope it passes soon although I am still thinking pizza and breadsticks might be in my near future food plan!

I’m about to finish up my April Apple Watch Activity Challenge logging 21 workouts this month.  I’ve not completed my activity today so soon it will be 20 of 21 days.  Plus I earned a special award for Earth Day 2022.

It has been a good month for activity and I am thankful for my commitment to power through even when I’ve been tired.  I still needed a few rest days along the way too.

We are now 12 days to cruise day and the really sad part is I work all but two of those days until we leave.  WOMP::WOMP.  Between a work training, emergency coverage needs, and scheduled overtime, it will be a very long 12 days until we can set sail but boy will I be ready.

We have one at-home COVID test, a Canada entry form to complete, and flight check-in then we are good to board.  I also set up with Port Valet, a baggage service provided by the Port of Seattle.  If you’ve not heard of it, you should check it out.  You sign up ahead of time and place your bags outside your door the night before you disembark.  They take your bags and check them all the way through to your final flight destination.  It is so confidant and you don’t have to mess with your bags.  This is especially great if you plan to tour your disembarkation city after your cruise.  We won’t be touring Seattle this trip but will travel with less luggage in tow making it much more enjoyable.

It’s my last day of trainee one of our new employees as we wrap up her Phase 2 training phase.  I am looking forward to having my own time back and hopefully try to get caught up with my supervisory duties.  I am so stoked for her next training phase as she is doing fabulous.  We also offered to three interviewees yesterday, which is great.  Fingers crossed we can get our staffing back up.

And with that, I’m going to go mow the long and earn those activity points.

Weekly WI: I Need A More Positive Perspective

I’ve been a little stressed about my employee weigh-in for the month of April.  I’ve also been working long hours with short sleep and training one of our new employees at my full-time job.  It has been a lot and while the scale is slowly inching down, it isn’t dropping as rapidly as I’d like for my employee weigh-in.  Since it did not change from Friday to Tuesday, I figured I’d just get my weight on record, even though I showed a 3.2 pound gain.  UGH! 

I was feeling pretty down on myself and when I entered my weight into my WW app, it made me feel better.  Look at the positive message.

 

It is so easy to get focused on the day-to-day and even the week-to-week and forget it is all part of the process.  I have a huge weight swing a couple month ago and it finally came back down.  I am still hopeful if I stay the course and not give into the tired and stress feelings, I will combat this weight swing and show a lower number next month.  If I end up saying “*!@& it” and eat allllll the carbs, well, it won’t help anything but make me more depressed and probably make me want to eat even more carbs.

 

The biggest struggle mentally is I feel like I’ve been doing all the right things.  I’ve had some really great NSVs the last two weeks.  I got back on track after vacation and made the conscious decision not to engaged in all the sweet treats and high point junk that came into the dispatch center during National Telecommunicators Week.  When you are doing everything you are supposed to and the scale isn’t dropping as rapidly as it went up, it is hard to push on.  I managed to not eat my stress/frustration on Tuesday and so far, Wednesday is going well too.  I have social plans on Thursday that I will use my entire weekly budget for.  This way I can just enjoy and not stress about it.  Although the menu just changed and it will no longer be pizza which will help.

Two weeks to go until our cruise vacation.  Yippie!

Friday Check-In

 Good Morning and Happy Friday.  

I am starting my work week and am not 100% mentally ready.  It has been an adjustment working until 0400 Monday night/Tuesday morning and then waking up a few hours later for my new Tuesday WW workshop.  We had a great first day with 11 members that stayed for the weekly workshop.  I weighed in so many WW members happy to see us and happy our Tuesday morning studio was open again.  That is why I do what I do…for the WW members.  They are just amazing!

We are about to wrap up National Telecommunicators Week, i.e. the week we celebrate our police, fire, and EMS dispatchers.  

It has been a week of being spoiled and I think our employees feel appreciated, at least I sure hope so.  I always feel I can do more and next year I’ll need to really amp it up.  I decorated the dispatch center and even lit up my new fancy lights with a dispatch colored theme.

Today we get to wear jeans (always a fun day) and we are having an ice cream social.  I am not going partake in the social.  It has been a really good week and a really good start to the month.  You all know I love a good fresh month and I’ve been working to make April more successful than March.

I only earned 15 blue dots during March as half the month was a challenge due to double vacations.  I made sure to start April on a high note and have so far logged 13 blue dot days (today is pre-tracked and ready to go).

My goal this week is to amp up my protein.  I peeked at the scale yesterday as I has planned to perhaps complete my employee weigh-in for April.  Thursday the scale looked promising as I was down an additional 2.4 pounds from Tuesday.  Today, not so much as it now has me up 1 pound from yesterday.  UGH!  Being a female is rough.  I have nothing to attribute a large loss or a small gain in a matter of days.  This is why I don’t weigh daily anymore.  None the less, I will wait a few more days to do my employee weigh-in and figures crossed it goes okay.

I’ve also planned some meals to help me feel less boredom and also increase the points I’ve been using.  I sometimes don’t use my weekly points if I don’t have a social event planned so I’m working to use more of them on a daily basis.  At this point I’ll try anything to jump start the scale again.  I miss the days of being close to 192.

We will persist!

21 Days To Vacation

I have been anxious to check in for our cruise and the day has finally arrived!

 

A few months back we booked a return cruise to Alaska, an abbreviated trip this go-round, to turn triple the points earning us platinum status with Norwegian Cruise Lines.  Our five-day cruise only has two ports, Ketchikan, AK and Victoria, BC with two days at sea.  It will be great to visit Victoria again as we missed that stop in October due to COVID and Canada not allowing entry.  It was almost 12 years ago that we last visited Victoria during our first Alaska Cruise.

 

It’s difficult to decide what to do at port on this trip since we just visited Ketchikan.  The one thing I wanted to do but wasn’t offered last time was the trolley tour.  So we may book that this trip.  I also scoped out some breweries/bars and we could try a well-known restaurant, Burger Queen.  With the daylight hours of traveling in May, we are actually at port quite late.

 

In Victoria we plan to walk around.  I found some of the scheduled stops if we booked the food tour through the cruise line so we may do that on our own.  I want to check out this macaroon shop and also pick up a Starbucks mug for my collection.  We are looking at perhaps booked one of their city tours.

 

With two days at sea, I have no idea what we will do.  I plan to do some relaxing and some drinking!  This is the first time we will be sailing with the alcohol drink package, so I am excited to say the least.  On our last cruise, I kept thinking how fun it would be to visit all the bars.  Well, now I have a reason!  I just may not have somebody to visit the bar with since my parents won’t be along on this trip.  I tell ya, I really liked vacationing with my parents.

 

We still have 21 days to go but oh am I excited!

Weekly WI: Slight Drop

After an unexpected spike at the scale last week, I am really happy to see it has come back down, only slightly.  But it was enough to get my under 200 again, only slightly!

It was a good week.  I tell ya, I have had my share of temptations and I navigated them with heroic willpower.  It is National Telecommunicators Week and with it comes food and treats as a Thank You to our dispatchers for their hard work each day.  I managed to overstep grabbing some taffy, cinnamon bears, chocolate chip cookies, taco/nacho bar, and finally pizza and breadsticks from Idaho Pizza Co.  Oh man it was tough last night as I wanted a bread stick so bad.

I feel really proud of myself but I would be lying if I said I was slightly bummed to have stepped on the scale and not seen a much larger drop.  I feel I have nothing to account for it so here we are.  I need to make this week just as successful as the last!  Still to come this week is sandwiches (sponsored by Motorola so not sure from where) and an ice cream social.  I can do this!!!  I WILL DO THIS!

I started working at a second WW studio location with our opening of a Tuesday workshop.  I will be the check-in guide with Coach Rene.  It was a small group which we were very happy to see.  I look forward to growing our numbers in the future.  I scheduled a facial afterwards, my first, and then proceeded to nap on the couch.  It will be a challenge juggling another workshop with my regular 40 hour-a-week job plus overtime.  Moving forward, I hope to continue to escape having to work overtime on Tuesday evening so I can at last have some rest.  I am lucky to have another full day off and just a five hour overtime shift.  The countdown to vacation is what keeps me going! 

Texas: South Padre Islands

If you missed the first part of our Texas adventures, Texas: San Antonio Riverwalk and Houston Space Center.  You can read about it here <—

We made the drive from Sugar Land to South Padre with a planned stop for breakfast at Grandy’s in Victoria.  Kenyon took me there on our last trip to Texas and we were looking forward to their yummy breakfast steaks.  They were delicious.  We continued to Harlingen where we met up with Phoenix and clan at the big Texas grocery store called H.E.B.  We had seen semi trucks all along I-10 and were eager to check out this store.  We loaded up on groceries for the week and made the very long drive to South Padre because…you guessed it…traffic!  OMG it took forever to make that last 23 mile stretch.

We were happy to be at a place for a few days were we didn’t have to drive.

I can’t say it enough.  If you can afford it, go for the condo on the beach.  Having six adults on this trip allowed us to have such lush accommodations.  We booked our condo through VRBO and it is connected to LaCoppa Inn Vacations, which meant we had included breakfast at their main hotel.  It was basic and so so delicious.  I loved the refried beans and the tacos.  After we drove the first day and had a tough time parking, we rode the bus the remainder of the days as it stopped right in front of our breakfast spot.  We continue to use the bus the remainder of our trip as it is free and easy to hop/hop off.  The bus also goes onto Port Isabel Island.

Our first night was dinner at Longboard Bar & Grill where we had the best view of the sun setting.  We also saw a beautiful boat come by.  

The adults wanted a night out afterwards so we met up with a friend of Stacey’s who was in town for the weekend.  We didn’t go anywhere real great but enjoyed the company.  We redeemed ourselves a few nights later when we went back down to the waterfront and hit up several bars/restaurants in a row.  I loved the mixed drink options and the live music atmosphere.

One day we took in the farmer’s market and Sea Turtle Inc., a conservation, rehabilitation, and education center, were we visited their “resident turtles” unable to be released back into the wild.  The had to build a prosthetic fin for Allison.  I am so glad we got to see her.

Phoenix signed her kids up for surf lessons, which they really enjoyed.  A few days later she rented two surf boards so they could play in the ocean in front of the condo.

We tried a lot of new restaurants and bars making sure we hit up happy hour for the best deals.  We also visited South Padre Island Brewing and shared a flight.

I’m telling you, the mixed drinks were amazing!

One after breakfast we boarded the bus and headed to Port Isabel Island to tour the light house and walk around their area decorated in a pirate theme.  Phoenix and I did a tasting at the distillery and the kids and I got some ice cream.

Phoenix had signed up for a morning boat fishing excursion that was canceled due to the weather.  Maybe next time!  We headed home a day earlier than they did so we missed seeing them go parasailing.  I plan to do that in January on our cruise.  

If we weren’t out doing stuff we were taking in the amazing vies on our patio where we enjoyed morning sunrises and people watching through out the day.  This was a really wonderful trip and I would love to visit the island again.

Weekly WI: A MAJOR Weight Spike

Hello and Happy Wednesday.  I’m popping in a day late to share my Weekly WI as it was a crazy busy Tuesday.  

I had a major weight swing this week and found myself with a scale number with a 2 in front of it.  It makes it really hard to track this weight as I work really hard to stay under 200.  I believe this is a hormonal swing and with continued focus, the scale should come back down.  

I was on track last week after we returned from vacation.  I spent a good amount of last week feeling bloated so this is also why I think this is hormonal.  I know I didn’t eat enough to gain 5.2 pounds.  I made an intentional decision last night to give into the carb cravings I have been struggling with and had pizza and breadsticks, mostly breadsticks.  OMG they were amazing.  I knew it might also spill over into an ice cream treat, which it did.  I didn’t track anything and I feel 100% great today.  No guilt, craving satisfied, and I don’t have to worry about all the points I used.  Yes, I used a lot of weekly points so moving forward this week I will remember that those points aren’t there to use.  Once I return to work, I typically don’t use many weekly points.

The upcoming week will be tough with food challenges due to National Telecommunicators Week.  My plan right now isn’t to indulge but to pre-plan some food that will fit into my program.  I have an employee weigh-in on the horizon and a large amount of weight that needs to drop off.  Finger crossed we get this all done.

I found this great quote and felt it needed shared.

Texas: San Antonio RiverWalk & Houston Space Center

We had an amazing time in South Padre Island, Texas.  I am missing the ocean views and the amazing weather.  

Renting a condo right on the ocean was the best idea ever.  

I am also so thankful I was able to enjoy a vacation with my best friend, her significant other, her children, and her parents.  Despite so many people, we got along well and everything went off without a hitch.

Our Texas vacation started in San Antonio.  We landed at the airport at 1pm, collected our rental car, and headed to the hotel as our room was ready.  We went for a hotel right off the riverwalk and were able to book for free with rewards points.  This was also an excellent idea as we didn’t need to move the car for the remainder of our evening stay.  The hotel had a walkway directly to the riverwalk and you could see the boats come by right outside our window.  I couldn’t wait to get out and explore.

Our first stop was The Alamo.  Although free to tour, there was an hour wait for the timed entry.  We popped into the visitor center to purchase our riverwalk narrated boat tour where the gal suggested going to the Bier Garten for a quick bite to eat.  It was also $7 liter of the day beer, which was an amazing price!  We shared two sandwiches and loved the chicken schnitzel the best.

We toured the Alamo and headed back to the room before venturing out to the San Antonio River Walk, the reason for this stop on the trip.

On foot, we walked up one side and down the other taking in all the sights along the water until finding a spot to grab a bite to eat and watch some of the NCAA games.

I wanted to wait until after dark to take our narrated river cruise as it all looked so magical when the sun went down.  The boat we boarded was packed and we got the last two seats.  In hindsight, I wished we could have been on a less crowded boat and/or been one of the earlier ones to board.  We were seated at the front and able to take in the amazing views.

It was a quick trip but we will be back.

The next morning we drove the 5-ish hours to Houston to take in the Houston Space Center.  Along I-10, I spotted my very first Buc-ee's, a gas station similar to Pilot Truck Stop but waaaaaaaay cooler.  I have been many travel You Tubers posting about the Buc-ee's excitement and I could hardly contain myself.  We made sure to hit up one more before our time in Texas came to an end.  Sadly, the really cool ones are right off the major interstates.

We also spotted an Igloo Factory Outlet just outside of Katy, TX and you know we had to stop.  The storeroom was small but this cute security shack was in the shape of the old school Igloo coolers we had growing up.  That alone made the stop worth it.  We left with a collapsable travel cooler, which is something we needed for our trip.  The couple ahead of us bought $1,233 worth of Igloo.  WOW!

After some grueling traffic delays, Texas traffic is insane, we arrived at the Houston Space Center a little later than planned but with plenty of time to explore.  We enjoyed the visit, which Kenyon was able to get us in for free with his EAA Oshkosh Membership.  That is a nice perk.

We stayed the night in Victoria, TX so we could get a head start towards South Padre and miss the Houston morning traffic.  On our way, I had to visit my favorite Mexican restaurant, Chuy’s.  It was just as good as I remember and I also remember how spicy it was!  OMG.  This may not be a go-to from here on out after all.

All was redeemed when we visited Rudy’s Country Store & BBQ for some of the BEST brisket I’ve had ever in my life.  I have been dreaming about it and will be looking forward to our next visit where we can stop in again and get a full pound of brisket.  Trust me, it is that good.

And with that, the first part of our trip came to an end.  We were looking forward to several days of no driving after the long trek across Texas.  I’ll be back with our South Padre adventures.