It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere: Mai Thai Recipe

For Brenda’s Luau Party, I used this delicious Mai Thai recipe.  It was given to me by Kenyon’s coworker/friend who brought a batch to my last Hawaiian Party.  The nice thing about this recipe is you can make a small single service batch or a large gut buster batch.  So it is really customizable.

Below is the basic recipe:

1x Light rum

¼ x Parrot Bay rum

½ x Triple Sec 

1 ½ x pineapple juice

1 ½ x orange juice

¼ x lime juice

Splash of grenadine for garnish

If you wanted a single serve drink, just replace X with an ounce.  For this party I started with the light rum and measured out 3 cups for my X.  From there I made sure to adjust the recipe from there.   I had Kenyon help me with the math so we based our party size off of one bottle (750 ml) of light rum.  That way I knew I would have enough alcohol to make a big party batch:

3 cups Light rum (almost the full bottle)

¾ cups Parrot Bay rum

1 ½ cups Triple Sec 

4 ½ cups pineapple juice

4 ½ cups orange juice

¾ cups lime juice

Splash of grenadine for garnish

I was pleasantly surprised as to how large of a batch it made.  At first I worried I made to little but then I wondered if I made too much.  It ended up being just the right amount because it was gone by evenings end.  Success!

I had extra orange juice and pineapple juice and I felt it could be sweeter.  So I added more pineapple juice.  I have enough triple sec and Parrot Bay rum for another party size batch.  All I have to do is pick up a bottle of light rum.  I’m planning to make some for our open house once our new house is completed.

Next time you have a party to attend, try out this Mai Thai recipe.  It packs a good punch and is delicious.



I Need More Daylight Hours

Do you ever feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day?  When you are on the graveyard shift and asleep most of the daylight hours, I can be tough to squeeze in all you need to do before business closing time comes. 

I know some of my struggles lately has been with time management and fitting in the daily needs before I have to be to work.  On days off it is fitting it all in before the stores close for the day.  If we didn’t have to factor in the longer commute to/from my parent’s house, it might not feel more doable.

I ended up missing my WW meeting last Thursday due to the many errands we needed to run before all of the stores closed.  Since my WW meeting was in Nampa, it didn’t make sense to drive to Boise only to return to Nampa for my meeting just go back to Boise to finish up or errands.  So I made the decision to skip my meeting.  I made it to a Monday evening meeting thinking this might work better as I have to work that night.  This would free up a day off and make me feel less stressed to fit in a meeting and errands on days off.

We are at the point where our new house has officially been locked and we need to check a key in/out at the CBH office in order to get inside and continue to check up on the progress.  I am glad our house is locked and safe from theft and vandalism.  However, the CBH office hours aren’t as friendly to graveyard hours.   I mapped the route from my parent’s house, to the CBH office, to the new house, back to the CBH office, and then back to my parent’s house.  That was a round-trip of 1.5 hours, which doesn’t include the time spent at the new house looking it all over.  I get off work at 6am and have to be back to work at 8pm.  We usually sleep until 3:30pm.  Clearly we have to bump up the wake-up time to fit it all in.  When you add trying to get to Curves, which closes at 7pm, the drive time to/from there, and the time to get ready to go to work… oh man it sure does feel hectic!

When I am at work all night I do have use of the treadmill so that is a plus in my favor.  When I am at my parent’s house during a night off I miss having the treadmill and workout DVDs from our house.  In my own home, I am able to workout at midnight and not disrupt anybody.  I can still do a workout at my parent’s home as I am sure there is plenty on Amazon Prime.  Or better yet, I could buy a WATP DVD for my iPad.  I could put that to good use in the late night hours

Life will always seem hectic and while I’m used to navigating the graveyard shift pretty well and making it all work, I’ve not been displaced from my usual home environment.  I am working with Kenyon to come up with a way to fit it all in.  We actually contacted the CBH office and found out there is another way to check the key in/out so that was great news!  I am changing days off mid-July.  I guess we had better come up with a plan that works now and will work in a month from now.

When Old Becomes New Again

I have a blog post ready to go about trying to get a handle on better time management.  But today, I’m going to post about my WW meeting since I’m still running on my endorphin high.

I made a plan last night/early this morning that I would get to my Curves workout and a WW meeting before I had to go to work at 8pm.  The plan was a success.  It feels so good to be successful.

Just a little before 4pm I was out the door and on my way to Curves.  I had a good 25-minute workout and then rushed back home to shower and change before my 6pm WW meeting.  I ended up just squeaking in on time to the meeting after it took forever at Starbucks.  I ended up going to my “old” WW meeting at the Monday evening time slot in Nampa.  It isn’t at the same location where I started 10 years ago and it isn’t the same leader or members.  But, the energy was there.  It really did feel like coming home.  I recognized one member from my old WW days at Nampa and the new leader used to be a member with me as well during those old WW days.

I love the leader.  She is fun and energetic and really encouraging.  There are many new members but all seem really nice as well.  I feel like I have found my new WW home for a while.  Monday nights will be easy to get to while on graveyard and while I’m on day shift.  I think I still want to venture across town to my favorite Tuesday morning meeting when I am able to.  But, when I can’t be there, this Nampa evening meeting will be my resting place.  I also have the benefit of a Thursday night meeting when the occasional Monday holiday comes around (4^th of July next week) and those times I work overtime.

 

I feel really good and really energized today.  I gained 1.8 pounds over the last three weeks but not even that can damper my mood.  I have had such high swings when it comes to weight gains that it feels successful to have gained less than a pound over the last three weeks.  That also included our trip to Pendleton.  Of course I want to turn that number around but as of today I’m not beating myself up.  So that too is a success.

I’m going to get a jump start on my activity by getting on the treadmill after midnight.  That will “officially” be Tuesday.  And then I’ll do the same on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning when I get off work at 2am from my OT shift.  This will allow me to check off my activity for both Tuesday and Wednesday.  Keep is rolling….

I am also taking a break from sugar.  My sister’s birthday pizza party is on Wednesday.  I’ll decide then if I think I want some cake.  I just feel even more successful when I’m not bogged down by sugar and sweets.  It always comes down to having a little pep talk with yourself BEFORE you eat the yummy sweet treat.  I could use a lot more pep talks in my future that is for sure.

Random Saturday Night Luau Fun

Thanks to those that commented or reached out to me via email after my last blog post.  Sometimes I can get deep inside my head and feel miserable.  Weight loss and maintenance is at least 50% mental if not more.  If I would just take action vs. thinking about it, I’d have much better progress.

I went for a walk this afternoon before I left for work.  It was 90 degrees out and took forever to cool down.  The one downer to living with my parents is that their house is HOT.  I’m always sweating to death after my shower.  I walked in my old childhood neighborhood and did the full outer loop to check the mileage.  It was 1.47 miles.  I will see about weaving in/out some of the inner streets to increase my mileage next time.  My parents also live close to a park that has a great walking path.  It felt good to be active.  I could tell pretty quickly my cardio is lacking.  It was a tough workout.

We had a really fun time on Saturday night at Brenda’s annual Luau Party.  I have recently reconnected with my old friend Brenda (and I don’t mean old…I mean a friend I met 10 years ago).  I also invited Danielle and Phoenix and I’m glad I did.  We didn’t know anybody other than Brenda so our little group had a great time chatting, eating, drinking, eating some more, and drinking some more.  I had Kenyon be our DD for the evening and we picked up both Danielle and Phoenix.

 

I made a really yummy Mai Thai to bring to the party that was a big success.  It was a recipe I got from a friend of Kenyon’s that brought it to our last Hawaiian Party.  It was once again delicious and I’m going to make this one of my regular party drinks.  I’ll share the recipe with you this week. 

I am back at work through Tuesday.  I will have Wednesday and Thursday off with Kenyon this week so I am already looking forward to my weekend.

Deep Thoughts I'm Trying To Combat

Sometimes when I am deep within my thoughts I will catch myself getting mad for gaining weight back.  I just can’t believe how stupid I have been.  I worked so hard to lose 130 pounds.  Why didn’t I work hard to keep it off?  I obviously don’t have an answer and I can’t turn back time.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we could?  Just turn the clocks and change whatever is that would make you happier.  Of course if we all know that going backwards in time and making changes would alter the events that happen in the future. 

Maybe I’ve seen too many of those movies that explains why you shouldn’t mess with the time continuum.

When I got caught up in my thoughts a few nights ago, I had a mini mental breakdown complete with tears.  I ask myself, why aren’t you stronger at resisting temptations?  Why weren’t you smarter back in 2013 when your back hurt and you stopped exercising?  Why did you continue to eat those tempting foods that only made the situation worse?  Why do you still eat these tempting foods?

 

It’s only food.  It doesn’t control me.  And yet, I easily reach for the foods that hinder my weight loss and not help it.  The only thing those foods do is help my weight GAIN.  Ugh.  So it is all so silly too.  It’s just food!

Much like not every day is a bad hair day, every day isn’t a Negative Nelly-type of day.  But those dark days that when negative thoughts flood by brain it can be hard to squash them.  It can be hard to talk nice to yourself and not belittle yourself. 

If only I tried harder maybe I’d still be closer to my goal weight and feeling less like a big ‘ol failure

 

 

Will Power Roller Coaster

My week started out strong but my will power has wavered a bit through this week.  I got off work early on Friday night/Saturday morning and went to the grocery store for some much needed healthy foods.  I prepared healthy food for work on both Saturday and Sunday.  On Sunday I was at work feeling fat and frumpy in my overly snug work pants.  I was pretty down on myself so I got out my WW journal and started writing down some of those feelings.  I wrote: “I’m sick and tired of being fat.  CHANGE SOMETHING.” 

After writing that down it pushed me to be more accountable to myself.  If I don’t change something, I’ll never need the desired results I seek.  I asked my partner to listen to my channels so I could get my tennis shoes from the car and walk on the treadmill.  I got in a 30-minute walk and logged some activity, which according to my Apple Watch, it has been since June 3^rd.  Later in the evening the topic of conversation was dinner options and if anybody was going to eat out.  I had brought some chicken and a side salad from home but for some reason I was feeling that itch to eat out.  I remembered my mantra of “change something” so I immediately got my food from the work fridge so I wasn’t tempted to eat out.  After all, if I had time to think if I really needed to eat out, the answer was NO.

I have not zoned in on my new mantra as much as I could have this week.  I made a plan for additional activity but as the week went on, that didn’t happen.  I also let being tired get the best of my yesterday and gave in to some food temptations.  I’m still feeling a bit tired today and I am on the last day of my six-day work stretch.  I packed my tennis shoes for work and snagged the side of the room with the console treadmill.  The only other coworker that uses the treadmill just happens to be set up on it today.  Doh!  I’ll see if later we could share the wealth.  I’ve also packed a salad for my lunch today and have yogurt and strawberries for my snack later in the shift/early morning.

I’m looking forward to a day off tomorrow.  I need sleep!  I do plan to attend my WW meeting tomorrow night.  Having to face the scale is never easy.  But for me it is important.  We don’t have a scale at my parent’s house and I need that extra accountability

Update On New Build: Inside Pant & A Finish Date Estimate

We got our projected completion date from CBH Homes.  Our new house is expected to be done on August 4^th….in just seven more weeks.  Oh my that is exciting! 

We also learned that there is a slight delay in actually closing on the house after the finish date.  Bummer.  Even though I am anxious to get our own space back again, the projected closing date of August 19^th should work out well.  We have a trip to Salt Lake City planned at the end of August and so now we can now take time off to move and just roll that into our SLC trip.  This allows Kenyon and I to be on day shift earlier than planned and not have to re-adjust our sleep.

While we were in Pendleton, crews were busy starting on the inside of the house completing the finishing work that will make the house look pretty.  They were putting in the moldings, shelves, and doors.  On Friday they started the indoor paint on the moldings and doors.  This week they competed the rest of the painting inside the house.

 

Good news…we no longer have a cord in our dining room.  Now it is just a hole.  Thankfully we won’t have our air conditioner compressor inside our dining room after all.  Yippie.

 

Last week we ran into a bit of a snag that had Kenyon talking about walking away and me in tears thinking I was going to lose out on this house I have come to love so much.  In this case, the issue was with the shower stall in our master bathroom.  We paid extra to have an upgraded tile walk in shower in lieu of a bathtub in the master bathroom.  During our design studio appointment, our CBH representative asked if we wanted to add a built in shower shelf to one side of the wall.  Doing so would come in handy for storing our shower products so we decided to go ahead and do it.

During the framing process I noticed the shower stall didn’t have a shelf yet.  I didn’t think that was really odd as it wasn’t time for the tile part.  Kenyon thought we should have seen it in the framework and so we passed it along to our realtor.  CBH came back to say it will be framed out at a later time.  But, what we didn’t realize is that in order to put in the shower shelf, a double wall had to be built into the area of the shower stall and that would reduce the width by another 4 inches. 

Kenyon has been pretty unhappy thinking we will lose another four inches of width in the shower stall.  It is feeling fairly comfortable at its current size.  After not getting anywhere but more frustrated with CBH about the information we received, we went out to the house and took measurements.   The width of the shower stall is currently 38.5 inches.  That seems comfortable to Kenyon.  In order to put in the shower shelf by building the double wall, our comfortable shower stall would now feel a bit tight to Kenyon once it was reduced to 34.5 inches.

What we didn’t realize until we sent this information over to CBH is that the double wall was already in place.  We thought they would still have to build a double wall.  If they did have to build that double wall, we had planned to just scrap the shelf if CBH would let us.  That is when we finally realized we were all talking about the same issue but while CBH thought it was about the shelf itself that was a problem, it was actually the width of the shower stall.  Now that we know the double wall is already in place, we are still able to have the shower shelf AND not lose any more width than the current size.  CBH is also going to give us $500 off for all the trouble and unhappiness.  So...it's a win/win, for now.  I’m pretty sure Kenyon won’t be giving CBH any glowing recommendations in the future.

I hope we won’t have a constant black cloud looming over the remainder of this home building process.  I feel like this new house has all the features we are looking for and it is in a great location. 

AWOL

Dawny shared with me that she attended her “old” WW meeting.  This was the meeting she attended through her journey to goal and beyond.  Dawny stopped attending that meeting a few years ago because her leader is quite toxic.  As it turns out, rumors have started to spread that she has quit WW all together and gained all her weight back.  Well now…isn’t that just like a group of gossiping women to come to that conclusion?

We all know what it means when a WWer stops coming to meetings.  Or at least we think we do.  Many times during my 9.5 year WW journey I had to move around to various meetings due to my work schedule.  Heck, I’ve not attended my “old” meeting for many years.  Once I got to my goal weight, I needed a different kind of support that my original WW meeting wasn’t providing.  When you make goal it is hard to stand among your peers.  To those still trying to get to goal it looks like you have figured it all out.  When you have just gotten to goal, you realize you haven’t figured it all out and still need support. 

It is a fact though that several Lifetime members that attend meetings during their weight loss phase will stop attending meetings once they get to their goal weight.  Since I always had such a strong connection to my WW meetings, I have never understood this concept.  You work so hard to become a free LT member that you stop attending once you no longer have to pay?  For at least the first six or seven years of my LT journey, I attended my WW meetings regularly.  I still attended even though I was over goal and had to pay a weekly fee once again. 

It hasn’t been until the last two years that my meeting attendance started to dwindle.  Mostly it was driven by the guilt I was feeling at having to come up with an excuse as to why I had, yet again, gained more weight.  The other part of it was a shift in my priorities that contributed to the weight gain to begin with.  It become exhausting to feel like a constant failure and so to me that the clear answer was to stop attending my meetings except for my once a month WI requirement to stay active as a WW member.

Since meetings have always been such a big part of my WW journey, that was a pretty boneheaded move.  The hardest part is that connection I once had to my meeting wasn’t there anymore.  I am hardly able to attend my favorite Tuesday AM meeting with my favorite WW peeps and my favorite leader.  While we have a lot of other meeting options in my area and a lot of other wonderful leaders, I continue to struggle with finding a meeting that I fit in.  I miss the connection to the members and the connection to the program I had for so many years.  I’m not sure if it is just me that has changed or if it has been WW that has changed.  I ache for the strong connection I once had.  I miss the successful feeling of being a part of a group that celebrates and encourages.

 

 

I miss the old days where it felt easy.  The crazy part is that it wasn’t easy during the thick of it.  It was hard and it took work.  On the outside looking in, the struggle of re-gain makes the struggle of weight loss seem easy.  How is that for sordid thinking? 

I guess there is some truth behind this saying:

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father’s Day!!!!

Wishing all the amazing fathers out there a very happy Father’s Day. 

I hope you are spending time with your loved ones today.  I barely saw my Dad before I headed off to work today.  My grandpa and my aunt are going to be at my parent’s house for dinner.  I’m sad to be missing out but by coming into work early, my supervisor gets to spend time with his son.   I was happy to help my supervisor out.

I want to wish my Dad and my Father-in-Law a very Happy Father’s Day in addition to my Grandpa too.  I am so lucky to have them all in my life.

 

Enjoy your day Dads.

Full Length Mirrors & The Terror They Cause

All it takes in one full length mirror to suck all the confidence out of you.

 

During our trip to Pendleton, the Wildhorse Resort & Casino had a mirrored elevator.  That is fun…NOT!  A person can get pretty good at avoiding the weight-gain situation until either A) you see a photo of yourself or B) you have to walk in front of a full length mirror.

 

What is even sadder is that I always have good intentions of making healthy food choices and getting in some daily activity.  Take this last week for example.  I was thinking that once I get myself changed over to graveyard, I’ll start getting up early so I can hit up Curves during the weekdays and get out for some walks on the weekends.  However, somewhere along the way though my motivation dwindles.

 

But if you just set yourself in front of a full length mirror…instant motivation!  I was telling Kenyon that we will get ourselves back on track after vacation.  Just like we say we will at the start of every week.  Talk about poor accountability to each other.

To add insult to injury I skipped my WW meeting last week.  I want to strive to re-create healthy habits to include going to my weekly meeting and getting good use out of my Curves membership.  My priorities are all out of whack and they have been for a while now.

I am taking a prescription called Meloxicam for my back pain.  My friend Jamie recommended it as she was finding some relief from her back pain.  It is prescribed for patients with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.  I was hoping that it might help with some inflammation and allow me to sleep better.  My endocrinologist was very encouraging in prescribing the medication as he thinks sleep is linked to everything.  I am starting to think that after a week and a half the medication is starting to help.  I am not sure if I am doing less tossing and turning but it feels like it.  On our first night in Pendleton, I was able to sleep on my stomach.  That hasn’t happened in quite a while.  And as of late it has been difficult to sleep on my back (which I miss).  I think that has also improved.

My hopes is that my back pain would be a lot better that I would feel rested and less tired.  Obviously, a person who is off track (ahem…me) can use any excuse avoid the healthy habits and prolong the unhealthy habits.  One of my WW Buddies was posting on our FB page her success at the scale after a week of 100% tracking and avoiding the tempting foods that derail her.  It was really energizing.  I know if I just get back on track and stop wishing things were better that I’d feel that exact same energy.  It is addicting to be on track and to see that scale coming down.

So….this Thursday…NO EXCUSES!  I’m going to my meeting.  AND, I’m going to get some activity in this week as well as get back to tracking.  I’ll report back.

Pendleton, OR: Wildhorse Resort & Casino

Kenyon and I had a really good time in Pendelton, OR on our weekend getaway to Wildhorse Resort & Casino.

 

Wildhorse is on an Indian reservation.  While there is lots of gambling available, usually there isn’t any alcohol.  In this case there were bars and drinks for purchase.  Unlike Vegas they don’t give you free drinks for gambling.  I knew Kenyon would like Wildhorse because there is free soda pop and they had Diet Dr. Pepper in the fountain.  So, he was a happy camper.  There were really great prices on food at the restaurants on the property and the town of Pendleton is pretty close if you wanted to venture to town for other food options. 

We arrived on Tuesday evening about 9:30pm Oregon time and checked into our hotel.  We chose a higher end room in the non-smoking tower and were really happy about our choice.  Being on graveyard and planning to stay up all night, we picked a room that had a separate living room area.  We also wanted a nice big bathtub.  It turns out the bathtub was not as big as the photos make it out to be.
 

 

We didn’t spend much time in our room.  There wasn’t much on TV and the gambling was downstairs!  We did like having the ability to come/go as we pleased and that our room had a coffee maker, microwave, and mini fridge.

Our first night/day gambling at Wildhorse was pretty good.  We both were losing pretty quickly and I was sad that the money we brought to gamble with might be gone after the first day.  Thankfully I hit some good luck and found a few machines to pay out so we could at least have money to gamble with the second day.
 

 

We had a quick late night bite to eat at the Sports Bar.  Indian Tacos for the win!  When you are in the land of fry bread, you must have some.  It was delicious.

 

We called it quits around 2am and on Wednesday morning woke up on around 11am.  Breakfast at Wildhorse ends at 11am so we knew we would have to venture into Pendleton for something to eat.  Kenyon found good reviews on Main Street Diner.

 

Notice how the menu says “fast food”?  Yeah well that isn’t accurate.  It was the slowest and least friendly service ever.  I would not recommend that Main Street Diner in Pendleton.  I ordered the breakfast sandwich and was surprised to see it was real ham.  I am slightly picky with my ham in that I don’t like all the fatty bits.  But it was still good.  Too bad the service sucked.

 

We headed back to Wildhorse to do some gambling to pass the afternoon.  Once again our money stash started to dwindle fast.  I was thinking we were going to have to quit and then I won big on a penny machine.  YahoooHooo!  We were back in business.

 

We had an early dinner at the buffet and then I took a nap.  We decided to head back down and lose more money that evening.  Boy did our money go quick.  It was amazing how fast it goes.  We were pretty much tapped out in the money category about midnight.  I told Kenyon if we did anymore gambling I wanted to go to the blackjack tables.  I had gone earlier and played for quite a while on $20 finally cashing out with my same $20 in the end.  We spent over an hour at the blackjack tables gambling with only $20 each.  We met several dealers and enjoyed visiting with each of them.  We ended up calling it quits around 2am on Thursday morning.  I still had $20 and Kenyon had $7.  Not too shabby.

Check-out time was 11am so we woke up at 9:30am so we would be prepared in time.  We were able to get some breakfast at the Hotrock Café before they stop serving.  I ended up having dessert after breakfast because the ice cream shop was open before we left.  I missed it the night before.  I picked the salted caramel with Oregon hazelnut.  It was Tillamook brand and delicious.

 

It was also very large and I was full from breakfast.  I ended up throwing it out the window along I-84 as we headed out of Pendleton.  We passed a hitchhiker on the freeway.  We could have pulled over and offered it to him.  Oh well.  Maybe next time.

Even though we didn’t win big allowing us to retire early, we had a great time.  The Wildhorse Resort & Casino is just three hours from Boise.  I can totally see us getting out of town on occasion when we need our Vegas fix.

My One And Only: Book Three Of Ardent Springs Series

I’d been hanging onto the third installment of Terri Osburn’s series, Adrent Springs for a few weeks now.  I’m not sure what the hold up was because I knew as soon as I started the book that I wouldn’t be able to put it down.  Due to some slow nights at work and lots of hours to read, I finished it in record time.

But that is easy to do with Teri Osburn’s books.

In book three of Ardent Springs My One And Only, we get to interact with main characters Cooper and Haleigh.  We met Cooper in books one and two but she only briefly mentioned Haleigh.  I had been curious to know more of her back story.  Boy did Terri give her a good backstory.

As with the other two Ardent Spring books and all four of the Anchor Island books, the sizzle and chemistry between the two main characters is written so vividly.  It is like you can feel the sexual tension radiating off the pages of the book.  I think the strong connection you feel between the two main characters is also what makes her books hard to put down.

As with any good book/series….I’m left waiting for the next one.