Weekly WI: Slight Vacation Gain

Happy Wednesday!

I am popping in a day late with my weekly weigh-in since I wanted to get my trip recap up first.  It was a really great trip and I am still working on getting back into the swing of things here at home.  I have today off and then it is back to the grind tomorrow.

My weekly weigh-in included some weight gain and considering I was away from home for 12 days, I am really happy with it.  I was up 2.0 pounds from my home scale weigh-in before we leave for vacation.

It is also the last weigh-in for the month of March.  I have been pretty solid with staying in Onederland and I was really happy to see that I have had a downward trend each month thus far.  I also went bak to look at my weight record from the end of March 2020 an I am down about 10 pounds.  That makes me feel awesome!

With my in-person studio closed, I wouldn’t have been under 200 at my “official” weigh-in due to the additional of clothes/shoes.  So, I have to work off this vacation weight this week and since I don’t think I’ll be at my in-person studio next week, I have two weeks until I have to step on the “official” scale.  I am going to do all I can to keep that downward trend alive and well.

I always look for photos that I can re-create and there is one photo opportunity each time we visit Vegas.  The only problem is that I can never remember how long ago I took the original photo.  Well, much to my surprise, it was in my Facebook Memories today.  

This photo was in March 2016.  

This photo is from March 2021.

It is hard to see a big weight difference with angles and lighting but I really see the biggest difference in my face.  In 2016,  had pretty much stopped stepping on the scale regularly because I was tired of seeing it continue to go up.  It was in July of 2016 that I said enough is enough and re-gained control.

Here is my weight record from 2016.

Here is my weight record from 2021.

I am so much happier since I re-gained control and started to lose my excess weight.  I am not letting vacation gain get me down because I can see all the wonderful things my weight loss thus far has given me.  It made getting around on vacation easier and much more enjoyable.

Epic Road Trip: Lake Havasu, Arizona

Our vacation was one epic road trip.  We traveled over 2,500 miles and drove through six states: Idaho, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada.  Despite many hours in the car, it was a good trip.

We started our drive toward New Mexico to drop off some items to my in-laws and spend some time visiting with them.  My Aunt Barb offered us to stay at her place which allowed us some time with her.  I had really wanted to try out a few of the breweries on this trip but there is just never enough time.  My aunt took this photo of us as we rolled out of town.  I rarely have any photos of Kenyon where he is actually smiling!  On this trip, we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary.

We left New Mexico a day early with an impromptu plan to drive a few hours that evening to Gallup, NM and then make a quick detour to the Grand Canyon National Park on the Arizona side.  I have never been to the Grand Canyon and even though it was a very quick trip, it was amazing.  Maybe one day we will be able to return.

We finished the drive to Lake Havasu getting in after dark.  I could tell as we were driving in it was a lot larger of a city then I expected and I couldn’t wait to explore.  We woke up to a beautiful view right out of our kitchen window which also included a balcony.  

The Havasu Dunes Resort was amazing.  We really loved every minute of this resort and can see ourselves on a return trip.  The staff was so friendly and we were able to use the pool one of the days, although we should have done it on the hottest day of our trip, which was 82 degrees!

Lake Havasu is this great mix of desert, palm trees, water, and mountains.  It was beautiful and I really loved having a place right by the water.  Our resort was only about 1.5 miles from town and it make getting around really easy.

We tried several restaurants:

Juicy’s and The Red Onion where the two breakfast places.  The wait at The Red Onion was quite long on Saturday so we waited until Sunday for the sweet spot around 1pm.  I really enjoyed the pastrami sandwich and the homemade chips with their Red Onion dip.

Barley Brother’s Restaurant & Brewery is right on the waters edge and has amazing views of the London Bridge.  The beer flight was great and the stuffed mushrooms were incredible.

Javelina Cantina was a restaurant near Barley Brother’s that advertised a tye dye margarita.  When I looked at their website, I spotted $10 fajita Mondays, which was a fantastic deal.  The margarita was really good and they have thin crispy tortilla chips…oh yum!  

We walked along both sides of the London Bridge, which is the actual bridge purchased by the founder of Lake Havasu and shipped to the U.S.  The views are beautiful.  Saturday was the busier day on the water which was also the hottest day and the best weather.

Lake Havasu has a club that maintains replicas of famous lighthouses across the U.S.  they are hard to get to and the cruise that takes you to view most of them was not running during the dates we arrived.  It will have to be something we do on a future trip.

We decided to take the ferry to Havasu Landing Resort & Casino, which was just $2 round-trip.  The ferry gave us views on the water and went really fast…faster than I had expected for a small ferry boat.  It was a really cheap way to see the sights and we managed to play off some casino winnings while we were there.  It is also a smoke free casinos which was an added bonus.

After feeling like we did all we wanted to in Lake Havasu, we headed to Las Vegas a day early.  This allows us to see Phoenix and Stacey a day earlier and I also got to see another friend that was in town the same time we were.  We enjoyed food, drinks, and managed to play off the house money for quite some time.  

Vegas was PACKED over spring break.  It was wonderful to see the return of travelers and with the reduced capacity of dining, restaurant wait times were long and/or often booked up for the week.  

With that, we made the drive home stopping in Lehi, Utah for the night, which also allowed us to stop in at IKEA.  This will be our biggest trip for a while.  We are still waiting to see what will come of causing as we are still booked for October.

March Apple Watch Activity Challenge Complete

Thanks to vacation steps, I was able to complete my March Apple Watch Activity Challenge a few days early.

I walked a total of 90 miles this month. This includes daily activity by counting mileage from steps. I also had a lot of intentional activity this month.

I am always so happy with my decision to lose over 100 pounds. It allows me so much more mobility. I will never take that for granted.

I owe you a trip recap. It’s been a long but also good vacation. I’ll pop in soon with a recap when I have time to sit down and do some typing.

13th Wedding Anniversary

It’s our 13th wedding anniversary today.

We are cooking dinner at our vacation condo while relaxing with some Food Network on the TV. 

Yep, year 13 isn’t glamours but boy do I love this man. It’s rare to get a photo of The Hubs smiling. My aunt snapped this one when we were leaving her house in New Mexico last week.

Cheers to Lucky 13.

A Bizzarre Snow Storm

When we left Idaho for a road trip, the least of my worries was encountering snow anywhere other than one of our nasty passes between Idaho and Utah.  I also had to pack for temps all over the place due to our travel destinations.  Little did I know, we would end up having to drive through a very bad snow storm leaving my in-laws house driving back to my aunt’s house.  Holy Cow!  It was rough.

The snow had started to fall just as we were leaving making us glad we wrapped up for the evening when we did.  It got progressively worse where you couldn’t see the lines on the road, three lane roadways were about 1.5 lanes with all the confused traffic, and speeds on the interstate were down to 25 mph.  Thank goodness we made it back okay.

I was highly impressed the traffic was driving an appropriate speed and most vehicles had hazard lights on.  You don’t see that kind of driving in Idaho and if we didn’t, maybe we would have less crashes and slide offs.

We are expecting sunshine and warmer temps the remainder of our trip, which I am thankful for.  It has been really uneventful thus far and I had hopes of hitting up a brewery or two as I have not done that on any of my vacations to New Mexico.  Alas, I don’t think it will happen on this leg of the trip.

Weekly Weigh-In: Out Of Town

I won’t be having an “official” weigh-in this week as we are on vacation.  I got on the scale at home on Sunday and was really happy to see I was the same weight as the home scale weigh-in last week.  WhoooHoooo!  This was a great way to start vacation and I am really trying to focus on staying on track.  The Hubs is working hard on staying committed to his low carb plan so this is helping me too.

Day One of our road trip was a success!  I even tracked my day and earned a blue dot.  This isn’t the norm for vacation.

Day Two was a very, very, very long drive and it was a struggle.  Before we left home and before deciding to make this vacation less of a free-for-all, I had bought some carbs snacks on scale at Winco.  I decided I would pre-portion out the snacks into little bags and use this as a way to enjoy the foods I love while travel but not eat an entire bag in one sitting.  Since I just really wanted the Chex Mix snack baggie, I ate it slowly and enjoyed every bite.  We also made sandwiches that were packed in the cooler for an easy/on-track lunch.  I still went over my points due to the high carb snacking.  However, it was another successful day.

We have reached our first destination and I am so glad we will have a few days of rest before making the drive to our next stop.

Check back soon.

12 Years Since Reaching My WW Goal Weight

On several social media sites, I recently shared my Facebook memory 12 years ago when I finally made goal with WW officially having lost 130 pounds.  I had no idea that I would actually “trend” a little bit.

I feel like a celebrity!  Honestly though it was overwhelming to have so much love.  I have really wanted to somehow get picked up at a WW Ambassador and I have no idea how you get one of those gigs.  However, building my online presence could be one of those ways.  The hard part about that is that it is exhausting to be “on” all the time with social median and frankly, I just don’t have the time when I am at work 10-hours a day.  Plus, I have to set the example in not being on my cell phone at work if I want others to put their phones down too.

I was even more surprised to see that I got pick up by one of the WW hashtags and they promoted my Instagram post.  Ahhhh…soooooo cool!

What a ride it has been over the last 12 years since I reached my goal weight.  I have learned so much about myself and most recently with all my hard work at tackling re-gain weight, I have learned that I am most comfortable keeping 100 pounds off.  Whether or not I ever make it back down to 175 again, that is okay.  I do know that being down over 100 pounds just makes me feel so much better.  Now that I have been able to become a semi-permanent resident again in Onederland, I really do want to stay there.  

There is where it all began…

This is where it ended 12 years ago…

Although it never ended.  This journey is one split into so many portions and each are equally just as important even if I learned more about myself in one or the other particular journey.  We are always able to learn, grow, evolve, and change.  We just have to have the courage to try and see what happens.  Stay open and adjust when necessary.  And if you need to, cry a little but then pick yourself back up, dust off, and keep going.

This is where I am now…

And I love it!

Weekly WI: Feeling Confident In Onederland

It is my fourth week holding steady in Onederland.

I am starting to feel more confident that I am perhaps here to stay.  The only unknown is our upcoming vacation that includes two weeks away from home.  Ouch.  This is going to be tough but I am going to keep my goals in the forefront and work really hard to balance higher point foods with lower point foods.  I’ll rely on those zero point foods when I can.  It is always 100% within in my control what I put into my mouth.

I conducted a scale experiment with a decision to get on the scale at home and also at my WW meeting.  I don’t usually do this but with it unknown if I would make it to my evening meeting, I wanted to make sure I stepped on the scale.  When the world shut down on us a year ago, oh man, a whole year of COVID, I had to start doing my weigh-in at home.  Of course they were conducted in the nude first thing in the morning.  Once I returned to in-person Workshops, I started conducting my at home weigh-ins with my clothes on without my shoes.  You have to wear your shoes on when I weigh at the Studio.  

Anyway, yesterday I decided to weigh-in naked at home vs. getting myself dressed in my exercise clothes as I typically do.  Since there is a scale different between my home scale and the official WW scale, I just didn’t feel like dressing in my workout clothes just to take them back off and get in the shower to go about my day.  I was feeling good later in the day and decided I would step on the scale one more and if the numbers still looked good like they did that morning, I would round up and head to my meeting.

Home Scale: 196.6 naked

WW Scale: 198.4 workout clothes and shoes

Scale difference +1.8

Numbers are just numbers.  Of course I would be ecstatic to be 196.6 with clothes and shoes at the official WW scale.  I’ll get there and in the meantime, I have so much to be proud of.

Earning Those Activity Awards

I started my week out strong on the activity front and mid-week I wanted to keep the momentum going so I could earn my Perfect Movement Awards.

 

I also received a bonus award for International Women’s Day by completing a workout of 20 minutes.

 

Our weather had a day of drab and then has turned nice again.  I was able to make use of some outdoor walking and biking as well as completing a couple indoor FitOn classes.  I have really been enjoying the Aaptiv audio workouts through the WW app.  They keep me energized and focused on my weight loss journey.

As usual, I am nervous for weigh-in tomorrow.  I will actually be getting on the home scale first and then if I am able to, I’ll go to my evening in-person studio.  I am getting my second COVID vaccine shot on Tuesday morning.  I hope to have not crazy effects and sail through it easily like I did last time.  If I am feeling well, I will attend my evening meeting.

Happy Monday.