A Shift In Travel Plans

As I sit here and drink my morning coffee out of one of my favorite Starbucks, I am having so much trouble taming the travel bug inside me.  I love the I can reminisce about our past travel destinations with something as simple as a coffee cup.  

Travel feeds my soul.

I have a couple side hustles coming up that will help get me out of town for a few days.  Mostly, I have been all over the place with indecisiveness as we wait for the cruise industry to start back up and what we want to do with our existing cruise bookings.  I thought I was okay with pushing our October cruise out and waiting until March 2022 as we hope to go on our NCL cruise to Australia and New Zealand.  I have recently gone down the rabbit hole of following a group of cruisers on Instagram in the UK who recently completed a four-day cruise on MSC in/out of Southhampton, London.  Now the cruise desire is light up like a roadside flair and I just really want to get back on a cruise ship!

As luck would have it, we had not yet cancelled our October NCL cruise down the coast of the Pacific North West when we received the “official” word the cruise company had to cancel it.  The plan right now  is to use as much of the fleet as possible to cruise to destinations that do not use a US port (Rome, Italy, Jamaica, and Dominican Republic) and to also start back up in Hawaii and Alaska.  This is why we were canceled.  Our ship needed to be used on an different itinerary.  We were gifted a 10% coupon towards our next booking, which I thought would be a 14-day Europe cruise in 2023.  The coupon was only good on sailings through 2022.  

We spent some time looking at options in October and spotted an Alaksa Cruise with a good price tag and perfect flight options to get us to the port on the same day of embarkation and a flight home the same day as disembarkation.  And….the flights were just $58 each way or 2,500 Southwest rewards points.  That is a KILLER deal.  It didn’t take long to make the decision we would be calling our cruise guy and booking an Alaska cruise in October of 2021.  

The icing on the cake is that Mom and Dad will be joining us.  I am over the moon my parents are going to travel with us.  I think this makes me 100x more exciting for October to get here (but not too fast because I am ready for warm temps).

This is a modified cruising itinerary from our previous Alaska cruise with less port stops and it does not cruise the inside passage.  I hope it will still be enjoyable for my parents as they have been wanting to return to Alaska for many years.  I also hope it doesn’t get cancelled!  We will have three ports of call: Juneau, Icy Straight Point, and Ketchikan.  We will be on the NCL Bliss, which has a brewery and a Starbucks as well as some entertainment that my parents will enjoy.  I am really living on cloud nine right now.  My parents are the best so we are going to have a great time.

We currently still hold our other cruise booking for March 2022 and we are staying hopeful that Australia and New Zealand will start accept travels again without a 14-day quarantine.  All we can do is sit and wait and hope for the best.

Positive Pep Talks: I Can Do Hard Things

The last year and a half have challenged me so much.  The opportunity to promote to supervisor at work feel into my lap and I am not sure if I was 100% ready.  For those that don’t know me, I never saw myself as a supervisor.  I have a lot of qualities that make a good supervisor but the one part that has always been lacking is the ability to connect with people in a leadership role using “soft gloves.”  I struggle with coddling and my brutal honesty easily hurts feelings.  

It has been a really big learning curve that I am committed to navigating.  I have to remind myself time and time again that I won’t be good at something overnight and that it will take time to learn and grow.

Having a growth mindset is so important in my WW journey and it also helps me each day in my professional life.  The Weekly Technique not only applies to weight loss, it also applies to other areas of my life.

Practicing positive self talk has been really helpful this last year and a half.  I often have to pep myself up with the mantra, “I can do hard things.”  Which is true.  I CAN do hard things.  A positive mindset breeds positivity and having a can-do attitude sets the right tone vs. a can’t-do attitude.  

What positive mantras do you use when you need to give yourself a little positive pep talk? 

Oh boy it has been a week.

I am in the negative after blowing through my Weekly Smart Points Allowance.  It was not the original plan for the week but here we are and at least it is all tracked.  Tuesday I went to my parents house for sourdough pancake dinner.  Wednesday we stayed in and ordered Dominos thin crust pizza and stuffed cheesy bread (my favorite).  Thursday was a planned dinner out with a prior coworker that also involved pizza. 

I tracked it, I enjoyed it, and I’m trying to keep my sweet tooth at bay.  When you have all the foods with all the extra sodium, it really ramps up the tastebuds to wanting more.  I have to continue to remind myself if I can tough it out for a day or two, I’ll be feeling back to normal soon and those cravings will pass.  I had a bit of a set back with my decision to have a small piece of ice cream cake at work last night.  That sweet tooth is really ramped up!

I am armed with low point Purple Plan foods and committed to finishing out this week strong.  Now that I have completed the May Apple Watch Activity Challenge, I am working on keeping up my daily activity even if I don’t always hit the 30 minute mark.  Consistency is key.