Weekend Wrap Up / Lots of Cooking!

Weekend Wrap Up

Well, another vibrant weekend is in the books! As a retiree still trying to live a big life (I can rest when I'm dead, as my Dad, who is still going strong at 88, always reminds me when we chat.), I often wake up on Monday mornings with gratitude that the life I've worked hard to build since we moved here eight years ago is now at a place where it pretty much moves along without me needing to be push it quite so hard. 

Everything we did this weekend built off of earlier efforts I/we made to establish a connection with friends or community. I say that simply to encourage any who might be floundering a bit in retirement. You do have to work to get things going, but you can then take your foot off the throttle and pretty much coast.

Friday - I spent a really enjoyable morning at our new fitness center. This is the first gym we've belonged to since retiring that I am actually enjoying. During my working years, I loved going to the gym in the early AM because lots of my friends and work colleagues were also there, and we'd chat as we worked out. That changed when I retired and stopped going in at 5AM, and I've been struggling a bit since to find my gym mojo.

But I really like our new fitness center. It feels lively, but not in any sort of look-at-me way that a lot of gyms do. There are just lots of active people of all ages, they are friendly, and I now look forward to my indoor workouts after many years of not.

My workout consisted of 10 minutes on the StairMaster, from which I'll begin to build, 3 miles on the treadmill, about 1/2 mile of which I ran, and a full body weight workout.

I stopped by two supermarkets on the way home in order to 'steal' their advertised loss leaders -

• Two containers of Thrifty ice cream at $2.50 a container
• 5 ears of corn at .50 cents each
• A pound of Hormel bacon at $5.00
• A small watermelon at $2.00

All of the above are in preparation for our soon-to-be-here younger daughter and her family, which includes my two (yeah!) granddaughters.

We officially kicked off the weekend in the late afternoon with a visit to our membership winery's new waterfront location. As we took our glasses of complimentary wine out onto their new patio, I thought, 'Oh my goodness, I am not going to hate this new location whatsoever!'

Dinner back home was another of my frozen stash of Pot Pie savory dinner pies, plus some roasted asparagus.

Saturday - I met my regular walking group for a four mile walk along the beach, during which we observed a Paddle Out. A Paddle Out (described in greater detail here) is a ceremony where people paddle out to the waves, form a circle, and honor the memory of someone recently deceased. I've seen several of these over the years, and they are always moving to observe.

Post walk, we all gathered for coffee where, surprisingly, a robust discussion about Shakespeare occurred. I was delighted, as I've read and attended about a dozen Shakespeare plays since retiring, one of my retirement goals that stuck. 

The process I follow before seeing a Shakespeare production is to download the play we are going to see, and read it while simultaneously reading SparkNotes online to assist with understanding the dialogue as written.

After returning home I spent the afternoon baking Ina Garten's Carrot Cake with Candied Ginger Mascarpone Frosting for a social wine event we were attending.

The event, once we arrived, turned out to be lots of fun (it actually always is 🙂), and my fancy carrot cake ended up being voted the Dish Of The Night, which earned me a $40 bottle of Pinot Noir, yeah!

Sunday - Spiritual services in the AM, then home to prepare to host my Book Club. For tonight's meeting, which I host once a year, I made a slow cooker honey beer pot roast with carrots and potatoes, steamed green beans, warmed Challah bread slices, and this Giada de Laurentis Ricotta Orange Amaretto Pound Cake that I served alongside small scoops of orange sherbet.

The book club discussion  - How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn - was interesting and robust, and the dinner turned out really nice, with seconds enjoyed by several of the guests (including me!). Clean up afterward, which my lovely husband did since I did all the cooking, was considerable, so we headed straight to bed once he finished.

Today, Monday - 

Although I didn't have any dessert, I did eat more pot roast than I should have last night, so I'm headed out the door shortly to try and undue any damage with a long walk. I'll weigh myself tomorrow! 😄

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How was your weekend???

Breaking In To Share A Brief Moment Of Success

Posting my weight loss efforts here on this blog has been such an incentive to keep going, particularly on the days when I really, really, really want to eat, so, a sincere and hearfelt . . . 

Thank You!!!

I hit a new low threshold this morning (118.6), got all excited, and took a quick photo just before heading out to meet my Saturday morning walking group. 

I still have a few more pounds to go, but d@mn it, after so many weeks and months of self-deprivation, I think I've earned the right to enjoy a brief moment of success!  😆

Edited to add: I want to quickly clarify that I don't consider giving up sugar to be a form of self-deprivation. That was/is a form of self care, due to the way sugar was negatively impacting my life. I'm thrilled to finally have that monkey off my back, hopefully for good.

Weekly Weigh In & Movement (6/27)

Weekly Weigh In & Movement

Goal Weight:  115

June 27 Weigh In:  119

Weight Lost This Week:  1.2 pounds

Weight Left To Lose:  4 pounds

Weekly Mileage/Movement

• Fri- None
• Sat- 2 mile walk
• Sun- None
• Mon - 5 mile walk
• Tue- 1 mile walk
• Wed- None
• Thur - 5 mile walk
• TOTAL FOR WEEK:  13 miles
• TOTAL FOR MONTH:  66 miles + 1x weight training

My walking mileage for the week was low, primarily due to our super busy weekend, but because my food intake was also low, I did still lose weight, just a bit over a pound.

With several major celebrations now behind us, I look forward to returning to larger mileage walks, beginning this weekend, which should help to keep the weight loss momentum going.

Today's Action Plan: Gym workout- 10 min on stairs stepper, 3 miles speed walking on treadmill, and a full body weight workout.

No Sugar and Less Food Efforts

No issues with sugar this week. In fact, I'm now scaling back on what I call Level 2 sugar - catsup primarily, but also BBQ sauce. It was interesting to discover that dramatically cutting back my usage of catsup resulted in me not even caring to finish my fries. Twice now this has occurred, which begs the question, Was I simply having fries with my catsup, rather than the other way around? 😏

The Less Food effort, though, does continue to require focus. Even at my current, lower weight, the food noise in my head continues, and I have to consciously work to avoid eating when I know I'm really not hungry. It's particularly brutal in the evening, for reasons I don't understand.

I've been successful in stopping most of my eating for the day at around 4:00 PM, at which point I begin sipping herbal tea. I do continue to have whatever vegetables are on my dinner menu each evening, but that is it. And if the food noise gets really bad, I enjoy a few frozen berries, or some grapes. So, progress for sure, even though it's can be ridiculously hard to ignore my noisy brain.

I find the food noise to be really interesting, from a biological perspective. I'm going to spend some time this week trying to understand where it comes from, and why it occurs. 

I like my leaner face, but oooff - those wrinkles!
The results of a childhood spent in the sun.
Kids, don't do that! 😄

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If you are likewise on a quest to improve some aspect of your dietary or fitness life, please feel free to share here. The more we can work to support and encourage each other the better!

Five Happy Things / A Clean Bill Of Health

Five Happy Things

I very much appreciate and enjoy the focus that looking for life's small and not-so-small happy things brings to my daily life - so here we go:

Five Happy Things

1)  A Clear Mammogram Re-do. This is the biggest Happy Thing, without question - I had to do a follow up mammogram yesterday, after a slightly questionable mammogram earlier in the month. I was reassured that the follow up was likely not going to bring up anything, but just to be safe . . .

So yesterday was it, along with an ultrasound of the breast in question. As the radiologist finished the ultrasound, she smiled and said I'd receive an official notification by mail, but she could tell me with confidence that there was nothing there.

Whew!

2)  You're so thin! While undergoing the first of yesterday's procedures, the follow up mammogram, the female technician kept commenting on how thin I was, and how did I do it?

OMG, did I or did I not love that???  😄

I told her it was as simple as not eating a lot, and just as hard. So, so hard on some days!

3)  I bought a ukulele. And I can already play a song on it!

I bought a ukulele and ukulele chord chart, and after spending just a few minutes with the ukulele chord chart relearning some of the basic guitar chords, began working on Somewhere Under The Rainbow. And after just a few minutes of effort, I have to say it started to sound pretty good! The chord revisions I started with were pretty simple - G, C, Em, Am, and F - and the strumming pattern changes (a bit faster, and more pronounced, for ukulele) came along pretty much organically.

I'll next begin working on some of the suggested songs the ukulele group I'm looking to join suggests that newcomers learn. I'm thinking by September I should be ready to raise my hand and give the group a try - and vice versa of course!

Update:  I went ahead and joined the ukulele group! They welcome beginners, and summer practice sessions begin next week. 😄

I learned while shopping yesterday that there are three types of ukuleles - soprano, tenor, and baritone.
I liked the sound of the tenor ukulele the most, so that is the one I decided to go with.
It looks so small and cute next to my guitar!

4)  Summer Cherries.  Cherries are beginning to come into season, and are on sale just in time for the upcoming 4th of July holiday. My supermarket sales ads this week are featuring cherries at $1.99 a pound, so a whole of them will be coming home with me tomorrow when I do my weekly grocery shop.

5)  Free Symphony In The Park event tonight. This is the first free concert of the 2025 summer season we're able to attend, so I'm feeling particularly happy and excited. I'm making a Mediterranean tuna salad, plus baguette slices with cheese, grapes, and some sparkling wine. It should be a lovely, though possibly still slightly cool evening, so I'll try and remember to throw in some sweaters in addition to some sun hats. June is our month of transition here, with the heat generally not reaching us until July.

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What's made you happy recently? Please share!

Weekend Wrap Up / Why Yes, It Involved Wine

Weekend Wrap Up

This was one of those weekends that I might not believe if I hadn't actually lived it. I'm sitting here on Monday morning with a clear calendar, which I am desperately in need of after the last three days!

Friday - We woke up and got ready early in order to drive to Temecula, about a 90 minute trip, and attend a winery event being hosted by one of the entities we do personal business with. It began with a tour of the winery's growing and production facilities, then moved into a private room for a series of wine tastings paired with charcuterie. 

One of the wines we tasted was a Cabernet sauvignon that we both loved. So we knew it was going to be pricey, lol. And it was, at $90 a bottle. However, if we found someone to go in with us on a case, the price dropped to $55 a bottle. We chatted with the business contact that had invited us, and he said he and his wife would love to share a case with us. 

Then they ended up comping us our six bottles. Totally unexpected, but very, very, very much appreciated!

From there we returned to Orange County, and headed to a new steakhouse near us that was getting rave reviews. We were primarily interested in their Happy Hour menu, not one of their pricier full blown meals, and had read that we needed to get there early if so, right at or before their 4:00 PM opening. So we got into line at 3:40PM, and were first to do so. However, by 4:00 PM, as they opened their doors, the line was long, and every table in their beautiful bar area, where Happy Hour was held, quickly filled. 

We ordered the wedge salad, and then their house made burger, both to share. The salad was lovely, but the burger blew our minds. The restaurant compile their burgers using leftover trimmings from the various prime sides of beef they cut on site, including Wagyu. Plus the burger came with a generous smear of truffle aioli. And the total bill, including a beer for my husband, plus tax and tip, came to just under $50, which I was super pleased with. See later for where I am happy to spend money, large quantities of food just not being it for reasons of my scale. 😊

The beautiful bar area. We were happy we were able to snag a private table,
but the folk sitting directly at the bar seemed happy as well.

Saturday - My mom came over to spend the morning walking the beach and visiting a surfing festival with us. The walk was lovely in that the skies were just clear enough for a little sun to come through on an otherwise brisk morning. The festival was a lot of fun, with oodles of vintage surf boards, a classic Woodie car show, and live music that included a ukulele band . . . the later of which I loved, and have decided to join after chatting with some of the musicians!

Although I don't currently own or play a ukulele, the group encourages and welcomes new players. And because I do already own and play a guitar, I've read that the transition should actually be fairly easy.

So, another fun activity to dive into, which makes me quite happy!

After returning home, my husband and I got cleaned up and then headed to a Hawaiian themed dinner at a cooking school we both much enjoy. As usual, we had a lot of fun with the chefs and our fellow students, all couples this particular evening, and made lots delicious food. The chefs seat us at a long table after we cook the meal components, and then serve us, which is also so much fun. My favorite item of the night (they always ask) was the sweet potato and ginger soup. My husbands was the Luau fried rice. Both remakes here at home for sure, once they send out the recipes a little later this week.

Sunday - Spiritual services, then off to the ballet to see Swan Lake. And here is where I can state that I am happy to spend money! We had front row seats, and to me they were worth every penny. The ballet was absolutely gorgeous, and we were close enough to feel the passion and energy coming from the performers on stage. 

Gosh, I just loved it so much. We'd seen Swan Lake in Russia when we visited St. Petersburg some years back on a cruise. However, not only were we not even close to being in the front row, we realized after seeing the full four act production on Sunday, that what we'd seen in Russia was simply a sampling of Swan Lake. It wasn't remotely the full length version. It was apparently the Russian tourist version!

We returned home to a simple dinner of Curry Vegetable pot pie that I'd bought and frozen last week from the Pop Pie Co, plus salad.

Today, Monday, I'm thrilled that my weigh-in this morning indicates I didn't gain any weight over our fairly food centric weekend, meaning my daily calorie planning on where to cut back calories early in the day, in order to enjoy more later in the day, appeared to work. I'm thus fired up to dig deep this week, in order to be back in the 'teens' by Friday. 

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How was your weekend???

Friday- Weekly Weigh In & Movement

Weekly Weigh In & Movement

Goal Weight:  115

June 20 Weigh In:  120.2

Weight Lost This Week:  +1 pound

Weight Left To Lose:  5.2 pounds

I have been giving thought to how hard losing these last few pounds has become, and in doing some research, came across this article from the Mayo Clinic, discussing how each plateau reached (119-120 for me currently) may necessitate creating a whole new diet plan.

Getting Past A Weight Loss Plateau

Weekly Mileage/Movement

• Fri- None  (Left at 8 AM for an event)
• Sat- 7 mile walk
• Sun- 3 mile walk
• Mon - 6 mile kayak
• Tue- 5 mile walk
• Wed- 5 mile walk
• Thur - None, though I did do about an hour of yardwork.
• TOTAL FOR WEEK:  26 miles
• TOTAL FOR MONTH:  53.5 miles + 1x weight training

Many of my miles this week occurred at our local harbor.
I am so enjoying all the children now there, many taking sailing
lessons, such as in the yellow-masted sailboat in photo.

No Sugar and Less Food Efforts

I had one night of mild sugar compulsions, the first in many weeks. I'm not sure why, exactly, other than overall general hunger perhaps.

It was a bit rough, but I managed to silence the sugar compulsions by eating a half cup of frozen berries (comprised of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and cherries) at about 40 calories. I really enjoy this as a treat - it requires patience to allow the berries to soften. I enjoy them slowly, one at a time, and the flavors range from mildly tart to mildly sweet. 

I admit I'm a little frustrated to have stalled a bit this week, in that I track my calories and know I'm not exceeding 1200 on any given day, inclusive of exercise calories. So, I'm going to try something a tad radical, since I happen to have all the ingredients here in the house already, the Pink Salt cleanse.

I'll let you know next week how it goes!

__________________________________________________________-

If you are likewise on a quest to improve some aspect of your dietary or fitness life, please feel free to share here. The more we can work to support and encourage each other the better!

Five Happy Things / Kayaking Perfection

Five Happy Things

I very much appreciate and enjoy the focus that looking for life's small and not-so-small happy things brings to my daily life - so here we go:

Five Happy Things

1) A perfect kayaking day. My girlfriend, who is ahead of me in the photo below, and I meet to go kayaking once each month. Our most recent get together was this past Monday, when the weather was gorgeous, the winds calm, and the current in our favor. We are both deeply appreciative that we prioritize our monthly get togethers, as you never know what nature is going to deliver.  This time (thank you!), it delivered perfection.

2)  We pulled out at the halfway point on Monday, in search of coffee. As we walked down Marine Avenue, on Balboa Island where we'd stopped, we passed display after display celebrating the upcoming 4th of July holiday, and this one in particular caught me eye. Not only did I love the curated display of pillows, I had to laugh at the less-than-friendly call-out the store owner had had printed at the bottom of the chair.  

3)  These beautiful hydrangeas that a neighbor gave to me as a 'thank you' for our recent wine tasting event. I've been happily enjoying them for days.

4)  Finding this on the Lucky Day table at our library last week. The Lucky Day table in our library is where one copy of extremely popular books are sometimes placed for same day checkout.  Sometimes you walk in and, lucky day, a copy of a book with an otherwise very long wait list is available for immediate checkout.

I read this nonstop in pretty much three days, and have already returned it to the library to be enjoyed by some other lucky reader.

I learned so much about the Vietnam War, in that I was just a child while it was occurring. And so much about the sacrifices of the men and women involved.

5)  Walking randomly into this surf board shop while searching for coffee one afternoon. I myself never did more than boogie boarding while growing up in California, but since moving here to coastal S. Orange County eight years ago, I have become acutely aware of the history and overall beauty of surfing, and I love that it's such a big part of the culture here.

Last summer while visiting us here, I gifted my older granddaughter with a one hour private surfing lesson, and she fell in love - 'Nana, I did it!' So we will see if it takes over time, and we end up with our first official family surfer.

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What's made you happy recently? Please share!