Friday Five - We Doubled Our Money!

Friday Five - We Doubled Our Money!

It was an interesting week, medically speaking. All is well, but I'm acutely aware that I am in my 60's and my physical form is aging rapidly. We also had interactions with two sets of dear friends that are struggling through cancer, another heart wrenching reminder that we are all now on the downward side of that bell curve. 

Note to self: Life is short. Live big. Love mightily.

1.  We had fun turning $100 into $200. We attended a recent event that included a $20 Wine Pull Booth. We bought five pulls, which resulted in the following, once we got home and looked up our pulls online:

    Bottle One- $15 retail

    Bottle Two- $20 retail

    Bottle Three- $45 retail

    Bottle Four- $52 retail

    Bottle Five- $65 retail

    

Retail total for the five pulls: $197, almost exactly twice what we paid. Plus, no sales tax, an additional $15 savings. 😃

2.  Restarting HRT turned out to a good, but somewhat costly decision. After consulting with my doctor, I went back on HRT in January of this year, because once fully off, my hot flashes returned roaringly. 

I was unaware that going off HRT and subsequently restarting it was not necessarily a simple matter for the aging body, and thus was just mildly concerned when some light spotting began to occur. 

However, a little research courtesy of Mr. Google quickly confirmed this was not normal, and that I should notify my doctor asap, which I did. Well, three appointments and two minor procedures later, all is well, even as the co-pays stacked up(!).  

I have about a year left until Medicare and I'm hoping the body hangs in there until then, because my current private insurance medical co-pay threshold is quite precipitous.

3.  We are meeting friends for a picnic at the Harbor tonight.  Enjoying picnic dinners at the harbor is a summer tradition, that we get to enjoy in March this year, thanks to our very unusual, currently high temps. Hooray!

Picnics at the harbor are such a lovely and relaxing way to enjoy a beautiful evening. Parking in the area where we picnic is ample and free. The grass area where we generally set up is broad and never overcrowded. And the views are lovely - we sit at a slight elevation which allows us to enjoy the many large and small watercraft that go in and out of the harbor, plus ample marine animal life - sea lions, pelicans, cormorants, Great Blue and Night herons, Great White and Snowy egrets, and the occasional, but very regal, osprey.

 

4.  More music and reading in the evenings is now occurring. We were already light TV viewers, but in that we watched exactly zero TV during our recent three week cruise vacation, we decided to experiment and see if reducing from two shows per evening to just one show might result in higher quality evenings. Interestingly, the adjustment was very easy, and we are currently enjoying ending our at-home evenings with soft jazz and books. It's been a nice change.

5.  My happiest days are always when three things occur - lots of hours spent in motion outdoors, one flavor-filled meal, and some downtime spent reading.

Additional time spent with family or friends is then the icing on the proverbial cake.

I hope you make it a good day, wherever you are!

Monday Musings - The Dress Fits!

 Monday Musings - The Dress Fits!

I haven't talked about my weight loss journey in a while, so I hope you'll forgive if I take today's blog post as an opportunity to do so, in that the public accountability goes a very long way in helping me stay the course.

We had a Hawaiian themed event to attend this weekend, on what initially was looking to be an 80+ degree day. In anticipation, I had set aside a shorter sun dress with Hawaiian flowers that I felt comfortable (i.e, thin) in.

But then the weather took a slight turn, and the highs for the event dropped into the high 60's/low 70's. Aaargh - what to do?

(And yes, these type of curveballs do throw me, because I use what I'll be wearing as an incentive to stay the course, calorie wise, in the days preceding.)

I went into my closet and started looking through my longer sun dresses, and came across one that I had purchased last year while we were in the Caribbean, but never worn, because what had seemed to fit just fine while on vacation, was actually a bit to tight to wear comfortably back home in my non-vacation life.

But, of course, that was 25 pounds ago. So, when I tried it back on over the weekend I was thrilled - it didn't feel tight any longer, and I happily accessorized and wore it to our event. And because I felt good/thin, I didn’t overeat as compensation. I stayed with my food plan for the event - water, protein, and vegetables.

.

(I realize the above shoes are a bit too clunky for the dress,
however, I have an increasingly painful bunion on one foot,
and it has altered my shoe game considerably! 😄 )

The offset to being able to wear smaller clothes that I feel good in, and the somewhat unpleasant reality, is that I don't get to eat very much food. That is the honest and ongoing truth to how I lost and am now keeping the weight off - I only have a select number of calories I can eat on any given day, and when I reach the limit, I am done. Even if my brain doesn't always agree.

 

So, I'm increasingly particular (picky if you will) about what I'm willing to use those calories on. I want flavorful, high quality food vs low quality food, because I feel better overall when I eat higher quality food, and less hungry in between meals.

And that's it. I fought hard to lose the weight, and now that it's gone I plan to continue with the changed habits that got me here for the duration of my life. Because there has not been one single moment over the last year when I've looked back and wished I'd eaten something that I chose not to. Only the reverse. 

I have read the following Reddit thread many times since reaching my goal weight. It's full of thoughts and advice that I have found to be extremely helpful in changing my mental stance on eating: Cal Poly Study: Successful Weight Loss Habits. If any of you are on a similar journey, I hope you find it to be of some help as well.

Friday Five - Feel The Heat

 Friday Five - Feel The Heat

We are experiencing an unusual heat event here this past and upcoming week, so I've had to put my brain temporarily into summer mode.  So odd in the middle of March, but I'm trying to roll with it.

1.  We're needing to shift our walks to the morning. One of my great joys in retirement is not waking up to an alarm (even as I often wake up on my own before 6am, LOL). But this week, all my planned walks are happening several hours earlier than normal in order to beat the heat. Yes, even as close to the beach as we are, it's been extremely warm. Right at the shoreline is still comfortably cool, but every walking route we take eventually veers away and hits pavement, at which point temperatures rise. All to say I'm temporarily setting my alarm clock until this seasonally-unusual heat dome passes.  

2.  I caved and turned on the A/C last night. We rely on the strong afternoon coastal breeze to cool the house in warmer weather, but if/when that breeze dies out, such as currently, the house can definitely get stuffy. So, I broke and turned on the A/C last night, trying hard not to see dollar bills flying by overhead as it kicked on. Our already-high electrical fees here in California recently went up again, so I'm definitely not looking forward to our next bill!

3.  We're going to San Juan, Puerto Rico for our Christmas Holiday family vacation. Our daughters are so excited with the plan they came up with, which in turn makes my spouse and I very happy. We'll be staying in adjacent apartments in UNESCO-designated Old Town San Juan between Christmas and New Years, tagging along with whatever activities the girls and their families come up with. It should make for a wonderful end to 2026 and start to 2027 to be all together. I read a reference to gifting money in this manner as 'Giving with a warm hand'. Enjoy gifting now, in a manner that can be experienced and enjoyed while we are alive, rather than waiting till we're, well, not. 

4.  I'm almost on auto-pilot with regard to my daily eating plan, after losing 25 pounds last year. Even after a full year of working to modify my eating habits, first to effect weight loss, then to maintain it, there are still days that I struggle. One thing I do, that is proving to be very helpful, is to make up the day's eating plan each morning while I sip my coffee. I go through my day, identify any calorie splurges, such as tonight, when I'll be having a 150 calorie, 6 oz glass of wine at our Club, and schedule out my remaining daily calories. This allows me to pleasantly anticipate and look forward to various caloric events, while still maintaining control over the rest of my day.

5.  We finalized our Easter Sunday plans.  Not religious over here - the ocean is my church - but others in my family are, so I do work to honor their beliefs even if not sharing them. Thus, this year's Easter plans will begin on Holy Saturday with taking my mom and my husband's sister to dinner and sunset viewing at our Club. This will be followed by all but me attending services on Easter Sunday morning, during which I'll pick up a freshly baked quiche from a French bakery in town, and take it, along with champagne and an array of fresh fruit, to my mother's home, where we'll all meet up for Easter brunch. Afterward my mom wants to take us along the creek trail that runs near her home, which I'm very much looking forward to. 

Monday Musings - I Think I'm Going To Buy The Business Class Seats!

 

Monday Musings - I Think I'm Going To Buy The Business Class Seats!

After much encouragement from our older daughter, some of the comments left here, and most importantly, my husband(!), I am thiiiis close to pulling the trigger on Business Class tickets for our September long haul flight to London Heathrow, a first time event. Not on the return, though, which I'll explain more below, but yes, pretty sure I'm going to book the outgoing flights at Business Club level.

In doing my research, the difference was initially shocking - First Class one way at $13,000 a ticket!!! - but when I scrolled down to Business Class, it was significantly less, about 3x the cost of Economy, but just a fraction of the First Class price displayed.

Our outgoing trip will be a red eye, as the majority of flights to Europe from the USA are. We depart at approximately 4PM our time, making for a nice, leisurely morning at home before heading out. Arrival into London after the ten hour flight is in the late morning, perfect as well for a nice partial day spent on the move before heading to bed, to eventually sleep. Flights that go West to East result in it being hard for us to get to sleep, then hard to wake up, so I plan our time for the first few days accordingly - late evening events work fine, early morning events do not!

We'd also get expedited security line check thru, access to airline's lounge, early boarding, onboard luggage, seat assignments, elevated food, and premium liquor. Oh, and most important of all - larger, more cushioned seats, and seats that, oh my, lay flat. I can't imagine what it will be like to sleep on a plane laying flat, but I am excited to try!

On the return flight home out of Scotland, there are no direct flights into Los Angeles, so we'll fly to New York first, then New York to Los Angeles, each leg about five hours flying. In that any attempt at sleep will be broken up by the NYC transfer, I'm fine with economy for the trip home.

Now back home, I spent the bulk of my morning yesterday clearing out emails, plus booking event after event. I deferred all event emails until back in the correct time zone - trying to figure out how to place an event onto my Google calendar when in a different time zone is beyond my skill level! 

Otherwise, the rest of the weekend was spent unpacking, doing laundry, menu planning, and grocery shopping. We also walked a good number of miles, and met up with friends and family. Today, I have a dental appointment first thing, which while not looking forward to, am also not dreading - it's 'just' a re-filling of an old cavity, a piece of cake compared to some of the other dental procedures I've endured over pretty much my entire adult-teeth life. So, the rest of Monday will be great by default once that's done.

In looking ahead to 2027, because I always do future trip planning when on or newly returned from a trip, I have my eye on a tour of Australia that includes the Outback and the Great Barrier Reef, followed by a quick flight over to New Zealand to continue the tour. We traveled to Sydney some years back, enjoying a few days there before getting on a cruise ship headed to New Zealand. It will be interesting to return to both countries and see them by land this time, rather than by sea. The tour I'm eyeing in particular ends in Auckland, New Zealand, where we'll spend time on our own post-tour before heading for home.

The week ahead is filled with my usual activities of volunteering, walks and lunch with girlfriends, ukulele practice, a long hike & lunch with my spouse, our annual termite inspection (fingers crossed!), beers out with my spouse for St. Patrick's Day, and a stop by my favorite shoe store to use a $15 reward on a pair of black wedge sandals for summer.

Oh, and a trip report regarding how my weight held on our recent cruise. It held! While I did not lose those last three pounds as hoped (I blame the delicious breakfast granola, and the outdoor pizza station where I ate lunch on each sea day), I also did not gain any, and returned home considerably stronger after consistently walking four or five miles each sea day around the deck, and climbing hundreds of flights of stairs over the course of our journey - other than the day we disembarked the ship with our luggage in tow, we did not use the elevators one single time, yeah us!

So, great news overall, in that I read the average cruiser gains six pounds. Oof!

Friday Five - Cruise Vacation Version

 Friday Five - Cruise Vacation Version

It’s been a great trip, but we return home today to a full weekend of activities, so I’m leaving our ship with great memories, but no sadness - our at-home lives are very enjoyable as well.

1.  Walking the cruise ship deck track was wonderful. We walked about five miles around the deck on each sea day, and what a privilege it was - fresh breezes, wide open blue ocean, sea birds, and if lucky, marine mammal sightings. It was a joy, and left us both deeply relaxed just in time for our afternoon sea day plans of, generally, simply reading out on our balcony. 

Off-ship trip highlights were transiting the Panama Canal,  a full day affair, seeing sloth, parrots, and toucan up close, eating just-picked tropical fruits and freshly caught seafood, and sipping ice cold local beer on hot and humid touring days.

2.  We enjoyed listening to live music each night. Listening to a variety of live musical entertainment around the ship after dinner each night was lovely, and something I plan to incorporate more of into our weekday lives (vs our already active weekend lives) when we return. We do have ample opportunities to hear live music pretty much nightly, but in that it’s doubtful our energies could keep up that pace, at the very least we can play music while preparing, eating, and cleaning up from our weekday dinners.

3.  Cruising seems to have gotten ‘heavier’. The level of obesity that we observed on this particular cruise was shocking. We have never encountered it on any other cruise to the degree that we did on this cruise, and are sincerely wondering what may have changed societally since our last cruise to lead to what we observed. 

4.  Continue to struggle with the morality of cruising. The question I ask myself, and am unable to conclusively answer, is are we helping or exploiting our cruise ship room stewards, wait staff, back-of-the- kitchen staff, and other unseen crew, many if not most from predominantly poorer countries than those we guests are from? I just don’t know.

5.  Enjoyed our brief interactions with the locals. We very much enjoyed the small interactions we had with the local residents at our port stops in Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, and Mexico. Most of whom were graciously tolerant of my halting Spanish. 

We are so ridiculously fortunate to be able to travel and see what life is like outside of our United States ‘bubble’.

We arrive back home later today, and will be happy to get there. The joys of travel are many, but so are the joys of returning home after time away.

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We called our daughters at one point during our cruise, gave them a budget number, and told them they were free to plan a Christmas vacation for the entire family in the warm weather location of their choosing, subject to the budget we’d set. My early guess is that they will land on either Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, or one of the Caribbean islands. Excited to hear what destination they come up with once they decide.

February Mini Goals - How I Did

February Mini Goals - How I Did

In hindsight, this is a good monthly exercise in getting me to stop procrastinating on things I know need getting done. And although I didn't hit 100% completion, I'm confident that I completed more than I would have otherwise. Public facing accountability is a real motivator for me!

1.  Cook a new Hot Air Fryer recipe.  ✅

Done! After hearing from many people about how well salmon turns out when placed in an air fryer, I finally gave it a try. And, well, I am now completely converted! It was easy (I simply marinated my salmon for a couple of hours in a teriyaki marinade), quick (Seven minutes in the air fryer), and absolutely delicious - moist on the inside, slightly crisped on the outside.

This is the general recipe I followed, though I did take a big shortcut by using bottled teriyaki marinade: Air Fryer Teriyaki Salmon. I also added sesame seeds and chopped chives as in the photo below before serving.

2.  Run a mile in less than eleven minutes. ☑

In Progress. I am up to running a mile along the street, and I am up to running 1/4 of a mile at a 10 minute and change pace on the treadmill. I'll slowly start to put the two together, and thus will carry this goal over into my upcoming March goals.

3.  Organize my tee shirt drawers. ✖

No, not done. I think subconsciously I'm waiting to lose the last few pounds I'm currently working on before I get this done. Then I can make a list of what style, colors and exact/correct sizes I need to replace before heading into summer.

4.  Talk to neighbors about trimming their trees.  ☑

In Progress. I spoke to three of the four neighbors I need to speak with. One went better than expected, one went as expected, one went worse than expected . . . asking someone to trim back their vegetation is never going to be an easy conversation to have.

I'll deal with the last neighbor once I return from my trip. The good news is that once my part is done - of simply making and documenting that I've made a request - I can then turn it over to the HOA.

5.  Lose 5 pounds.  ☑

In progress. I did lose the two pounds I gained in January, and time will tell if I succeed in losing the last three of my recently revised weight loss goal (from 108 to 105) while on our cruise.

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How about you??? Any progress on February goals you care to share?

March Mini Goals

 March Mini Goals

To repeat what I wrote last month - I enjoy the fresh start that each new month presents - I may have stumbled the month prior, but the start of a new month is an invitation to try, try again. 

My mini goals for the month of March are:

1.  Make a music and dinner date with a couple we met recently at our social club. We had our first 'Let's get together!' moment with a darling older couple at our social club that we'd been casually chatting with over some weeks. So the next time we see them, we'll look to put an actual date on our respective calendars in order to go hear some live music at a very, very casual venue in our area, a good environment for a first get together.

2.  Continue to work on running a mile in less than eleven minutes. This is a carry over from February. So far I am able to run a mile outdoors at an approximately 12 minute per mile pace, and 1/4 of a mile on the treadmill at a sub-11 minute per mile pace. So my goal is to continue work on both until I'm able to do an entire mile, either outdoors or on the treadmill, in under 11 minutes.

3.  Organize my tee shirt drawers. This is also a carry over from February, in that I think I wanted to lose those last three vanity pounds before going through my shirts, assessing, trying on, and committing to any needed tee shirt replacements. 

4.  Go to an Irish Pub on St. Patrick's Day. My husband is close to 100% Irish, so this is pretty much a national holiday in our household. Neither one of us is a big fan of Irish food, however, so we'll be content to enjoy some some Irish beer in what will likely be very lively pub surroundings, LOL.

5.  Get through the training process for my new role as Treasurer in one of my volunteer organizations. Initially I felt overwhelmed when I scanned through the report the current Treasurer provides. But, after going through it again, I am confident I can replicate it once I identify where each of the data points is being pulled from. And though the initial effort to build the report may be a bit time consuming, already I can see it will become pretty much a piece of cake in ensuing months. Thus working very well with and easily around our later-in-the-year travel plans.

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How about you??? Any new goals for February you care to share?