Weekend Wrap Up & The Week Ahead

Weekend Wrap Up & The Week Ahead

As I've mentioned previously, it's a goal in retirement to plan the type of non-stop weekends that we did not have the energy to create or do during our working years. And this weekend delivered and then some!

But first, I have to give tribute to 84 year old Welsh singer, Tom Jones, who I had the privilege of seeing live this past week. Tom Jones was one of my mother's singing idols, right up there along with Elvis Presley. My early idols were more along the lines of Davey Jones and David Cassidy, but I did/do of course know who Tom Jones is. So, when my girlfriend invited me to see him via a free ticket she had, I said 'Sure,' but without any particular excitement on my side.

Well, I am here to say that I was wrong! He was adorable, delightful, entertaining, and still had his trademark powerhouse voice.

No hip swivels though, just in case you are wondering. He sat on a stool for most of the show, which at almost 85 years, I will not judge him for whatsoever!

Back to our weekend, here's how it flowed:

Friday - Five mile walk around the harbor, picnic lunch enjoying the marine bird life. Home to do a few chores and clean up, then over to one of our favorite coastal venues to enjoy dinner and a country band, during which, yeah, line dancing occurred. We learned the 10 Step - fun, fun, fun!

Saturday - Spent time in the AM on the computer and on the phone with my girlfriend, deciding which of a few organized wilderness trips we were considering doing together was 'the one.' We landed on a one week hiking and kayaking trip in Newfoundland, Canada a little later this year, and we are both so excited as it looks like it's going to be absolutely gorgeous!

After sending in my deposit and completing lots of online paperwork, my husband and I left to attend what turned out to be a great tribute concert to Foreigner and Journey in always-fun Laguna Beach.

Afterward we had dinner at one of our favorite Laguna Beach restaurants, where we were seated alongside a former Real Housewife of Orange County. This has happened to me a few times over the years, and honestly, it's always fun.😄

Sunday - Spiritual services in the AM, then over to the harbor to launch our kayaks and enjoy a concert on the water. 

Dinner back at home afterward.

This upcoming week is packed. In addition to several events, appointments, commitments, and miles of hiking and walking plans, we're also prepping for a wine event we are holding here next weekend.

As my 88 year old father always says, whenever we say goodbye after chatting about his many and ongoing activities, 'I can rest when I'm dead, Tamara!'

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How was your weekend???

Weekly Weigh In & Movement (May 23)

 Weekly Weigh In & Movement (May 23)

Goal Weight:  115

May 23 Weigh In:  121 

Weight Lost This Week:  1 pound

Weight Left To Lose:  6 pounds

I began last Friday's post by saying that the effort to lose these last few pounds has been considerable. And I'm here to repeat that again this week- in spite of the many miles I walk on and hike each week, I must have the metabolism of a sloth, because this is indeed hard! I'm creating a game plan each morning when I wake up, on how I'm going to structure my day with regard to activity exercise, and meals eaten. If we have an evening social event, I skip breakfast, have a small lunch, and ingest a small bag of almonds just prior to leaving for our event, so that I don't arrive starving.

As long as I give myself time to walk through the evening event in my head, I'm more successful than not in sticking to my eating plan.

Conversely, if we have a big multi-mile daytime walk or hike planned, I can enjoy a mini-splurge for lunch, such as a shared carnitas burrito or a shared burger with fries, but I then need to skip dinner. Again, as long as I walk through the evening eating plan (or non eating plan!) in my head, I can stay with it more often than not.

And yes, that is the crazy extent to which I'm having to visualize and cut back my calories in order to effect even a minor weight loss. The primary reason I'm continuing to fight off these last few vanity pounds is that I really do love getting dressed up for our many social activities, and I appreciate the way being on the lower end of my personal weight bell curve leaves me feeling in my clothes. Plus, to be honest, I really like the complements I get when I'm close to my goal weight, generally from women my age, or slightly older - they give my aging ego a boost, which feels nice!

That reminds me of a funny story that happened recently. We were leaving a restaurant, and had to walk through their bar to exit. Inside the bar there was a group of young people singing loudly and having fun, and they invited us to join them as we walked by. As we laughingly said 'No, but thanks!,' a clearly tipsy guy yelled out to me, 'I don't know who you are, but I love you!' I laughed, turned to my husband and said, 'I know he's likely drunk, but damn, at my age I'll take it!' 😅

I enjoy clothes shopping and dressing up in our casual California way, and I'm electing to focus on that more so than on food at this point,
in order to remain motivated to power through the last few pounds.

Weekly Mileage/Movement:

• Fri- 4 mile walk
• Sat- 4 mile walk
• Sun- 5 mile walk
• Mon - 5 mile sand walk
• Tue- 4 mile walk
• Wed- None, but a good number of hours trimming and mulching in the adjacent HOA area, as my property is basically zero maintenance. So I get my yardwork love itch scratched by making the adjacent HOA area on my side as close to pristine as possible. 😄
• Thur - None
• TOTAL FOR WEEK:  22 miles
• TOTAL FOR MONTH SO FAR:  75 miles

No Sugar Progress

I did great this week, week eight, and had virtually no cravings. I'm now very, very comfortable being in the presence of sugar outside of my home. As an example, my husband and I did a long beach walk over the weekend, going out for iced coffee afterward. He ordered a well-earned berry muffin to go with his coffee, and I was 100% fine ordering nothing, and felt zero compulsions to ask for a bite of his treat.

In my head, I now view sugary treats as drugs - they are literally drugs for my brain, and do zero to satisfy genuine hunger.

What a turnaround from my first few days of attempting to break my sugar addiction, when I felt like a caged animal. Fortunately, however, sugar is nothing remotely like 'real' drugs, and thus it only took a few days for the worst of the cravings to quiet. 

This is my umpteenth attempt to break my sugar addiction, but without question, this is the longest stretch I've ever managed and I would say I'm close to 100% at peace with not ingesting it again, because I understand that I will be quickly right back where I started if I do. There is no moderation switch for me to engage when it comes to sugar. Instead, I've pretty much replaced it in my head with treats like a great iced coffee, a nice piece of fruit, a dozen roasted or salted nuts, small amounts of dried fruit atop cheese, or even a bowl of crunchy vegetables.

It feels damn good to be in charge of my life vs being under the control of when my next sugar hit was going to come.**  And again, I am so thankful it was only sugar that I was addicted to, and not something more detrimental to either myself, my loved ones, or my community.

**As a reminder - this is not intended to be an indictment of sugar at all. This is specifically about those of us that are literally addicted to sugar, which is very different from those of you that can simply enjoy it, and then carry on.  😊

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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!

Monday- Weekend Wrap Up

Weekend Wrap Up

As I've mentioned previously, it's a goal in retirement to plan the type of non-stop weekends that we did not have the energy to create or do during our working years. We were to wiped to do anything but go out for dinner on Friday nights, and we would generally carve out Sundays as the day we got ready for the work week ahead, so really only Saturday was reserved for a fun and activity during our working years. Now, in retirement, the fun generally begins on Friday morning, and doesn't conclude until Sunday evening.

So beginning with Friday morning, this was our latest retirement weekend, though I have to qualify that it was tempered somewhat by my husband's last minute decision to not attend a Men's weekend as planned. That left me a bit flat-footed in quickly coming up with a couples vs on-my-own game plan:

Friday- Five mile walk around the harbor, home to have lunch and shower, then over to our membership winery to enjoy complimentary glasses of wine while looking out at the ocean, then back home for an easy but delicious dinner of quiche slices I pulled from the freezer, plus salad in a bag. (I gentle warmed the quiche slices in the microwave at 50% power, then placed them for a few minutes in my hot air fryer for a perfectly crisp-ed finish.)

Boats at the harbor getting ready for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend.
There will be several floating bands playing over the weekend,
which we look forward to enjoying via our kayaks.

And then a rare Friday night at home streaming a movie, because I thought I'd be home alone in my PJ's watching old seasons of Top Chef while my husband was gone, LOL.

Saturday- Walked again to the Farmers Market, where I purchased a dozen fabulous frozen pot stickers for two future dinners. I learned a tip the first time I purchased the dumplings - to add both oil and water at the same time to the pan when cooking them. The water first boils, then boils off, perfectly steaming the pot stickers in the process, at which point the remaining oil in the pan starts to sizzle, browning and crisping them perfectly - how could I never have learned this two step process???

After arriving back home to shower, my husband and I headed out to see a matinee performance of Broadway's longest running musical ever, The Fantasticks. Not only did the show exceed our expectations, but it only cost us $12 a ticket due to it being a college (vs professional) production, and at the senior rate, so incredible value for the price. 

We ended the day with Happy Hour at one of our favorite seafood restaurants. One glass of wine each, a shared salad, and a shared fish entree, which we enjoyed in the Happy Hour designated area of the restaurant.

Sunday- Back to the harbor on another gorgeous day to do another five miles, then over to the next coastal town for a shared iced coffee, then a scenic easy drive back to the house. Spent the afternoon sitting out on our patio finishing the chilling non fiction book, The Well Trained Wife by Tia Levings, which details her traumatic experience with Christian Patriarchy. I then returned to reading the equally excellent book Horse by Geraldine Brooks. And both were borrowed from the library as eBooks, so zero cost to me.

I highly recommend both books!

Finished off the day with our own Happy Hour here at home, and then made Curry Shrimp Pasta, yet another great make from my Taste of Home One Pot Favorites cookbook.

I have a crazy busy run of days ahead, including some great evening events ( Tom Jones live anyone? 😄 ), so a somewhat quiet Sunday to end the weekend is appreciated even if unusual!

How was your weekend???

Weekly Weigh In & Movement (May 16)

Weekly Weigh In & Movement (May 16)

Goal Weight:  115

May 16 Weigh In:  122.0

Weight Lost This Week: 1.2 pounds

Weight Left To Lose:  7 pounds

Something I read years ago gave the measurement of 10 pounds as being the general difference between pant sizes, so if I use that guideline, I'm about 3/4 of a pant size away from my goal. That feels very encouraging to say to myself, because the effort this is taking is considerable! 

Taken in my home office, a space I much enjoy. Hubby has his own home office space as well. 
We both enjoy and appreciate having our own spots to engage in our various pursuits.
Attempting to take a remotely decent selfie is clearly one of mine, ha!

Weekly Mileage/Movement:

• Fri- 5 mile walk
• Sat- 6 mile walk
• Sun- None
• Mon - None, but I did work in the yard for a couple of hours
• Tue- 5 mile walk
• Wed- Quick 1 mile walk on an otherwise busy day
• Thur - 6 mile walk
• TOTAL FOR WEEK:  23 miles
• TOTAL FOR MONTH SO FAR: 53 miles

Here are some of this week's beautiful walking views, one of many reasons it is not painful whatsoever to walk out the door and put on some miles!

Can you spot the Egret? 

No Sugar Progress:

Another week of no specifically sought-out processed sugar, which in my case primarily means cookies/pastries/ice cream/desserts. I'm qualifying because I did make or purchase some meals that included small amounts of products containing sugar such as BBQ sauce, hoisen sauce, sriracha honey, and ketchup.  The goal is to break the cycle that sugar addiction creates, that being the struggle to stop. None of these condiment or cooking items generated anything remotely close to the addictive mind-swirl, and thus I had zero problems sticking with the food quantity I'd pre-determined before sitting down to eat my designated meal.  

I found this article to be helpful  Sugar Addiction & How To Break It  as I continue to explore why I respond so strongly to sugar. This part in particular made a clear connection between sugar and the brain's response to it for some of us:

Why can sugar be addictive?

Because our bodies need glucose, we’re evolutionarily programmed to seek it out. “When sugar hits our tongue, it activates certain taste buds that send a signal up to the brain,” says Nicole Avena, Ph.D., an assistant professor of neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and author of Why Diets Fail: Because You’re Addicted to Sugar. This activates the brain’s reward system: Feel-good dopamine is released and the behavior is reinforced, which makes us want to repeat it (just one more cookie!).

I had only a few minor sugar cravings over this past week, which I was able to satisfy quite easily with a small amount of fruit, or a nice sized bowl of satisfyingly crunchy vegetables (baby carrots, bell pepper strips, and cucumber slices primarily). I continue to be surprised that I'm satisfied with one serving of any of the above, never seeking to 'keep going' such as I did with sugar.

So while not yet 'easy,' easier for sure.

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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!

Monday- Weekend Wrap Up

 

Weekend Wrap Up

So this was a great weekend, with nothing that I would label as being extraordinary, but with lots of activity due to things we've worked hard to develop since moving here in 2017. That would include social connections, social clubs, local community performances, physical activity groups (hiking, kayaking, biking, walking, SUP'ing) and our spiritual community. Which means that there are a plethora of things to choose from pretty much every weekend, all within easy reach of where we live.

As I've mentioned previously, it is a goal in retirement to plan the type of non-stop fun weekends that we did not have the energy to create or do during our working years. We were to wiped to go out on Fridays after work, and we would generally carve out Sunday as the day we got ready for the workweek ahead, so really only Saturday was reserved for fun during our working years. Now, the fun begins on Friday morning, and doesn't conclude until Sunday evening.

So starting Friday morning, this was our latest retirement weekend:

Friday- Met a girlfriend to do a five mile walk around our local harbor, during which she shared about her recent separation from her second husband (no children, thankfully), and what lessons she was attempting to take from the relationship. Afterward returned home to do some bookclub reading (finished A Frozen River, now onto Horse by Geraldine Brooks- already excellent!), then showered and got ready to meet friends for a Happy Hour dinner. We had a really nice time at the restaurant, coming in at just under $70 for three drinks (total) and three small share items. After dinner we were invited back to our friends home to learn  and play the card game Euchre. The game was easy to learn in that we all four play bridge together at the same Bridge Center, and Euchre has many of the elements of Bridge. But unlike Bridge, it was relaxing! We also enjoyed their gorgeous ocean views while playing - I've never found myself envying someone else's home, as I really like ours,  but I definitely find myself envying a lovely view on occasion!  

As my realtor told us some years back - every block closer to the ocean comes with a corresponding uptick in price. At just under a mile and a half back currently, we have lovely ridgeline views, lovely sunset views, and some partial-ocean views, and we're much closer to the ocean than I'd every imagined we'd be when we first started looking to relocate here. So, I make a point to remind myself of all of those things when experiencing view-envy!

Saturday- Walked from the house to the Saturday Farmers Market and back, including along several picturesque streets in the historic district that the market is held in. I didn't buy anything, but I took notes for an upcoming wine event I'll be holding at our house. Items from the fresh berries stand, the hummus and pita stand, and likely the Italian pastry stand, should all find their way to my event food table when I return there next week.

The Cilantro Lemon hummus was a fave!

After returning home, I quickly showered, and my husband and I departed for a Spring BBQ Party with our social wine club. The food was really terrific - grilled salmon with dill sauce, and pork loin with a Bing cherry chutney were just some of culinary delights, plus there were lots of different wines to sample, and a terrific DJ that kept the dancing area full. At these quarterly events, inevitable, the gals will group together for line dancing, which I love way more than my husband, so he is thrilled that he gets to kick back with the other non-line dancing husbands while we women wear ourselves out.

Sunday- Early AM calls from my two girls, neither of whom currently lives here in California, then spiritual services, then we took my mom to a super cute live musical production featuring the music of Neil Sedaka, whom we both enjoy. Afterward, we stopped at the beach briefly, since my mom doesn't get to the ocean nearly as often as we do, then we returned to the house for a delicious braised steak and horseradish potatoes dish that I'd started in the slow cooker when I first woke up. I sauteed some fresh Broccolini to go with it, plus some warmed some rosemary sourdough slices. For dessert, for my mom and husband, I'd picked up a pint of specialty ice cream - chocolate raspberry truffle.

So, again, it was a great weekend! Today's plans are minimal by comparison - do some light yardwork, read, and start on the 2025 holiday ornaments, which I make for my granddaughters each year.

How was your weekend???

Weekly Weigh In & Movement (May 9)

Weekly Weigh In & Movement (May 9)

Goal Weight:  115 

May 9 Weigh In:  123.2

Weight Left To Lose:  8.2

Ended the week pretty much where I started it, and where I've been more or less since returning from our cruise. Looking forward to the transparency this blog will provide as giving me the incentive to dig deep and make it through those last few pounds. 

Weekly Mileage/Movement:

• Sat- 8 mile walk
• Sun- None
• Mon - 6 mile walk
• Tue- None
• Wed- 8 mile walk
• Thur - 3 mile walk
• Fri (Pending)- 5 mile walk, 1 session weight training
• TOTAL FOR WEEK:  30 miles, 1 session weight training

Here are some of this week's beautiful walking views, one of many reasons it is not painful whatsoever to walk out the door and put on some miles!

No Sugar Progress: Today concludes six weeks of avoiding processed sugar, other than one night on our cruise when I had a piece of apple strudel. Although that one night did not lead to a relapse, I'm electing not to repeat it for the foreseeable future to be safe. I've come to understand that my brain processes sugar more like a drug than as food, and that clarity has really helped me see the difference between being genuinely hungry vs simply wanting a sugar pick me up. 

A friend told me that three months should be a turning point, wherein random thoughts of sugar as a comfort food should pretty much cease. And even at the halfway point my sugar cravings are now quite minimal and easy to ignore.  As compared to the first few days, when I felt like I'd never get beyond the cravings. 😒

And already I'm 100% fine watching others enjoy their sweets, as well as having some here in the house. I'm not yet confident of having sweet treats that I love in the house, but there are lots of sweets my husband enjoys more than I do, such as Chips Ahoy cookies, and I'm fine having those here. He has no issues with sugar, and is content to ingest just a small quantity each day, so the treats that are currently here are lasting a very, very long time, nicely. 

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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!

Monday Miscellany aka Random Thoughts

I woke up with a bunch of thoughts rumbling through my head, and this seems a good place to which to put them. So this is pretty much a brain-dump post.

Firstly, and really the big one, I am sad, terribly, terribly sad, that a dear friend is struggling thru her fourth bout of cancer, this one located in her brain, and I am increasingly concerned that it is not going to end the way we all are fervently hoping it will. 

She and I met when we first moved here to the coast eight years ago, and I consider her one of my closest friends in spite of the relative newness of our friendship. She is not of the same outgoing ilk that I am, and has often joked over the years that were it not for my persistence is setting up walking dates, we would likely not be friends, as she is quite the introvert, with most of her friendships going all the way back to her elementary school years. LOL - you see, we extroverts can be quite persistent! So, I just kept asking and she kept saying 'Yes.'  🙂

During COVID she began her third battle with cancer, and we would FaceTime several days a week so she could talk through her treatments in detail, which seemed to help her continue to remain fighting strong. Once done with chemo, she/we had a nice long few years to just be non-cancer focused friends, during which our spouses became quite good friends as well.

About six months ago she began to struggle with her speech, which I noticed with alarm during one of our walking dates. She saw her doctor shortly thereafter, and was diagnosed with brain cancer. At this point she is not responding well to treatment, and I am slowly losing hope, though I sure as h#ll am not sharing that with her.

She is also a grandmother to a two year old little boy. That more than anything else is ripping my heart to pieces. 

Sometimes life is just hard, hard, hard.

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So, OK, to now drastically change channels, we had a really nice weekend, particularly on Saturday night when we enjoyed a fabulous guitarist that we've seen often. Often enough that she recognized us and playfully interacted with us thru-out her performance. Which was so, so much fun. 

And, nicely, I liked the way what I wore out this weekend is fitting after losing 13 pounds, with about 7 vanity pounds still left to lose.

I also used a portion of the Barnes & Noble credit I received last week to add a new one pot cookbook to my repertoire. And already I'm excited about making the two recipes below, both of which are squarely in my wheelhouse of lots of fresh ingredients for, hopefully, maximum taste.

And finally, before I head out into the sunshine for some light yardwork followed by a five mile walk around our local harbor with my husband, this is what I've been reading:

The two on the far right were excellent. The one on the left is a bookclub selection from a new group I just joined, and I'm not quite sure about it or the club just yet. My own, 20 year ongoing bookclub, which above Crying in H Mart was read for, is rather discerning at this point. So I'm pretty spoiled, and thus not yet confident The Frozen River is going to live up to standards. We'll see!

Please feel free to drop any Miscellany you are pondering or planning here as well. Happy or sad, either way.