Memorial Weekend - camping trip

We drove about 3.5 hours north of the city of Detroit, to a tiny spot in Michigan between AuGres and Tawas City. It's a nice little campground called "Brown's Landing" - very small, nice, clean and quiet! Here I am with a cup of hot coffee on a sunny and quiet morning - just enjoying how to relax when I get away for a few days.

We did run into a couple of celebraties during our long weekend - very exciting for us. It's not often that I meet famous people. Patrice is posing with Dora and Brett is probably arguing about the price of carrots with Bugs.

Bead Cruise 2007

Here is the group in all their glory posing for the ship's photographer. This was very, very nice. We were organized by the photographer or by importance. It's either the taller in the back or the short people in the front. I'm still not certain.

Here is Bev Herman, one of the (in)famous Beadin' Buzzards and I relaxing before dinner or trips or something. Also, a picture of my husband and I as we left the ship in Cozumel. We were a little disappointed that our tour was cancelled, but we had a nice time walking through town, shopping and running into other beaders. We sat down for lunch and when I turned around to look around the patio, there they were! Yummy cocktails at this place! Alan and I bought some Mexican blankets; one is hanging by the front door, and the other I might make into pillows. But I might not either!

We landed the next day at Costa Maya - basically just a tourist town on the beach. Alan, Maggie, Sharon and I had signed up for the Chacchoban Mayan Ruin tour - an hour bus ride through the swamps, jungle and small villages (no shops, no gas stations, nothing!!!) to the ruins. They exceeded all of our expectations. I really enjoyed it. It was hot, it was humid, it was lots of stairs and walking and it was breathtaking. Going on a tour to see the Mayan ruins was the one thing that Alan really wanted to do, and I am glad that we were able to do this.

Beading? Oh, yes, we still beaded on the cruise this year. Lots of beading took place.

Another week - another loss

And I am down another 2.8 pounds for this week. I'll take it. And Tina did take my tracker to review. She is going to point out that I need to eat less carbs/crap and eat more dairy, veggies and fruit. Stuff that I already know that I should be doing it.

But 7.8 pounds in two weeks is really good. I'm happy, and hopefully happy will jump start my motivation.

p.s. Weight Watcher works....

.....I did what I should do, I wrote it down, I behaved. I ate reasonably, I counted points, I measured what I should have.

I lost 5 pounds in one week. After a gain of 3.6 pounds the week prior, this was a good week.

Tina asked me how I did it. My answer: "You asked me last week for my [weekly] tracker, so I was really, really good this week. I wrote everything down - everything. Even the bad stuff."

It worked.

P.S. Tina still wants to see my tracker next week and she's not kidding!

This is why you keep your animal's rabies vaccinations current....

....because you never know when a squirrel is going to chase you and bite you.

Just like Molly learned this afternoon.

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have never believed it. The squirrel lept off the fence and chased Molly. Before I could get to that area of the yard, Molly was yipping, running from the squirrel and bolting for the back door. I wish, I wish that I would have had a video camera - it would have made money on one of those shows.

(Molly is fine, rabies is up to date until November. Vet said keep the bites clean).

Weight Loss Battle

(p.s. This is Ramon, and not the physician who insulted me. Ramon is a sweetheart from Peru that will be leaving me in late June of this year.)

Yup, still fighting this one. And it's not a battle any longer, it's a war. Unfortunately, 2006 was the year that I gained most of what I lost in 2005. Not quite back to square one, but not too far off. I want to win the battles that will eventually lead me to win the war.

But why? Why do I do this to myself? Why can't I retrain myself to eat more healthy. What am I waiting for? I know that I don't want to have weight loss surgery, I don't want any more of the obesity issues than I already have (i.e., joint pain and high blood pressure). I don't want to have to ask for the seat belt extender on an airplane trip.

And I don't want the humilation that one of the doctors did to me one day while standing in line for food - which I was actually getting something healthy that day - salad, etc. He said to me "Why are you getting food, you don't need it." You could have heard a pin drop - there were only about another 12 people around. I wheeled around, looked at him and put my plate in his hand and walked away. I was so furious that I could have strangled him. I have still yet to forgive him in his highly educated ignorance - and I certainly am never going to forget him (imagine years from now "Oh I remember him - he's the a$$hole who insulted me").

I have eaten really good this week - especially since Tina, my Weight Watcher leader, asked to see my tracker this coming week. I have kept it pretty good - of course I have - the "teacher" asked for it!! Last Thursday, I had a bad evening and had too many snacks, and Sunday I had a few more merengues than I should have had. But basically I did okay. Time will tell on Thursday at noon when I weigh in.

But, I digress. Why haven't I been able to keep up with this? Do I think that little of myself that I don't want to take care of what I have? I know that when I hurt my knee last spring, I gave up with the exercise, but why should that affect what I throw in my mouth? Why can't I keep the momentum moving? What the f**k is my problem?

There are two WW programs - Flex and Core. In my tracker, I am trying to keep track of the foods that are on the Core food plan. They are supposed to be more filling and satisfying than the food that aren't on the plan. For those foods, I can use Flex points. I am just going to try to increase the amount of these foods that I eat, which should make me feel fuller and should help me with my weight loss.

Tina - I am doing this for you. Well, no I'm not. I'm doing it because I need to. Because I want to. Because I want to.

*edited on 5/9/07 because I realized that the whole WWW doesn't need to be bombarded with my foul language.....