Amanda's Heading to the Beach Journal! Feedback Welcomed!

[DoeWDW]

Amanda, I was so excited to stop by here and see the beginning of your trip report. So far I am spellbound!! More, more, more!! I have to live vicariously through you, ya know? Can't believe Mickey stopped to sit with you during lunch the first day - how cool! So far it all sounds magical and I can't wait for you to post the next installments.

Today should be a lovely day on the Beach for you, right???? Did you get some groceries to help your healthy eating plans?

I hope today is a good one for you, sweetie!

 

[septbride2002]

Good Morning! I changed my mind today is the offical start of the South Beach Diet! With coming back to reality yesterday was just way to hard! LOL!

It was hard getting dressed this morning since NOTHING fit! However I am happy to say that I got all my pictures developed and at the beginning of the week I look really good! I actually look thin to me! Which hopefully means it won't take much to get back into those clothes! I brought a great picture of Brian and I at Margaritaville and put it on my desk. I think I look great in this picture and it is going to be my daily inspiration to keep up my diet.

I have a long day today. I have work until 5pm and then I have a meeting tonight at 5:30 till whenever. I plan on hitting Curves before going home. It is going to be a long day!

Plan:
water - 8 glasses: 4/8
vitamins - at lunch (I need to bring these back to work)
Exercise - Curves
Food: b;low fat plain yogurt (flavored w/splenda and some crystal light), hard boiled egg.
s; 1 string cheese.
l: Salad with chicken strips, cheese, red peppers and ranch dressing. 1 glass of skim milk
s; sunflower seeds and celery sticks w/cream cheese.
d; lettuce wrap with turkey, ham, cheese, and mayo.
s: 1 glass skim milk and 2 small pieces of pizza (thin crust 4" squares).

9:52 edit:
I'm giving myself a smile for food since I really did excellent all day long until the end. I was craving carbs and decided to give in a little rather then try to fight the craving all day long. So I had a day out of 4. Not to bad.

It felt great to workout this evening - despite having a lot to do and wanting to get home, I decided to make myself a priority. That and I had a message from my pal at Curves asking where I was

I weighed myself at Curves - 171 lbs, a new high for me. On my 5'3" frame it does not look good. My first mini goal is to get to 160 lbs, after that I'll decide my next move.

Onward and downward!

~Amanda
171/171/160

 

[Strings]

Welcome Home Amanda,

It sounds like you had a magical time. I am loving your trip report. I think it is a great idea to put the picture on your desk. It will be a great incentive to stay OP. Great job getting right back to healthy living.

Take care,
Beth

 

[septbride2002]

Man I slept good last night! I was tired! But I got everything done that I needed to and then some. I actually got ready for this morning the night before. It just makes the mornings go much smoother that way.

Today I have another busy day ahead of me and it will be another late night coming home.
Food:
B: coffee, low fat yogurt (3/4 cup), hard boiled egg
S: String Cheese
L: Fresh Salad w/red peppers, chicken strips, cheese. 8oz of skim milk
S: Celery sticks with Cream Cheese
D: Grilled Pork Chops, Fresh Salad greens, cooked broccoli w/cheese
S: Sesame Seeds

Water: 8 glasses 0/8
Exercise: Curves
Vitamins: At lunch

Going for today!

By the way I got on the scale yesterday

~Amanda
171/171/160

 

[DoeWDW]

Amanda, it looks like you are BACK!! You're on track and living healthy!! That extra weight is gonna fall right off. Don't sweat the extra carbs last night - consider it easing back into reality.

Your menu looks yummy - sure wish I lived closer! I'd invite myself over! By the way, plane tickets are booked and the Hampton Inn St. Charles is reserved for September.

Don't skimp on those workouts - we've got a half marathon to prep for! Granted, we'll probably walk it at a slower pace, but 13.1 miles still requires some prep time.

Have a great day!

 

[septbride2002]

Monday, May 9th
Same Cast of characters!

this was our first day at Sea. We woke up and went to our Character Breakfast. It works just like the character meals in the resturants except that sometimes the characters get up and dance. Chip and Dale did a cute routine in the middle of the resturant.

For breakfast I kept it to eggs and bacon. Although I did have a chocolate crossisant - my favorite!

After Breakfast Brian and I decided to head to Deck 4 and hang out on the lounge chairs for awhile. Both of us fell asleep. It was a great little nap. After that we decided to put on our swimsuits and check out the pool and hot tub. The pools on the cruise and pretty small, all you can really do is stand around. But it was refreshing. After that we made our way to the spa. For $15.00 a day you can have an unlimited pass to the Rainforest room.

The Rainforest room is a nice size circular room with a fountain in the middle of it. There are 4 tiled lounges that are heated and when you sit in them your muscles just melt. On the right is the gentle Sauna, to the left is the mild steam room that smell of Eucalpytus(sp?) and mint. If you need to clear out your sinuses - go in there. In the far back is the HOT steam room. I couldn't step inside. There is also a Tropical Shower by there that smells so good. We sort of did everything - but really liked the chairs and spent a lot of time sitting and relaxing on those (are you getting the picture).

We were in there for about an hour and decided that was enough and we were hungry for lunch. We went and had hotdogs and hamburgers from Pluto's. YUMMY! At 2:45 we made our way to Palo's because we decided to take the Navigator Series tour about how they decorated the ship. Ang was our guide and she was awesome, she was assisted by Doug (another favorite). We made our way around the entire ship - I believe she told me there was 27 different carpet designs in the ship. It was a great tour and we learned a lot about the interior design of the ship.

After our tour we headed back to our room and took another nap! I think the weeks before the cruise had finally caught up with us and we were enjoying the fact that we had NOTHING to do. That night was formal night, I wore one of the bridesmaids dresses I bought in 2004. It was a little snug .

We decided to make reservations at Palo's tonight and I am so glad we did! Palo's is awesome and was the best food of the trip. Our server Sasha from Croatia was the best, and was extremely cute! (Here is an okay picture of him - I have a better one SASHA ) We would order our appetisers and entrees and he would bring out our individual orders and then a plate of other things on the menu for us to try. For appetisers we had the pizzas. The mahgarita pizza was with mozzarella cheese and tomatos, the Salmon pizza (Eric wanted to try this - BLAH!), and some other pizza that I cannot remember.

All of us but one ordered the fillet for dinner which was PERFECT and melted in your mouth. For dessert we all had the chocolate souffle which is to die for (pictures coming soon). Plus Sasha brought out 4 or 5 other desserts on the menu (pictures coming soon). We left Palo's stuffed but extremely satisified!

We had to RUN down to the Walt Disney Theatre to see "The Golden Mickeys" we missed the beginning and had to sit seperated but it was a really great show. Actually it was my favorite and brought tears to my eyes at the end.

After the show we went back to the room to change into more comfortable clothes and went down to rockin bar D to hear the comedian and to dance the night away. Actually I think we just stayed for the Comedian and then went back to our room - we were exhausted!

~Amanda

 

[toystoryduo]

Hi Amanda!

Your menu looks really yummy today! If you have any leftovers, can you send them my way?

Your trip report is great! It sounds like you and Brian had a wonderful, relaxing time.

Have a great day today!

 

[mking624]

Wow, Amanda, I am SO loving your trip report!! I really want to do a Disney Cruise but have a hard time letting go of WDW, so maybe will have to try a land/sea option. I'm glad you had fun...I'm so jealous!

 

[Tera]

Hey Amanda - I've enjoyed reading your trip report so far. What's this "Garden of Eden" at Key West you were talking about earlier

Sounds like you and Brian had a blast and we enjoyed meeting you guys.

I know it's hard getting back on the program after "indulging" as much as we did. Today I weighed in at WW and gained 3.8 pounds. Oh well, we had a good time and that's what counts

Hang in there and I'm sure you'll get right back on track.

 

[septbride2002]

Heck Theresa I would love it if I only gained 3.8 lbs!!! You must have resisted the desserts more then I did. I was up 8 lbs!!!

Yesterday was another day. I missed one due to water. I just can't seem to drink more then 4 glasses a day. I also decided to give myself a rest day instead of going to Curves. I just had to much to do and felt anxiety over trying to fit Curves in.

I don't know if it is the diet or just the fact that I am a bit overwhelmed with what I have to do, but I've been waking up really early in the morning and actually feel perky. Which is not a word used to describe me I really think deciding what to wear the night before and getting the coffee pot set up is really helping.

Goals for today:
Water: 8 glasses - I really need to do this!
Vitamins: At Lunch
Exercise: Curves after work
Food:
b: 2 eggs, red peppers, and cheese scramble - yum. Coffee
s: String cheese
l: Tuna Salad, 8 oz of skim milk
d: ??? Something on the run - might just be a quick salad at home.
s: yogurt

After work I have to go directly to curves and then home to freshen up because work is throwing us a happy hour. I'll be drinking water though and letting Brian buy alcohol since I don't want to mess up my good week.

The scale at home was down a pound this morning. Lets hope the scale at Curves says the same thing.

~Amanda
171/171/160

 

[septbride2002]

Tuesday, May 10th
Same Cast of Characters

WELCOME TO GRAND CAYMAN!
I got up early and walked a mile around Deck 4 - all the desserts last night were catching up to me and I felt the need to exercise. Plus it was sort of nice to have some alone time.

After that I went down to the stateroom to wake up Brian - our excursion started about 10:30a.m. - we ate a quick breakfast and then headed to our meeting place. There was a lot of people going on this excursion!

As we filed off the ship and onto the buses I was almost seperated from my group! They let everyone go by, including Brian and then stopped me. I said, "WAIT! I'm with him!" I didn't mind being seperated from the entire group but at least give me my husband! The lady was super nice and gave us our own private taxi - that was awesome!

Our guide Tom did a great job of telling us the history of the island, pointing out the different buildings, and of course telling us about the hurricanes. the island is strange with sections so beautiful it takes your breath away and then you'll see a number of buildings where the roof is completely off, or one side is crumbled, or trees stripped and torn down. It was really kind of sad.

Our first stop was the Govenor's Mansion - which is right on the water!

Then we went to the Turtle Farm. I was really looking forward to the Turtle Farm as I think sea turtles are extremely interesting. As you walk in you see these HUGE tanks and they are just crammed with Turtles. It sort of reminded me of the puppy mills you see on TV. Now obviously the turtles are well cared for since this is a government agency - but they just looked so sad.

Our guide informed us that the Turtle Farm releases 15,000 turtles a year - yea! However they hold 50 large ones every week for food - Boo! After he said that I was walking by the tanks saying, "STAY SMALL! STAY SMALL!" Turtle meat is a specialty of Grand Cayman, and I was told herding turtles and eating them is no different then herding cattle and eating them. HMPH! They did have tanks with small turtles in them that you could pick up and hold. Brian did it, I just "petted" it.

After that Tom the guide took us to H*ll. Yes there is a city in Grand Cayman called "H*ll" - it is based on some rock formations that are black and gray and someone said it reminded them of H*ll. There is even a post office there! Really all the small city (5 shops and a post office) is a big tourist trap. Brian and I were not impressed.

Now onto Stingray City! Something else I was looking really forward to. The water was really choppy that day and they said the water would be only waist deep for the average person. I'm 5'3" - the water came up to my chin! Stingray City is sort of cool - you go to this sandbar in the ocean and there are about 50 to 100 HUGE stingrays swimming amongst the people. They are very curious about us just like dolphins. And won't hurt you - unless you step on them or grap their tales. The only problem was that with the wind and and the waves I kept being knocked off balance and losing my footing. I was so afraid of stepping on one that I was freaking out and at one point almost had a panic attack. I did eventually get in the water with them - but I didn't stay long. There was just to many people, to rocky, and to many stingrays. It wasn't uncommon to have 3 or 4 right by you.

After this we headed back to the island and back to the ship. I took a LONG nap - I really was exhausted from being out in the sun all day and then the stress of stingray city. Brian however had a ball.

That evening we ate at Lumiere's again. I can't remember what I had but I know it was good! LOL! Actually I remember commenting that I liked the menu a lot that night.

We went to Rockin Bar D after that and I believe it was 80's night. Theresa (Tera) and I danced the night away! LOL! And a fellow DIS-er bought us a shot - yummy! We had a ball that night and had no problems falling asleep.

~Amanda

 

[Tera]

Hey Amanda - I think everyone had problems at Stingray City that day, but definitely harder on us "height-challenged" people

I doubt you gained an "actual" 8 pounds. I came home 7 pounds heavier, but lost 3 just in the first few days back. Keep drinking that water and I bet you'll flush out several pounds in the next few days. I did walk deck 4 alot and did the stairs (from deck 1 to deck 10) atleast once a day. I think that helped alittle.

Keep up the great work!!!

 

[septbride2002]

Hi Everyone! Yesterday I earned all 4!!!! I am very excited about this and feel like

However I think I spoke a little to soon yesterday about how great I feel in the morning, because this morning I felt that I hit a wall. I woke up late, and I didn't have time for breakfast. I'll have to get something big here at work.

I have a FULL day ahead of me today. I have to take a long lunch to run some paperwork over to an office, which means I have to work late tonight. Then we are meeting some friends at Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. Their Blackened Chicken Salad is really good so I'll be having that.

Plan for today:
Water - 8 glasses
Vitmains - will have to be after dinner since they are at home
Exercise: Rest Day
Food:
b: 3 egg omelet w/peppers, mushrooms, ham, and cheese
l: Salad from somewhere on the go.
s: Peanuts
d: Chicken Salad
s: Sugar Free Jello

I'm down 1.5 lbs according to the Curves scale!

~Amanda

 

[septbride2002]

Morning y'all! Yesterday was not a good day. Work did not go well and it really was a struggle to get through the day. After work we met up with some friends at our favorite bar and I had no self-control. My eating wasn't horrible, but my drinking was not good at all. And I had a lot to drink last night. I'm hoping that it won't kill my weigh in today, but if it does - it does. I did manage for water and exercise (rest day).

Today's plan:
WATER - 10 glasses already at 2/10
Vitamins - taking them soon
Food-
b: even though it isn't true S. Beach I think I'll do a piece of low carb bread with some peanut butter on it. Nice and bland for the tummy.
s: string cheese!
l: Salad w/chicken strips
s: celery sticks w/cream cheese
d:Might be leftover Pork Chops, or I might grill some Chicken Breast
Exercise - Curves after work.

~Amanda

 

[lulu201]

Good morning, Amanda! I'm loving your trip report. . .it sounds like you guys had a blast! Did you sign up for another cruise while onboard the ship?

I agree with Tera--you're going to shed those cruise pounds with a huge whoosh and then feel so much better. Just stick with the program and you'll see the results you're after in no time.

Have a relaxing weekend!

Erin

 

[Strings]

Hey Amanda,

I love your trip report. I don' know if I ould have gone in with stingrays. you get mjor points for courage. Keep drinking your water and all that extra water weight will whoosh away soon.

Have a great weekend,
Beth

I love the blackened chicke salad as well.

 

[septbride2002]

Yesterday was another hard day at work. When is it going to get easier?

I did good yesterday by avoiding alcohol at the party but I did become lax on food. So I got for vitamins and water. I skipped Curves - I'm not really sure why.

I got up this morning and put on a skirt that is usually to big for me - guess what, it fits now.

Plan for today:
Exercise: We are going to Grant's Farm today so there will be lots of walking
Water: 8 glasses
Vitamins: Taken
Food:
b: 3 egg omelet with mushrooms, red peppers, and cheese
l: Something fast - probably tuna salad or leftover salsa chicken
d: My Mom is making Cheeseburgers and Hotdogs - I will remove half the bun on my cheeseburger.
s: ????

We have a lot of stuff going on today so I'm hoping to stay strong and really monitor what I'm eating - I have to weigh in on Monday and that is keeping me in check a bit.

~Amanda

 

[rcyannacci]

Hey Amanda- just got back from vacation myself, and I'm glad to see you had such a great cruise! It will be a long time before Bender and I take the cruise, so it's great to hear all of your details. The spa sounds fantastic!!!

It looks like you're off to a good start on the South Beach and back on track. I need to do the same after all of the frozen dacquiris I indulged at the beach!

Have a great weekend!

 

[toystoryduo]

Hi Amanda!

Stopping by to say hi and to send some your way for weigh-in on Monday. Hope you have a great weekend!

 

[septbride2002]

Good Morning! Yesterday was a fairly good day. I didn't get my water in and my food wasn't perfect - but I'm feeling confident. Today is another busy day just like the rest

Plan for today:
Exercise: as long as the rain holds off I plan to walk 2 miles.
Water: 8 glasses!
Vitamins: After breakfast
Food:
b: egg, ham, and cheese - coffee
s: Nothing
l: BBQ Sausage and hot dogs, fresh veggies
s: ?
d: Leftover Salsa Chicken
~Amanda