I was terrified to go on vacation a few weeks back – family cruise to Alaska – because of 1) my food allergies and 2) hub’s family. Amazingly it all worked out wonderfully. Because we’d informed the cruise line that I had food allergies weeks before I got on the boat, they were prepared and let me pre-order all my meals a day in advance (giving the chef/kitchen notice).

Hubs family turned out to be delightful in small doses. His parents usually are. It’s his brothers I was worried about. Guess this means his younger brothers are finally starting to grow up 😉 Now that the youngest is in his 30’s, all I can say on the matter is that “it’s about time!”

I did get a bit of a sticker shock when I stepped on the scale post vacation. Despite chosing healthy options from the menu that were advertized as “low sodium and low sugar” and eating lots of fruits and veggies I discovered that according to my home scale I’d gained 10 lbs since leaving for the cruise. Since all my new clothes still fit I assumed it was mostly due to the extra sodium in my diet while away.

I got back to eating normally – low or no salt options as much as possible – and drinking extra water. Within days I’d dropped 6 lbs. By the end of the week I’d lost the 10 lbs vacation weight and this morning discovered I’d lost another 2.2 lbs. That averages out to a 1.1 lb loss for each week I was on vacation. Which is pretty much what I’ve been averaging lately.

There were some downsides to vacation. I arrived home to discover that my favourite cat had passed away the day before. My pet sitters were really nice and had taken good care of all our fur babies. I guess it was just her time to go.

Downside #2 is that there’s next to no time left for me to finish my latest course at school. 8 days to finish an assignment, 15pg research paper and a final exam. And somewhere in there I have to fit working full-time and pulling off a major charity event next weekend. Ugh!

Feeling very stressed at the moment ;(

Arrived home from family vacation to learn that my oldest and most favoured pet passed away yesterday.

RIP baby girl. I’m going to miss you like crazy. Too young & too cranky to be gone from my world already. Thought we were going to grow old together. The house seems “wrong” without you in the kitchen to greet me when I open the door.

Thanatos Guppy Cheshire Kitty Cat (1995-2010).

A co-worker commented on my weight loss today. She said I was “wasting away”. I know she didn’t mean it in a negative way – especially since she followed it up with a resounding “you look great”.

I think many of my co-workers may have been afraid to mention the weight loss earlier due to a spate of cancer diagnosis we’ve had in the office over the past year. I think I’m the first person who’s had a large amount of weight loss (47 lbs and counting) who hasn’t been terminally ill in this office in a long time.

I still have over 40lbs to lose and at the rate I’m going I expect I’ll manage to get rid of 25lbs of it before Christmas.

A 25 lbs loss will place? me at the absolute top of the “healthy” weight range for my age and height. I’d? like to end up in the middle of the range so that’s my end goal?,? ?t?h?u?s? ?t?h?e? ?e?x?t?r?a? ?1?5??-?2????????????? ?l?b?s.?????

In my original plan, I was to reach the half way mark for weight loss at the beginning of September. I hit that milestone yesterday. I’m pretty proud of myself. Some weeks I lost more than others. Some weeks I only managed to lose 0.2 lbs. I haven’t gained or plateaued.

I’m no longer classified as obese by my BMI. In 28 lbs, I will no longer meet the classification for overweight. I think I’ll be able to cross “reaching normal weight” off my goal list by Christmas. Then the new challenge will be keeping it off permanently.

My biggest win?  I reached the first few clothing goals I’d set for myself. I’m down 4 pant sizes and 3 shirt sizes since I started the lifestyle change.  Aside from my favourite geek t-shirts, sports jerseys & my da’s sweater, there are few pieces of my old clothes left in my closet. It’s all been donated or passed on to someone else.

Going shopping for new clothes has been both a treat and an eye opener. I still have so much father to go. Or, not so far if I just raid Drew’s closet. His clothes are starting to fit me now.

I’m still in rehab for my knee and suspect I’ll be working on it for many more months to come. No quick trip to the races for me. I’m all turtle these days.

We’re off on a family vacation in under 2 weeks. Cruisin’ around Alaska. Here’s hoping I don’t eat my way through the buffet line!

Last week I went home to SJ to attend the CNIE conference. It’s been a few years since I’ve been home so I spent an extra few days in the city and crashed at my mum’s place.

CNIE 2010 was special for me this year. It’s not the first time a paper I’ve been associated with has been presented at a conference, but it was the first time that I was involved in the presentation. Needless to say I was a bundle of nerves and Dr. D might have expressed some concern thet I’d become a babbling idiot during the presentation. I may have babbled a bit, but I certainly didn’t go off the rails and both Dr. D and N should have nothing to worry about career wise. Well, at least not due to being associated with me at this time.

Eating and exercising was a real challenge at home. Once the convention was over it wasn’t as difficult since I mostly ate at mum’s. Eating out can be a veritable mine field. Sometimes the healthy options can be filled with hidden fat, calories, sugar, etc. I decided that if I was going to go overboard on a meal or two then I’d best enjoy myself.  And with that decided, all was right with the world. Lobster stuffed cheesy mushroom caps found their way onto my plate.

I think this attitude really helped keep me on track while I was away from home. Rather than going overboard all the time, or denying myself constantly, I had the special splurge meals and the standard lifestyle change type meals. When all was said and done I returned home 0.8lbs lighter. I likely would have lost more weight over the time I was gone if I’d been less indulgent. But I think the important thing is that I continued to lose weight and still managed to do the social eating (lunches, trips to restaurants, etc.) that would have easily derailed me in the past.