Maybe I’ll talk about something else for a while…

I’m sorry I haven’t been posting very much lately. Here’s the scoop.

I just feel like I have more struggles than victories lately. How often can I blog about the same things? I try, I do well, I fall down, I get back up, I do well, I fall back down… on and on. I haven’t given up on health, but lately I just feel like I don’t have much to share.

Would you mind if I posted about non-weight related things? I’m just so tired of thinking about my weight. With a title of “A Journey to Thin” you would probably expect to find weight loss related topics though, huh?

I guess this is all part of my journey—and I will get there someday. But I might start branching out into other topics and open it up to more than just about my weight and weight loss journey. What do you think about that?

Want to hear about my projects? My new-found goal of creating crafty/artsy things? About life in general? I’m thinking of more of a lifestyle blog. Health and weight loss will always be a big part of my life (unfortunately) so I would still write about them as I felt motivated to.

What do ya say?

The Biggest Loser 5K

A few weeks ago, hubby and I participated in The Biggest Loser 5K. This was a completely different race experience than any of the other 5Ks we’ve run in. I felt like most of the participants were just like me—and that was encouraging and motivating. There were people of all ages, shapes and sizes—there were the obvious marathon runners but I think they were the minority. Most of the participants, like myself, had obvious struggles with weight but had taken a stand and were trying to do something about it. If you’ve ever run a race before, you know it’s usually the opposite—those of us with weight struggles are usually the minority.

Throughout the entire race, participants cheered each other on. For once, I wasn’t the only one struggling for my breath, red-faced and completely exhausted as I struggled to continue running 1 mile, and then 2, and then had to walk a couple of minutes. I could see the look of determination on other people’s faces that I so often feel myself. It was like coming home. I knew for a fact—that these people “get” me.

The Biggest Loser was a huge motivator for me during times of my weight loss journey. Seeing other people, like myself, struggle and persevere made me realize that I could do it too. There are so many people who have been inspired by the contestants on the show—and many of them showed up for the 5K. And I applaud The Biggest Loser for organizing an event like the 5K series—I have not seen any other event with the spirit and camaraderie that I saw at The Biggest Loser 5K.

As you know, my struggles with my weight have exceeded my victories lately. But I am still struggling and that counts for something. Seeing the photos of myself running is embarrassing. I cry a little inside when I see them, knowing that I’ve taken some backwards steps on this journey. This was certainly not my fastest 5K, and it very well might have been my slowest, but I gave it all I had and finished strong.

My favorite part about the 5K—EVERY finisher received a medal! My very first!

Sailing Lake Michigan

After our vacation to Cancun, we spent a couple of days with my sister and her family.

We took a trip on the train to Chicago to go sailing! I’ll just share some photos from the day with you all.

Me and my sister.

My sister and family.

The sailing excursion was from Navy Pier and was a Groupon we purchased. The excursion we took was all about pirates.

We had a beautiful view of the city!

Here I am with hubby—ignore the crazy wind-blown hair!

And one more photo of my cute neice and nephews.

This was our first time on a sail boat and it was a fun experience! I love the activity Groupons—we have another one coming up soon!

Cancun, Mexico Trip

I am finally getting around to posting some pictures of our trip to Mexico! Life just never slows down, except when you’re on vacation…which is probably why we enjoyed our trip so much!

We stayed at the Grand Oasis Cancun Resort. It was a great all-inclusive deal that I found through an online travel agency. One thing we learned during this trip is that all-inclusive is the way to go. It made the vacation so much more enjoyable and relaxing to be able to stay in one place the entire time. Everything we needed was available. Food, drink, snacks, beach chairs, and entertainment were free of charge. You just can’t beat that.

The little pond out front had these beautiful lilly pad flowers.

The hotel was very pretty inside and kept very clean. The staff was super friendly and helpful. No complaints about the hotel. Here are a few pics of our room.

I loved the art in this hotel—it was everywhere. This painting was in our room.

A unique feature of the hotel—the resident peacock!

The beach wasn’t the best I’ve ever seen—but it wasn’t a problem or anything. The hotel is just right next to the Marina and the beach itself was pretty short. No problems with not finding beach chairs or a spot in the shade if we wanted it though! I even had the best nap of my life on a beach chair in the shade, with the sea breeze and relaxing music playing in the background. It was heaven.

The Grand Oasis Palm had two beautiful pools. One benefit of staying at the Oasis Resorts chain is that you can visit any of the numerous resorts in Cancun for the day—everything all-inclusive except a room. We stayed put at the Grand Oasis Palm though since we weren’t there for too long.

They had numerous all-inclusive restaurants and we enjoyed them all! We got turned away from one because hubby had shorts on—so we never got to try that one, which was disappointing. But the food was fabulous. I couldn’t get enough fresh papaya, pineapple, and mango! And the flan—oh how I miss the flan!

This was our first trip to Mexico and our first time to visit another country while not on a cruise. It was a really great experience. We can’t wait to visit other parts of the world!

There were the most beautiful flowers there and I discovered my new favorite flower ever. Absolutely gorgeous. I saw these in numerous colors, but my favorite were the bright pink with the little white flowers in the center.

We took a quick walk in the jardin del arte. Saw some interesting things!

Here we are all tan. I miss that tan! We tried to use the timer to take a picture.

And on our last evening, we took a short stroll on the beach. Beautiful at sunset.

Looking forward to our next trip!

Weigh in day

I meant to post a lot more this week than I have! The week that was supposed to be low key turned out to be chaotic and busy. Next week? Maybe? I hope so!

I am not weighing every day anymore. I'm taking a big break from the scale and so I weigh once per week. This morning I weighed in and lost 2.1 lbs. in 6 days. I'm so happy for a loss. Onward and forward!

Returned Items

I am bringing this post to you a little later than usual, but since I took all of the photos—I decided to post instead of skip the day.

For breakfast, I ate an egg white omelet with cheese and turkey, light toast with peanut butter and banana, and skim milk.

While working, I had my usual coffee.

The thing about eating a bigger breakfast is that you save calories later by not needing a snack!

For lunch, I used leftovers and made parmesan chicken along with a spinach salad topped with tomatoes, feta, and light dressing.

I also had an apple with peanut butter.

By the afternoon, I was slightly hungry, so I ate a fresh peach. Mmmm I love peaches!

Hubby ended up getting home earlier than normal and soon after getting off of work my mom needed a ride in another town—so we headed out the door.

We ended up grabbing supper at Panchero’s. I ate a spinach, artichoke and chicken quesadilla and a few chips with queso. Not my best choice but I was so hungry!

We used the trip to get our father’s day present for my dad and to pick up a few things to install our new dishwasher.

Installing the dishwasher was a nightmare. Actually shopping for it was a little nightmarish too! The moment we walked into the appliance department we had three sales associates on us like vultures. They wouldn’t leave! Hubby and I would like to decide if we want to buy something without a third (or fourth, or fifth, or sixth!) party! I finally kind of shoed them away and said we’d let them know if we were interested—they were none to happy but backed away about 5 feet.

But we were able to save $200 on the dishwasher we wanted because it had been returned. The store said the customer returned it because “it didn’t fit in their cupboard space”. Hubby said he knew they were lying because all dishwashers are made to the same size, but after looking it over- everything looked ok, except for a few missing parts—which they assured they would take out of their storeroom and wrap up with the dishwasher.

Well, they didn’t. Not only that, after it was finally installed, we found that it didn’t work. I called the store and they were ridiculous telling me that I could hire a service guy to come out in two weeks. I said, absolutely not.

Thankfully, Hubby and I are both pretty handy. We took the latch system apart and figured out that was causing the issue and also discovered how it might happen again and how to very easily fix it. Not a big deal. But someone obviously returned it because they didn’t think it worked and the store turned around and sold it again. Frustrating! But it’s installed and Iguess that’s the risk you take buying a returned item. All seems to be good now and it should save us some $ by being more efficient and will use half the water of our old one—which had started rusting out inside.

Whew! Sorry for that long drawn out story! lol

By the time we finally figured that out, it was 10 p.m. and it was hot. We ate some light ice cream (no picture) and relaxed a bit before bed.

I ended my day with over a 600 calorie deficit again- I’ll take that for the kind of day I had.

Better day today!