More on the Magazine Article

Thank you so much for sharing my excitement via your comments - it means a lot to me that you all are along for the ride!

To answer a question that several of you had:

Yes, I did know about the article ahead of time - Woman's Day emailed me in late September, saying that my blog was going to be mentioned in their December 1st issue, and they "fact checked" a couple of things. I didn't say anything about it, because who knew if it really was going to happen? Things get bumped all the time in publishing, right? But then I got another email a couple of weeks ago, asking for my address so they could send me some advance copies of the issue and that's when I started to get really excited - it was hard to hold it in! And hello - seeing the article was jaw-dropping for me...when they said my blog would be "mentioned" in the magazine, I figured it would be included in a list of weight-loss blogs - never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be singled out with the two other blogs and that they would actually write a little blurb about me!<----Still walking on air, obviously!

I did find out that the issue won't be on newsstands until November 23, although subscribers have been receiving their copies in the mail. And I've already received a comment from a WD reader, so guess what, fellow bloggers? Our little world is opening up to a bunch of new people - get ready, because I'll bet a lot of you will be getting new readers from this article!

Now That's Quite a Shout Out!!!

Holy cow, I am so excited!!! My blog was mentioned in the December 1st issue of Woman's Day magazine!!! It's on page 104 - under the heading "Blog Your Way Skinny" - and if you can't already tell by the number of exclamation points, I'm thrilled!!!

Check it out:

The cover...The article...

Me walking on air Friday night when I came home to find the magazine in my mailbox!!!

Both Cammy and Roni were also featured - I am honored and humbled to be in such great company!

Awww, Look How Pretty!

I was feeling adventurous at the grocery store yesterday and, seeing that Texsun ruby red grapefruit were two for a buck, bought four (I know, you're thinking "four?" Hear me out...if I only bought two and liked them, I'd be mad at myself for not buying more. "But Shelley," you're also thinking, "what if you didn't like them?" Then I'd be ok, because it was only a couple of bucks. Oh, the things that go on in my head...you really don't want to know!).

Ahem, back to the story. I *think* I remember my mom saying that she liked to peel and eat grapefruit like an orange (it may or may not have been her - I suffer from C.R.S. syndrome* really bad). So I thought I'd be brave and try a grapefruit for the third time in my life (really not exaggerating...I haven't found the taste for them). I peeled it, which was much harder than peeling a Clementine (obviously I have been spoiled), and then peeled as much of the white pith off of my little grapefruit ball as I could, then sectioned it and of course made a pretty spiral shape (why yes, I *do* play with my food!) and took a picture. Oh, and then I ate it.

I guess that considering it was such a pretty pinkish/red color, my brain thought it might taste like pink lemonade (well, not really...but something along a sweet, citrus-y line).

It did not.

Nor did it taste like a Clementine, or even an orange. I know, I know...it's a grapefruit! But the sign in the store said they were "unusually sweet" - so I guess I was expecting something better than my previous experiences with grapefruit. So now I have three of these lovelies remaining, and I shall do my best to choke them down eat them. But from now on, I will view what the descriptions say about certain fruits and veggies with a healthy amount of skepticism!





*C.R.S. syndrome, for those of you who don't know, or who are lucky enough to not have to deal with it, is Can't Remember Sh*t. It's hit this 40-something hard, I'm telling ya!

Getting Back to Business

Wait...you mean this isn't a travel blog? Enough with Maui for a few days - I still have some funny (to me, anyway - hopefully to you as well) pictures to post, but I thought I would actually write about dieting for a change!

Once upon a time I decided to lose weight. And I did - sometimes the weight came off quickly and sometimes slowly - but it always came off. Until the month of October. *cue ominous music* From October 1st to the 15th, nothing happened. The scale didn't move down, not one bit. Of course, it didn't move up, either - but that wasn't much consolation! As I was continuing to watch what I ate AND do three killer workouts each week, I grew increasingly frustrated.

I even spoke with my trainer, Brad, about it, and after looking over my food logs, he gave me some good advice. Basically he told me to mix things up a bit - perhaps eating the same thing for breakfast month after month might not be the greatest thing for losing weight, no matter how healthy it was. I have to say that I shed a tear at the thought of not eating my beloved Fage yogurt, Kashi Golean Crunch cereal and fresh sliced strawberries every morning. Brad also thought that I wasn't getting enough good fat in my diet and advised me to cut back on the carbs (including some of the fruit - the horror!) and add in some nuts, olives or natural peanut butter.

Well, as you can imagine, these were some major changes that I needed to wrap my mind around. Luckily, I was leaving for vacation soon and knew that by being out of my normal routine and away from home, I would have no choice but to make some changes. And, as evidenced by the previous post, I ate some very different foods - but hey - I was on vacation!

Cut to my return home from vacation and all the wonders of gelato. Would I be able to get back on track, diet-wise? The (blog)world waits in anticipation...
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and the answer is yes! You know why? Because I had the mindset that vacation was for having some fun with food, but being home is where the rubber hits the road. Plus, while realizing that I look like a normal person, I still have about 20 - 25 pounds left to lose...and I want to get on with it! I weighed myself on Saturday, and I was up four pounds, which wasn't unexpected. By Monday morning I was already down 2.5 pounds, and I'm hoping that this downward trend will continue. I know it sounds weird, but I was just glad to see a different number on the scale on Saturday, even though it was higher.

So it looks like mixing things up, starting with the vacation food, might do the trick. What am I doing differently now that I'm home? Well, I have actually had some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (made with 1 tbsp. of Maranatha Organic Peanut Butter, about a tsp. of Smucker's All-Fruit Spread, and an Orowheat Sandwich Thin) for lunch last week - I forgot how good pb&j tastes! The fruit selection in the store has changed and now I'm on to eating apples, clementines, a banana every once in a while, and pomegranates are back - yum! I bought a carton of egg whites and am having a 1 egg plus 1/3 cup egg white scrambled breakfast taco (eggs, fresh pico and corn tortillas at 55 calories each make for a yummy breakfast). And while I can't give up my yogurt breakfast for good, I am trying to not eat it every day. Plus, I'm changing that up a bit by reducing the amount of cereal (down from 1 cup to 2/3 cup) and since strawberries are no longer in season here, I've tried adding 1/4 cup of dried cranberries to the mix. Tasty! I do need to get to our health-food store to see if I can get the dried cranberries without added sugar, but for now the Craisins will do. With those changes, I've dropped nearly 100 calories from that meal alone.

I'm being pretty strict with myself and sticking to 1,200 calories per day. For a while there, I wasn't counting fruit or veggie calories, and while I still won't count the veggie calories (I don't eat high calorie veggies like corn or potatoes), I will count what fruit I eat toward the 1,200. Hopefully with these changes, I can finally get to the end of this journey, and start the next phase - maintenance!

Mmmmm, Maui Munchies!

***Warning: This post is all about the food, so if you are feeling tempted, ya might want to avoid reading it.***

The food in Maui was soooo good (as my scale can attest, but that's another post) - the nice thing about visiting the island is that the food is local, and many restaurants would write on a chalkboard where the food was from (i.e. which local farm, etc.). It was a nice change to eat such fresh-tasting restaurant meals!

Fresh flowers decorated each course - so pretty!

On our first night in Maui, we ate at the hotel's Tiki Terrace restaurant - outside, near the stage, where we could watch the nightly Hula show along with listening to the local Hawaiian musicians, which was a charming way to begin our Hawaiian vacation! We opted for the "Native Hawaiian" meal - the picture above is the first course - local greens and veggies in a very light dressing and half a papaya - this one was a strawberry papaya and yes, it did have a hint of strawberry flavor...plus the color was so pretty!

The next course was a boneless, skinless chicken breast and herbs wrapped in some sort of leaf that was tied closed and then steamed - the waitress brought a pair of scissors to our table to cut open the packet. Traditional poi, a slice of taro root (which is what poi is made from) and a slice of a purple potato completed the plate. You were supposed to dip pieces of the chicken into the poi - I did for a couple of bites, but ended up eating the rest of the chicken sans poi. It's an interesting and I'm sure, acquired taste - poi - I'm glad I sampled some, but didn't feel like I had to finish it (unlike my dining companion, lol!).

Slices of fresh pineapple that had been grilled and topped with toasted coconut completed the meal - wow was this good! I don't like coconut and will avoid any food that has it as an ingredient (macaroons are safe from me, as is German chocolate cake) but this toasted coconut was really tasty and apparently opened up my world to the goodness of coconut, as you will see later in this post.

Every morning we ate at the hotel's breakfast buffet - this was part of our vacation package. While the food was good, and I enjoyed having fresh pineapple AND a variety of fresh juices like mango, guava, papaya and of course, pineapple (yes, I drank my calories...hard to pass up the fresh juice), both Jeff and I felt like we overate every morning. Apparently we were not the best at portion control when it came to a buffet...and every morning, we would try and eat a bit less, but pretty much rode the fail boat on this one. The good news was that we really didn't have lunch - mostly we wanted something salty, so I bought a big bag of pretzels, and we snacked on those, plus a some cheese...and later in the week, some chips and salsa that we inherited from another couple who was going home (thanks Nick and Anne!).

Looks like a reasonable amount, no? Sadly, this wasn't his only plate (And what's with getting the yellow plate? They had blue, green and orange, and the pineapple just disappears on this color! Yes I am strange like that...you should see me choose plate colors from my Fiestaware collection based on what we are having for dinner!)

Other memorable meals include a vegetarian pizza made with pesto, eggplant, maui onion and other yummy veggies from the Tiki Grill, a hamburger (split) from the Front St. Grill, a hamburger (split) from the Cool Cat Cafe (voted Maui's best - Jeff had to try it), banana bread, which you could buy all along the way on the drive to Hana - and yes, everyone's was "the best" - it was too funny, seeing all the handmade signs proclaiming it so! Have I mentioned the fresh pineapple that I managed to eat every day? I have? Well, take a look at this picture:

No wonder fresh pineapple is so abundant...it grows on the side of the road in Maui! We drove by this on the way from Hana to 'Ohe'o Gulch and of course I had Jeff stop the car so I could take a picture (or five) of it!

One place where we did not split our meal was the Aloha Mixed Plate, which came highly recommended by my friend Russell, who lived down the street from me when we were kids AND who was a hotel chef on Maui for a number of years - he said to get the Kalbi ribs - we did, and yum, yum, yum...they were wonderful! I kind of wish we had gone to this restaurant earlier in the week, so we could have gone back a second time - they had a lot of great-sounding things on their menu!

The ribs were served with two scoops of white rice and a scoop of macaroni salad - apparently a tradition in Hawaii - and a little container of sort-of a kimchee-type of spicy zucchini, which was great with the rice.

That restaurant is in Lahaina Town, which was about five miles south of our hotel. We also discovered Ono Gelato, which was so good we went there four times! Well, to be fair, one time was in the town of Paia, where we also had some excellent flatbread pizza at the Flatbread Company (where else?). But getting back to the gelato, I have to say that this stuff is amazingly delicious. It's actually not bad for your diet, per se...although I think having it four times in a week *might* be stretching that concept - but hey, we were on vacation! I meant to take a picture of it, but lost sight of that goal once the gelato was in hand. So anyway, I had mango and coconut, pineapple and coconut, coconut, and coconut. And I don't like coconut...but apparently I do when it's made into gelato. Or a virgin pina-colada. Or into a coconut shortbread cookie, complete with toasted coconut on top. But that's it!

Now, onto the flatbread pizza - a local in Paia recommended this place, and wow - another fabulous meal! We had half a Greek vegetarian, half something else with pesto, Maui onions, homegrown tomatoes, and more good stuff - everything was organic and local. It was so good and I enjoyed every bite!

Now THIS is a pizza!!!

As we had heard that everything in Hawaii was super-spendy, and we didn't have a ton of money to spend on the trip, we were pretty cautious with what and where we ate. Now that I'm home and can see what we spent, it wasn't all that much, and I wish we had splurged a bit more on the food and gotten some more of the gorgeous salads that I saw on many menus - which were priced at around $10 each (we would have gotten one each) - instead of having the hamburgers (which were good, and at $10 made for a very cheap meal since we split them). But better safe than sorry for the old bank account - and we had a great time anyway. Now we know for our next visit...and yes, we are already planning a return trip, we had that great of a time!

I'm Back!

Although if I could have figured out a way to stay in Maui, believe me - I'd still be there! And yes, I did read the "help wanted" ads in the Maui News every morning...there were several jobs available for me, but the only thing I could find for Jeff was "timeshare salesman" so sadly we had to get on the plane and come home. Can you tell that we had a great time? October in Maui is just gorgeous - lovely weather, and with the exception of a few raindrops on the drive to Hana and the 'Ohe'o Gulch, we experienced sunny, mid-eighties temps every day. It was so pretty there! We went swimming in the ocean every day but one (the Hana day), and also got to play in the whale-shaped swimming pool. Well, swimming is a stretch for me - mostly, I floated. The best $3.49 I ever spent was on a pink (naturally) inflatable ring - this way, I could hang out in the ocean while Jeff went a little ways off to snorkel, and then he would swim back to me and hang on the ring to rest. Why, you may be wondering, was I not snorkeling with Jeff? Well, getting that close to fish and sea turtles (and a manta ray!) creeps me out. So I hung out a little way from Black Rock, where Jeff did most of his communing with sea life.

Black Rock in the early morning during a gorgeous walk on the beach!

One thing that I kept realizing during our trip was that I was DOING things - like hiking up a half mile trail to see a waterfall at 'Ohe'o Gulch (aka the Seven Sacred Pools), and then down a mile to see the actual pools, and then back up a half mile to our car. I didn't have to stop and rest, nor was I out of breath, or sweatier than anybody else on the trails. It was like I was a normal person - I know that sounds weird to say, because you may look at my pictures and see the new me, but in my head, I still see the old me. Case in point: I was walking out of an airport restroom, where they had a huge full-length mirror positioned near the exit. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and thought "wow - I look like a normal person" - I wasn't thin, but I also wasn't fat. It was a little surprising to realize something like that.

It was a half-mile hike up to this spot.Where we got to see this awesome waterfall!

A mile hike down from the waterfall brought us to the ocean and sacred pools.

And another thing that I "did" was to not only wear a swim suit, but get used to walking to the beach and the pool wearing it with no cover up. Of course, the only picture I'm going to share with y'all of me in my swim suit involves a cover up, or pareo, which are very popular and can be found everywhere...naturally, I had to get one in pink to match my flip flops! This picture was taken during my self-imposed, mandatory "shade time" - my pale skin can only take so much sun, even with using sunscreen at an SPF of 50!

Showing my bare upper arms for all the world to see!

At the nightly hula show, wearing our crazy cute Hawaiian clothes and the leis we made - our hotel had a lot of fun activities to participate in!

And as this post is getting a little long, I'll leave you with one last picture - I found my beloved bike's cousin in Lahaina Town!

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Don't worry - there will be more posts to come on our vacation, including such fascinating topics as food (aka "diet...what diet?"), the interesting characters I met in Maui, and shopping with my mother (aka the "pre-vacation"). Now I'm off to catch up on what all y'all have been up to!

I'm Ready!

The bags are packed, the animals are being cared for (how weird is it that I didn't have to make any arrangements for my kids*?!), and the food (pb&j on Oroweat sandwich thins for me, regular bread for my husband, apples, clementines, grapes, almonds, and a Lara Bar, which I have been dying to try) is ready for the 9+ hours we will be traveling today.

I went to the bank a couple of days ago and turned all of this:

into $99.95! (Paco the wonder dog was responsible for the chewed up dollar bills)

I got my hair cut - my stylist knocked 10 bucks off of the price as a "have fun in Hawaii" gift - she is so sweet! Oh, funny thing - when she was washing my hair, she said "even your head has gotten smaller!" So I don't know...do heads shrink when you lose weight?

I got my beach toes done:

...and I think that's it - I'm officially ready for our vacation!

We are flying to Oregon to visit my parents, where we will endure enjoy brisk temperatures and rain, and where my mom and I will shop for clothes - how fun! Then on Monday morning, we are off to sunny Maui to celebrate our 25th Anniversary - I can't wait! I sure hope these next 12 days of eating different food will kick my body into losing weight again - I've been stuck for a couple of weeks now and it's getting frustrating. That said, I will not let what the scale says ruin my vacation!

I'll have computer access while we're at my parent's house, so hopefully I'll be able to get a post up sometime before Monday, but after that, we will be unplugged for a week. It will be weird to go so long without checking on all of my bloggy friends - I may need recaps when I get back!




*Although they will always be kids to me, they are actually in college.