Week 34 – Back in Hilo – 148 lbs – June 10, 2012

We had a great time on Maui and now we are back in Hilo, but not for long! I leave Wednesday for 2-1/2 weeks to the mainland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

San Francisco, Hawaii, Napa Valley, LA, Las Vegas, NYC, National Parks, France, Vancouver; these are just a few of the places I have gone on my annual ‘GIRL’S TRIP!’ For the last 18 years, my 3 girlfriends and I have planned an annual getaway to different places. No husbands, no boyfriends, and since none of us has kids, we didn’t have to worry about that. We started a GIRL’S ACCOUNT many years ago where we put money in each month (for us, we do $50). Then when we go on our trip, we use the kitty to pay for our accommodations, car, meals, entertainment; so we don’t have to keep track and no one is picking up the tab one night and then someone else the other night. It’s a great system!

This is the first year that I will be in striking distance of the same size as my best friends. We are all short: 5’4″ and under. But they are all very petite and athletic, so you can imagine how I always felt when they were going out for a run or  swapping clothes, and I was always the odd one in the group of four…..so this year will be a little more equal….yea! Not that they ever, ever made me feel the least bit bad about my weight…..and they are among the few that I have told about my surgery. They’ve been fabulously supportive throughout the process. This year, we’re spending a week in Seattle and a day in Victoria so next week I’ll have some photos of four petite women!

 

FEATURE CREEP! So an interesting development is happening as I lose weight, and the best analogy I can come up with is FEATURE CREEP, originally a software development term that we started using when we were doing a lot of house remodeling.

It goes like this……let’s say you decide to replace your old worn-out bathroom floor to get a fresher new look. You find some nice tile at a reasonable price, and off you go. Then as you are visualizing how this bright new shiny tile will look, your vanity seems very old and outdated…..so off you go to look for a new vanity (and new hardware to go with it). The tub looks OK but the new shower doors are so pretty! And you know, if we moved the vanity to the other wall and made the window larger, the bathroom would be so much bigger and brighter! So your $1200 project is now a $10K new room! THAT’S FEATURE CREEP…..

 

So how does it relate to weight loss? For me, when I was fat, that was all encompassing; my face, legs, arms, eyes, all looked bad because I was fat. It was one problem that I thought had one answer…..lose weight!  And now that I’ve lost the weight, I don’t look too bad…..with my clothes ON!!! Take the clothes off and all I see is the ‘Before’ photo of the old bathroom.  I see saggy boobs (maybe I should think about a boob lift?), but then there’s this extra skin on my upper arms (is there a surgery for that…..what do they do, cut off the underarm; eeuww!), my varicose veins seem uglier now that my body is thinner (did I not see them before???), I have no idea how bad my butt is hanging down but if I had a mirror where I could see back there, I think a butt lift would go on the list too!  And wrinkles EVERYWHERE!!!! Oh, and then there’s my scars…..I hadn’t planned on dealing with those……so basically I don’t know if I should keep my old wrinkled, scarred, drooping body, or be vain and start thinking about ‘remodeling’ me? (A dilemma now that sex is so much more fun!).  But this is a brand new subject and I feel a little weird focusing so much on me, me, me. Sometimes I feel so great about how I look and feel, and other times all I see is what needs to be done still. So much for aging gracefully!!

 

Speaking of aging, I was starting to see a lot of gray hairs, so this past week I colored my hair! First time since last September, prior to my surgery! I had bought a box of Loreal #5 Medium Brown in Amsterdam and turns out it was the BEST match to my natural color I had ever gotten.

So, off I went to buy the same Loreal here…..but guess what? Not the same color here as it is in Europe…..my hair is so dark! (Compare it to my color in the photo above!) I feel like Elvira at Halloween…….but the good news is the gray is gone and my hair seemed healthy enough to be colored again.

 

I’ll leave you with a quick recipe for this week…..it’s mango season here in Hawaii and if you can get some where you are, I made the most delicious mango salsa that I used on top of some white fish this week….YUM!!! And simple (not going to get any gourmet recipes from me…..). Cut up some pieces of ripe mango, add some green onions, a little cilantro and a little Thai Chili Sauce (you can buy at most stores). It has a little kick to it, so taste the sauce before adding it. For the fish, I just squeeze some lemon on top, sprinkle with Asian Panko Crumbs and lemon pepper, and fry on top of the stove (I can see all of you die-hard no fry people rolling your eyes). Then top if with the salsa. So good!

Oh, as you can see it doesn’t look like I lost weight this week, but last week, I was 148.7 and today, I was 148.0.  If I would have taken my earrings out, I might have seen 147!  The next two weeks being out of town will be interesting (no regular workouts and a lot more wine…..).  Until then……

A HUI HOU,

QUEEN OF CROP