bvi captains log blog

On Sunday the parents and I took a drive over to Santa Monica Place on the coast. AN outdoor /indoor mall that has just been redone and overlooks the ocean. I will say that going over the mountain to the coast means it is MUCH cooler over there then Inland.
We were wishing we brought jackets...


Pretty place, not that large, with high end stores....


We went to LaSandria for lunch, which for some reason I thought was DIM SUM but it turns out it is really Mexican...Not my favorite! We asked to sit inside, where it was warmer, but the "inside" was not really "inside" so we were cold.....


We all ordered soup. I am not too sure the parents looked too impressed with theirs...Dad had the corn soup which was fairly sweet.


Mom and I had the tortilla soup with chicken. I quite enjoyed it! and it warmed me up a bit...(NEWSFLASH!! ASHLEY Furniture just pulled up with our new living room suite!! YIPPEE!!)



I had left my Nikon D200 camera on the boat, meaning to buy one for up here instead of carting back and forth...I have really missed having A D SLR and finally got a NIkon D90. Not as good as my 200 but it will do! I took pictures left and right..


Apparently Bazza showed me my first Black Widow Spider as well, playing on the pool water heater...You don't want to touch these!






I have a honest real to god Pool Boy!!



And a pool boy supervisor! What a lucky girl I am...



I bought this beautiful caribbean sea stained glass window when we were up in Canada and it now has pride of place in my office here...Along with a rotating photo blog of guest pictures from Promenade...


Then I went shopping for a cooktop. I needed one for the yacht. I, of course, thought I wanted something like this...with no ucky gas burners. Bazza thought I did NOT need something like that, as he said I would have to run the generator 24/7 whenever I wanted to cook anything. Not a problem in my world, although I certainly thought running around turning off other things to run the cooktop was not a great idea....



I thought if I could not have a Jenn Air, that maybe I could have something like this. It has spots for steam vegetables, a deep fryer and a grill. He added it up for me and said it was over $5000.00 I may get it for the house yet one day!!!!




This is about what i ended up with whether I wanted it or not, fairly boring run of the mill gas grill. Sigh. Oh well, at least I will have more then 2 working burners!


The laundry room is starting to fill up with boat stuff...The George Foreman Grill I bought for the boat as there are many times during the winter that grilling on the barbecue on the back deck is just a pain in the ass. Too much wind and too many seas. Bazza says he can live with it needing electricity for the times I need it!


This absolutely BEAUTIFUL piece of machinery is an ice machine that HOLDS 60 lbs of ice!! A true commercial one! None of this namby pamby 13 lbs storage like the one they bought on the boat this winter. Even for me with my blended drinks this should work well. AND it is no wider then the old one, although a lot higher..I am doing a happy dance over this....


Continuing on with boat shopping, these are the new lights for reading lights on the beds on the yacht.....


This is the new cockpit coffee table....


And these are the lights to replace all the flat lights that are on the celings...


These are the new sinks! Yes, I have done a bit of shopping. I think I really need to go back to work now to pay for it all...


Now, don't take this to mean that when you show up for YOUR charter in November that this stuff will all be installed! I have found out over the years that BUYING all the replacements and actually having them in place and working are two different things!

So...about this diet thing...I should not call it a diet as it really isn't. It is a lifestyle change...My lifestyle change is not shoving everything I see into my mouth. Or attempting too. Portion control. I can have everything and anything I want, but only have the following amounts to use every day.

Every Day I have the following to use up:

1600 calories (I know many people who are losing weight go for 1200 calories a day, but really people? How long would I survive on that? Not long at all I can tell you!) These calories are made up of:
220 carbohydrate
36 fat
100 protein
2500 sodium (my personal bane)
300 cholesterol

Unfortunately at the end of the day you may have calories left, but depending on what you ate, you could be scrounging around looking for something that just has carbohydrates and cholesterol in it! Believe me those fat grams roll down quickly!! The cholesterol, not so much, unless you eat eggs. Sodium is a HUGE problem trying to stay close to that number especially eating anything processed, or in restaurants. You can pretty much forget about ever eating anything but plained steamed rice in a chinese restaurant ever again.

The bright light in all of this is that you can get extra calorie credits to eat if you exercise...which is why I spend an hour swimming every other day at least so I can get some food !!! Although, you do not get extra sodium or cholesterol, so sometimes, you really cannot do too much with the extra calories you get. You just don't feel quite as guilty eating then.

Now, psychologically, it might have been obvious to everyone and their dog that I needed to lose weight, but I did not always recognize it as it crept slowly on over the years. Having a hard time getting around the boat I would put down to "getting older" It went on so damn easy!!!!!! Intellectually, I knew that things would be easier on me and I would not sweat as much if I took off weight, but god, I did not want to. I used to say "everyone needs an addiction and mine is food. It is better then cocaine"





That worked fine until the amount I was spending on medical prescriptions outweighed the price I was spending on food every month. And maybe even the amount I spent on food for the entire charter yacht!!! Between the prediabetes, the high blood pressure, cholesterol meds, heartburn medications...I think I finally got scared. Besides the fact that actually getting up into my bed would mean my heart would beat fast for 5 minutes and I would have to lay there and let it calm down. Lets not even talk about walking. Funny, SCUBA diving was always fine though!

When I started losing weight 3 months ago, I figured if I took off 50 lbs, I would be doing good, although that still put me overweight, I could say "well I have big bones" Plus "studies show that only a 10% weight loss would have a good effect on alot of these obesity issues"

The first month was great, I lost like 15 lbs! And was feeling so positive I changed my goal to lose 60 lbs over all. 3 months later, I have lost maybe a lb or so under 30 lbs. So half way there. But this is hard work! Some days it is so discouraging. I still look at the amount of food that I can eat with dismay MOST days. Your stomach may shrink but I have never not once been one of those people who on a diet say things like "any suggestions? I have a hard time getting in my 1200 calories a day?" and then on the blogs there will be a hundred suggestions on how to increase their calories...

REALLY PEOPLE?????

I cannot say it is easy. It is not for me. On a good day, I am thrilled that I can actually feel bones in my body instead of just fat rolls. I very rarely get out of breath. I can bend over and tie my shoes. I can ALMOST fit into clothes that are not big girl clothes. I have more then halved all my medications, and probably by the time I get back to the islands and have blood tests, I will be able to throw most if not all away. I have energy to spare. I can roll over in bed without needing a "breather". I can swim a good clip of front crawl for an hour. Emotionally, I am more settled and I do not feel quite so "old" It was quite a revelation for me that so much I blamed on "getting older" was actually "getting fatter". I can wear something other then a nightgown (but don't expect me to give it up on charter!). If I look down I can almost see in between my legs again. I had forgotten the stretch marks I owned underneath the belly roll. I can probably also fit into a seat on the airplane in economy, not that that will make me go back to flying economy though probably....

I miss my food. I miss MASHED POTATOES, unlimited carbs, french fries and unlimited amounts of pizza. I miss brie cheese. Deep fried cheese. I miss comfort eating. I have days of self doubt wondering if I can keep this up...and know people it is not like i am on a strenuous "diet". I have visions still in my head of sitting at a buffet and shoving stuff left and right into my mouth with it falling out everywhere just like cartoons! Emotional eater much??????? When I see numbers that are so low on the scale I get discouraged, thinking, this will take forever. I want it to be faster. But, I guess not enough that I am willing to eat less calories every day and I know for a fact that I would NEVER EVER keep it up long term if I did. It took me 3 months to lose 30 lbs. Even if it takes me 9 months to lose the other 30 lbs, it is still a whole lot shorter then the decade it took me to put it on living on a charter yacht.

Funny, even as I write this I see the pro's far outweigh the cons. I guess I am just going through a stage... Even now I know that I have nothing on the boat that actually probably still fits me. For gosh sakes my breasts are hanging out of the sides of my nightgowns here! Had to leave you with a mental image that no one needed...

Anyways, that is my "let you into my personal head space" moment. Some days it sucks. Some days it doesn't. Now, I think I will go get in the swimming pool so I can possibly eat some food later on today.



One good thing i have managed to work into my food that is semi satisfying is thin crust pizza, usually Margherita with some lightening up on the calories. It works

Lisa reminded me that it was time for me to blog. She is good that way! I want her to start keeping a blog so I can bug her as well...Speaking of R&L, a package came in the mail on Friday from our Florida address for Richie. I think it has been sitting in Florida for a few months but this was in the package! I don't know whether they had guests who thought he needed a hair piece or what! But, Rich, I have it safe and sound at the house for you, so you can get it...



Sears told us they were delivering the new bed for the parents room on Friday. In between 330 and 530. It is now Sunday at 830 and we are still waiting! Yep, we cleaned out the room to fit the new bed etc. Dad managed to snag moms spot though for sleeping so HE was fine...


Kevin and I went over to Falker Wines on Saturday for a wine appreciation course...


It was very pretty!


There were only 4 of us in the class, so we had lots of one on one attention. I realized how large of business vineyards are here with the tons of limo's and bachelorette party showing up !


You know these barrels from France cost over a thousand dollars? And last about 4 years...The vineyard valley here is only about 18 miles from the coast and is a great micro climate for grapes...Apparently it was even better 20 years ago before so many people starting moving into the valley, It has made the ambient heat greater, and hence less fog at night and apparently grapes like the extremes in temperature. Hot during the day and cool down at night.


After the tour, we made our way down to a VIP room for lunch and the tastings...Lunch was good!


All of it....They do a nice job, and for the price they charged they were not making any money!


Kevin who apparently has not drank more then a couple glasses of wine in his life thought it would be a good idea to chug port. Not such a good idea!


We had lessons in smelling and tasting wine, which I believe I mostly was way off base. I think mostly what i learnt was that there was a lot about wine that I did not know........And that they cannot grow a good Pinto Grigio grape in this area to save their soul!


By the time we left mid afternoon it was very busy and off we went to the mall to do some shopping. My son has gained about 50 lbs since he came with us a few months ago, so it was time to buy some things that actually fit!