Tuesday Check in & The Adventure that almost happened.

IT'S TUESDAY ALREADY??? GHADS! The days got away from me. I was under the weather a bit and then just did not feel motivated to post over the weekend...I vegged all weekend. Yep , rooted to the couch. Then yesterday...well it was a day of almosts, but will get to that very soon. First CHECK IN...

Sound the trumpets, drum roll please, do the happy dance in a virtual circle and applaud after that...ARE YOU READY???? 128.2! Now I do not know how long that will last. Especially since I ate at Mel's Diner....the steak and eggs special, and I did not work out all weekend...not even the 10 minutes with the DVD. So I may fight all week long to see it again and then it will be time for Mother Nature, and then....yeah that is life. BUT, I DID see it. So I shall celebrate today. I will get back on program right now, never put off till tomorrow what you can do today, that is where one gets into trouble on diets and such.

I have been noticing changes, new dips and dents on my body...some good, some " WHAT THE HECKS"  apparently when you start to loose fat, at this lovely thing called middle age, the skin does not bounce back the way it once did. But the places it is happening, I am ok with cause in clothing you can not see all the crepe skin that now is topping my cottage cheese ripples. And as long as we keep the lights off, hubby will not see it either ( YES I SAID THAT!) I mean my days of a bathing suit are gone, short shorts, a thing of the past. It is all about trickery of the eye, divert the attention ...go ahead an stare at my breasts, they do look very nice....well in clothing, with a great bra! Pooch, what pooch ( tell me you can see it under that sausage casing???) Look at my amazing eyes....so you get the picture. So , now what ? I am looking better, and am back at the weight I was at 18 , (of course I had gained 30 pounds out of high school) and most of my adult life ( not counting the few times I was able to loose an amazing amount of weight by nearly killing myself with diet and exercise) ...but I want more! I want to see 125 again, give myself some breathing room so when the scale goes on that roller coaster ride that comes with fibromyalgia and middle age female hormones, I jump to THIS weight, and not over the 130 mark.

I am not sure if I will see it, and the arrival of Fall is right around the corner ( although the 106 degree temps we are having would protest to that fact) and that means baking, hot coco, rain keeping me inside, birthdays and holidays....all traps for weight gain! But right now I am motivated. Of course being a woman , that could change!

Getting used to less calories, less sugar, less wine, less, less, less, and more fiber and water and exercise has been pretty easy ( except my belly protests on some of that...OUCH!) . I won't say that I do not miss my goodies. I do, daily! I think my sweet tooth is just not going to die, and well I did fudge a lot on that day I was being a couch potato. But all I have to do is look at my slimmer waist line and on the few occasions the scale is kind to me and it re-motivates me all over again to behave myself....very hard as my daughter keeps baking Whoopie Pies and giving them to us, and I love them, but have no will power ...something that takes me forever to accomplish.

So that is where I stand today. Still needing to get more fruits and vegies in , living on far too many  bread carbs, though they are all high fiber and high protein based carbs, and doing quite well with my water and basically leveling off on the exercise, so needing to increase that back up to get to the next set point...(if THIS is a set point ..we will see) . Thanks for cheering me on and making supportive comments. I truly believe all you readers are what are keeping me going....that and being able to breathe in my jeans again!!

PART TWO~
Ok , so you know each week on either a Monday or Tuesday my hubby and I take adventures. Mostly it would seem all over Historic 49, (though one day we hope to get over into the bay area and explore that)...well yesterday was to be the same. We had to go grocery shopping, the cupboards were so very bare! Plus it being a smaller check at the end of the month, we needed to see what groceries would come out to , to see what would be our funds...extra always goes to fun. We were over with it early enough, but not early enough to go to 49. So we decided on Sacramento. We would go to IKEA, I wanted to see if it would be Audrey Hepburn or Greta Garbo that would be coming home with me for the living room re-do.

Apparently Audrey has been replaced with Greta...I was disappointed at first, had this whole design idea in my head, but decided I really did also like Greta...

  
She is chocolate brown with a beige/tan background. And she does look lovely in the space. Not sure where it will lead me...being as I am so inspired more so by Audrey and the whole Breakfast at Tiffanys theme. Anyway, this is a discussion for another day.

We had our lunch there, I love the tubular ice they have, and so while hubby had hot dogs and chips ( it is so cheap there...2.00!)  I had the ice and ice tea , having eaten at home. Then it was off to our first adventure. We were off to an old historic cemetery. It has been in a flier , which of course I had forgotten at home, that had mentioned a museum..we drove all over this beautiful place, looking for a place to park and this museum....did not see either. So as it was hot, we agreed to abort this adventure and come back in October for the lantern tour they off...me having wonderful plans for many blogs about haunted and creepy places for September and October on my mind. Note to readers...IF you go on an adventure, remember your information to refer back to!

So , when coming out , back to the street, we noticed it was the street that many of the apartments we had been considering, if we move to Sacramento, and were located. Taking a lovely drive through this area, we decided if there was a Wal Mart near by for grocery shopping, we would indeed one day consider it. There was lovely old homes, the American River trail is close by....yep, and I would even love walks through the Cemetery and not mind needing to drive a bit to get to normal girly shopping.  That drive was not what I considered an adventure , so it was on to the Wells Fargo Museum. It was on our list as it would be interesting and it was free and it was only 7 miles away from where we were . Hubby forgot the information he had written down, but we recalled the street and the basic address. BUT!!! When we get there, all excited as there is even a place right next door to go for a small happy hour, we had forgotten to bring quarters. Sacramento is all about metered parking. A quarter only gets you about 12 minutes, hardly enough time, and well who carries all that change??? So, we drove on past. Note to readers: Remember your adventure travel kit, fliers/information, addresses, quarters for parking meters and or a few dollars for other forms of parking that may charge. 

So, then as my hubby seems to always do, he just drives. All over. All around. I love the older portions of Older Sacramento, the homes are divine, but I have seen them over and over and well over. I am kind of over it. Finally over a half hour later, he hits "home" on the GPS and we get on the freeway, just in time for the rush hour traffic.  THAT is ALWAYS an adventure LOL ! And in a while, having survived the free way and the time of day, we came home. So no adventure to share, well not of the interesting, historical or shopping type.

Hubby and I were discussing what my blog would then be about and we agreed it would be a check list for people out seeking their own adventures. AND for ourselves, as we need to have an adventure kit. So here it goes.

1.Do your research ahead of time. Gather all said info and put in place where you will not forget it when you leave. 
1A. This info should include fliers, brochures, directions/ adresses, all fees that may incur. A detailed list of where you want to go and what you would think you would like to see in these places. Maybe even a real map for the times when GPS can not find said location and keeps trying to recalculate .

2.Bring money, actual cash and coins for parking or places that do not take CC's ( yes there still is some of those) 

3. Pack you camera, with two sets of batteries. 

4. Bring a notebook and a pen so you can take notes of where you went, what you saw and what you took pictures of and in what order. It is a bit of work, but really helps, even if you are just sharing those adventures in a scrap book. 

5. Bring an ice chest with snacks and water. You never know when places to eat will close early, or not be open at all. Some towns close on weird days, roll up the side walks, especially the small ones where you are more than likely to take an adventure in. We have run into Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays having nothing open....never the same day in all the towns. There will not always be fast food to be had,  and well if you take wrong turns as we often do, you will often miss meal time and want that snack and that cold bottle of water .

6. Dress in layers, and bring extra shoes . You might just end up in a place you did not expect that is cooler, or you need walking shoes, or switch to flip flops or even heels for you ladies. 

7. Pack that breath mint pack, lip stick and powder and hair brush ladies, cause you never know if you will end up being a mess cause of wind or perspiring and then have to freshen up because you suddenly want to go into somewhere for wine tasting, or a nicer meal than a diner on the side of the road. 

8. Of course, make sure you car is gassed up...or the adventure will not get off the ground or you will create one that you never wanted in the first place. 

So I think that is a great start . My hubby and I are going to call this "The Back Yard Adventure Kit" and have our own check list and ice chest at the ready, so that next time we can make that adventure happen. We will not be going on one for a couple weeks, work is just going to be getting in the way too much, but we have some real nifty ones picked out that we are really looking forward to...and hopefully we can make them happen!!