Whoops, and just like that it's almost Summer!

Is it May already?  It is?  I'm shocked and stunned.

Since we last visited, my husband sold his business on April 1 and is officially retired.  After that we went to Hawaii for a week, then we were home for a week, then we left again on a road trip to San Francisco for hub's 55th high school class reunion.

Hawaii was okay, but I really enjoyed the car trip to California.  We took our convertible, which is always fun and the weather was gorgeous most of the time.  We got to see some of hub's siblings as well as his best friend of many years, plus the reunion was good for his soul.  He is still close with many of his classmates.  Unfortunately, every reunion, there are fewer and fewer folks attending for obvious reasons. There is always a moment of silence after reading the list of classmates who have passed away in the last 5 years.  This year the list was quite long. 

We passed through Reno on the way home.  Our intent had to been to stay overnight, but I really didn't get a good feeling about the town so we kept driving and stayed in another small town further north.  As a result of that change in plans, we ended up driving a totally different way home, and so we were able to spend a few days at a hot springs lodge in Oregon.  It was lovely and quiet and not very expensive.  Our room looked directly out on the hot pool and the McKenzie River.  

View from our Room

The lodge was in the middle of nowhere and there was no TV or cell service!  But they did have internet "in the lobby" and since our room was directly above said lobby, we had internet in our room. I made my first cell phone call ever using internet.  I called my office and my co-worker said he could kind of hear me, but not great.  At least I know it can be done.  

There was lots of wine and beer drinking and dessert eating throughout the trip, which is always enjoyable.  However, it's not so great for the scale, which I have been avoiding since we got home about 10 days ago.  Getting back on track eating wise is hard!   It was good to get back to my office and my routine and my normal healthy lunches.  And I can also say I've been working out regularly again, 4 times this week so far! Plus gardening, planting tomatoes, and spring cleaning of my landscaping and yard.   

Speaking of cleaning up, I've had to start cleaning up after a raccoon who apparently spends quite a bit of time in the tree in front of our house.  I've not actually seen him, but our dog sitter has.  She said he growled at her and that he's quite large.  So are his poops, which he leaves in the crook of the tree every day.  YUCK.   

Yuck Pooey! 😒

He's also not a fan of some of my yard art.  I spend a lot of time curating my yard and I had a little fake nest with paper mache eggs that I put under one of my Japanese maple trees.  Every morning for 3 days, it had been tossed into the driveway.  As if to say BITCH NOT FOOL ME NOT REEL EGGYS!  I'd put it back under the tree, but he'd do it again in the night.  The last time, he tore it apart and ripped out one of the eggs.  Fine, you win, nasty wild animal.  The nest was wrecked so it went into the trash.  

This is what it looked like before he had a temper tantrum.

See the little nest behind the glass mushrooms?  It was so cute😍

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make this beast go away?  I'm not only disgusted by the poop but I'm also a bit concerned about my dogs getting in a confrontation with him.  I've been researching raccoon repellent, which usually involves hot sauce and/or vinegar, but I'd be interested in anyone's experience with raccoons.

Because our yard is not fenced, I do keep my dogs on a leash whenever they are outdoors.  This is mostly because there are lots of wild animals around our house.  My little 6 lb yorkiepoo is a fearless hunter and will take on any animal she sees, which could be a disaster.  It's the terrier in her and she turns mindless aggressor when she sees a wild animal.  Along with the raccoon, there are eagles, Canadian geese, deer, coyotes, beavers, nutria, and otters.  But even if it's just a bunny or a squirrel, she would chase it wherever it goes, which includes the busy road up our  driveway.  So...Miss Jennie is always always always on a leash when outdoors.

Jennie the killer YorkiePoo

   Anyway, time to take pups to the park.  Onward and upward.  

      

This is what SMUG gets you

A gain of 5 lbs.

I start thinking I'm invincible when it comes to gaining weight.  After all, I didn't gain weight during the holidays!  How special is that!?!

But during February, I lost control.  Well, not really "LOST" control, I just stopped paying attention.

After all, there was Valentine's Day, the long weekend for Presidents Day, my birthday, a big snowstorm, travel to California for a funeral.  Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Lots of excuses to eat stuff I don't normally eat and to not work out as much.   Lots of licorice, Good and Plenty, and Sour Patch Kids.  (You can keep your chocolate...just give me all that straight sugar crap candy.)  Eating out for my birthday several times with different friends.  Having my cake and eating it too.

Thank heavens it was a short month!!! 

Late in February, I noticed my skinny jeans were snug and were making me feel not so skinny.  So I weighed myself on March 1.  I was back up to 173.5.  Aaargh!  Those 5 lbs that took me 3 months to lose only took me a month to gain back. 

This week, I'm back on track.  I worked out 5 days this week, cut out the sugar (SO HARD TO DO), and just generally cleaned up my act.  The weather has improved, so there's that too.

I already feel better.  

We are going to Hawaii on April 3 for 10 days, so I hope to be down to 163 (my goal weight) by then.

I'm looking outside and it's a gorgeous day.  Still cold (33 degrees) but it is warming up nicely.

Little ducks all in a row, enjoying the sunshine

Spring appears to be Springing right now!  So I'm going to take the dogs for a walk and enjoy it.  After all, this is Seattle and it could start raining any second! 

Holy Crap, it's 2019

I can’t believe it’s almost a month into 2019!  

Things are going well.  I’m still working full time, although my duties have changed slightly.  For the past several years, I've been just in the office doing computer work.  About a month ago, due to our office being very short staffed, I was asked to also do some new construction inspections as necessary.  So I'm basically back doing what I did when I first started in our department 30 years ago. I do like it, as long as the weather is not too nasty.  I enjoy the interaction with contractors and the fresh air. 

Monday, my husband will be discussing selling his business with a gentleman who has been interested for several years.  They’ve been doing the “dance” around what it’s worth, etc.  I think they are getting close to an agreement.

Once the deal is finalized, this would mean that I’d be giving a year’s notice at my own job.  A year is obviously not required but I had promised that I would give a year so that I could start training another person to make the transition.  I’m also not sure I’m ready to retire yet, so it would be nice to give myself a year to mentally prepare.  Retirement would also mean I’d not be working out with my trainer 4 times a week.  I’ve gotten very dependent upon his guidance and motivation, so I’d have to figure out how to go forth with that part of my life, a part that I’ve come to enjoy so much.

So I finally weighed myself about 3 months ago, more out of curiosity than anything.  I was feeling good and I could kind of guess where I was at weight wise.  I was a little off, but close...I thought I weighed about 173 but was actually 175. 

About that time, I purchased a Motiv ring which you wear all the time.  It tracks your activities, calories expended, sleep trends, heart rate, etc.  I’ve found it is a really good way to keep me motivated to be active and eat right.  So this is a typical day for me:

There are other screens which show how your heart rate changes during the day, such as during exercise, and at night while you are at rest.  You can look at how your heart rate changes at night, on the nights when I've eaten sugar, my resting heart rate is almost always higher.  Sugar...BAD!

(The Motiv app calculations are based on the BMR for a 65 year old woman of my height and weight, which is calculated to be around 1360.  I wonder how much it will change when I turn 66 next month LOL.) 

With my workouts and being relatively active, I’ve found (according to Motiv) I usually “burn” around 2000-2500 calories a day.

So over the past 3 months, I’ve consistently tried to keep my calories around 1800 a day (occasionally I'm under but I also do go over on weekends).  But that’s all I’ve done, and I’m currently weighing in at 168.  So it's taken 3 months to lose around 7 lbs, but those size 8’s a mentioned a few posts back fit now.

So my intention now is to lose 5 more lbs and then stay there.  I think 163 is a good weight for me.

I hope everyone is doing well, and enjoying 2019 so far.