Tag Archives: Walt Disney World

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Payday Two

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Day 60 in my dance devoted to meeting the Mouse at the Castle

Todays’ plan was to face the scale again to see if making healthier food choices and moving more is having an impact on my weight.  This is early this month.  My weigh days are the 11th of the month; however, because we are heading out of town tonight I had to weigh early this month.

The good news is that I’ve lost another 5.4 pounds this month.  (Don’t you just love digital scales!!)  That means in the last 60 days I’ve lost 18.8 pounds.  That is a fantastic side-effect to living a healthier life!  And, you know, I feel 18.8 pounds lighter.  I know I have a lot more energy than I had 60 days ago, and it makes me super excited to think about what lies ahead.  (Anticipation…anticipa-a-tion is making me wait…keeping me waiting.  Come on, sing it with me…)  Gotta love Carly Simon!

Tonight I hope to do my 20 minutes of walking in a swimming pool in Green Bay.  I haven’t been in a pool for a few years, so I’m pretty jacked about it.  🙂  I’m pretty jacked in general.  Can you tell my coffee was caffeinated this morning?  🙂

Thanks for hanging in there with me, dear readers.  Love and peace to you all.  Meet you at the Kingdom!

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Planning Ahead

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Day 59 in my trek toward terrific times with Mickey at the Magic Kingdom

Well, faithful readers, tomorrow I leave my cozy, controlled environment to travel to party central.  Woo hoo!  We are headed to the UP (Michigan’s gloriously beautiful Upper Peninsula) for a family wedding.  I’m a bit nervous, because I can already hear it calling to me: “Donna, come and get me, Donna!  I’m waiting for you.”  It’s the wedding cake calling.  🙂

Thankfully, the reception will be well patrolled by many whom I love, who know what I am trying to accomplish and who want the best for me.  Hopefully if they see me stumbling toward the cake table with glazed eyes, they will intercede and talk me down.  Tee hee!  It’s really not that dire; I exaggerate because I know myself.

So anyway today’s plan is to think ahead and plan ways to stay on track.  I really do want to make the healthiest choices possible.  I just feel better.  59 days in, I still have miles to go in the marathon toward a healthier me, but I already feel better than I did when I started.  My blood sugar numbers are truly impressive for me, and many days I just have more energy than I’ve had in a long time.  I really want to fight to stay the course and be the best possible me at Walt Disney World in October 2015.  I WANT IT!  (Even more than I want wedding cake…and that’s a lot!)

Thank you, dear readers and encouragers, for taking this journey with me.  It’s a real pip!  See you at the Kingdom!

BTW: The internet connection can be an issue in the great north country.  I’ll do my best to blog every day, but I may end up posting when I get back.  We shall see.  😉  I’m so-o-o-o-o excited!  I can’t wait to catch up with family and friends!!!

 

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Taking Those Painful Steps

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Day 58 in my journey to meet up with Mickey

My plan today is to get in a twenty minute walk.  I’ll either do it at the grocery store after work or at the farm when I get home.  Monday’s can be flippin’ hard days.  Can’t they?  So it’s a double challenge.  1) Walk for at least 20 minutes and 2) Do it on a Monday.

Are you playing the world’s tiniest violin for me yet?  🙂  I am fighting my way back from morbid obesity and a year-long depression.  It is hard work for me.  My body just does not want to move yet.  But it is moving better than it was just 58 days ago, so hope springs eternal.

We had a ball making plans for our trip yesterday.  It made me even more determined to stay the course.  It was a real shot in the arm to my quest.  Sometimes a person just needs something fun to do that affirms the hard work.  That was yesterday for me.

Meet you at the Kingdom!

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Fun and Dandy Decision Day

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Day 57 in my journey to meet the Mouse at the Magic Kingdom

Today’s plan is a fun one.  Mike, Jake, Emi, Eliza and I will sit down and make decisions about the trip to Walt Disney World.  We’ll decide which parks we will visit on which days.  And we’ll decide what three Fastpass+ attractions to choose for each park.  And we’ll decide where to make our lunch reservations each day.  It sounds quick and easy, but it takes much discussion and some give and take. For instance: some will definitely want to Fastpass+ Hollywood Studio’s Tower of Terror.  Me?  Not so much.  Some may want Cinderella’s Royal Table for breakfast (Yes, please!).  Others?  No way.  It will be a delightful mix of yup, nope, yup, nope, yup, nope.

A special shout out today to Jake Jarvi (Son) and Caleb Carlson (Godson)!  Happy birthday you two wonderful people!!  I hope you both have a perfectly lovely day filled with family and celebration.

Blessings to you, dear readers, on this the Sabbath.  Meet you at the Kingdom!

 

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A Day of Charming Choices

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Day 56 in my marathon to mambo with Mickey

Victory number one today: we met Jake and Eliza at Walker Brothers Pancake House in Highland Park.  I ordered the “Healthy Plate.”  It consisted of scrambled egg whites, fruit, and wheat germ granola pancakes with sugar-free syrup.  It was delicious!  I left two of four pancakes on my plate and some of the egg whites.

Victory number two: today’s plan was to walk for twenty minutes.  Because Emi had some shopping to do at Target, I stood and walked for 35 minutes!  Mischief managed, dear readers!   Or done deal, Dudes!

Victory number three: while we were there I shopped for the ingredients for “Weight  Watchers Chili.”  So good!  Tomato juice, black beans, dark red kidney beans, green beans and pinto beans tonight.  I usually include lean ground beef or ground turkey, but Emi is a vegetarian, so tonight’s version will just be extra beanie.  🙂  And I usually add a can of bean sprouts, because it’s like having noodles in the chili, but they didn’t have bean sprouts at Target.  Plus I’ll sauté onion and garlic first and add spices: chili powder, oregano, basil, red pepper, black pepper.  I don’t add salt to the pot because of the salt in the tomato juice and some of the canned beans.  I did manage to find some low-sodium beans though.

So all in all another fabulous day in Lake Bluff.  A special shout out to Jake and Eliza who are running their first 5K tonight…in the dark…through a graveyard.  Sounds about like a 5K that Jake would run, hey?  Love it!

Meet you at the Kingdom!

 

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Respectable Rewards

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Day 55 in my pilgrimage to the Magic Land of Mickey

What a wonderful, joyous day, dear readers.  My daughter Emi is here, so we went in for a real pampering today.  Emi, my daughter-in-law Eliza, and my dear fried Joan: there we were, the four of us, like pumpkins on a fence, all lined up for manis and pedis this morning at Graphic Nails.  It was complete luxury and a delightful reward for the hard work of living a healthier life.  About 55 days ago, my rewards were filled with sugar.  Cupcakes, candy bars, ice creams, brownies, mochas, pumpkin spice lattes, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate…  And I used plural words because I ate and drank plural amounts of copious foods to satisfy a hunger that could NOT be satisfied by sugar.

No more.  Instead I’m going to be good to my body.  So today my plan was to trade in rotten rewards for some respectable rewards…and I did.  I enjoyed delightful conversation with some of my favorite people in the world while being massaged, scrubbed, clipped and painted.  It was bliss!  Then off to a very healthy lunch with Emi and Joan.  (Eliza had a previous lunch commitment with Grandpa Toser.  Hi to Tom!)  Wildberry.  Do you know it?  Delicious, organic ingredients in dishes that you can build yourself.  I had a veggie, omelet, rye toast and fruit.  Now I’m home feeling completely sated and pampered.  It was a respectable reward, and  I am so grateful for this day.

Love to you and yours, dear readers.  Blessings on you, too.  Meet you at the Kingdom!

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Prioritizing Celebrations

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Day 54 in my race to rendezvous with Mickey at the Magic Kingdom

Today is a very exciting day!  My daughter Emi is coming in for twelve days from Bristol, England.  She is married to a very wonderful Brit named James, so she lives there.  (Wish you were coming to visit too, James!)  I am jacked!!!  (Of course, I did also drink a cup of caffeinated coffee from MacDonald’s this morning.  That probably isn’t helping.)    🙂

I began this Disney quest, because I want to thoroughly enjoy our trip to Walt Disney World in October 2015 WITH Emi & James, Jake (our son) & Eliza, Mike (my husband) & me.  I want to be able to walk around and really relish the parks with my family this time.  What a celebration it will be to have the whole family together in such a fun place!

Today is also a day of celebration.  When Emi comes we always celebrate by going to The Silo for dinner.  It is our local watering hole, and they make the best pizza I’ve ever tasted.  So here’s today’s plan: I will drink Diet Coke or iced tea or water this evening, and I will order a salad for dinner.  The BIG celebration next October has to remain my main goal, so I will make healthy choices tonight and save the pizza for another day.  I can not eat pizza today.  I can do that for this one day.  (Thank you, Jesus!)  And who knows?  Maybe I’ll enjoy a slice in Florida.  🙂

Meet you at the Kingdom!

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Research Reading Round 2

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Day 53 in my Disney quest to meet Mickey at the Magic Kingdom

I am happy to report that I took my 20+ minute walk after work yesterday, and it did not bust me!  Hallelujah!  My honey Mike dropped me off at the end of the long stretch at Crab Tree Farm and I walked home.  Talk about incentive!  I knew that at the end of that walk I had a tall glass of cold water and my recliner waiting for me.  And sure enough they were there waiting when I arrived.

Today’s plan: I will continue my research in Birnbaum’s Disney World, The Official Guide and The Skinnytaste Cookbook.  I barely scratched the surface yesterday, so I will dive back in after work today.

And I will attempt to resurrect the remaining filling from our Leftover-Turkey Quesadillas that we had a couple night’s ago.  They were so good, and I don’t think it will be too hard to bring the filling back to life for round two.

Meet you at the Kingdom!

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Rampant Research Reading

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Day 52 in my moves toward meeting Mickey

Today’s plan is a no-brainer.  I received in the mail “Birnbaum’s 2015 Walt Disney World” The Official Guide.  Am I excited?  Oh, yeah!!!  I will look it over and begin to read it in earnest tonight.  Then I will begin to plot our parks schedule for 2015.

I also received “The Skinnytaste Cookbook” by Gina Homolka with Heather K. Jones, R.D.  In previous blogs I have mentioned the website skinnytaste.com.  I love the light recipes that I’ve found there, so I am pretty excited about the new cookbook.  I will also give this book the once over tonight to start getting some new ideas.

It’s a very chilly 55 degrees here today, so settling in with two good books sounds just about right for this evening.  First though, I am going to go for a walk when I get home, 20 minutes or bust…I might just bust.  🙂  No more fear!

Meet you at the Kingdom!

BTW: The quesadillas last night were outstanding!

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Working on Work Days

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Day 51 in my destiny to dance with Mickey

Today’s plan is all about the lifestyle:

  1. I will remain sugar-free.
  2. I will move more often at work.
  3. I will cook us a healthy, nutritious meal tonight.  (I think “left-over turkey” whole-wheat quesadillas with a salad)
  4. I will spend some quiet time reminding myself that I am precious in God’s sight, therefore, I have value as a human being.  (In other words, the work is worth it!  And if God loves me, then maybe I can love me, too, by taking care of myself.)
  5. I will visualize myself walking around the Magic Kingdom, as I take a little walk after work today.

This is pretty much the way my work days look now.  So different from just 50 days ago!  And so much better!

Thank you for reading, dear friends.  Meet you at the Kingdom!