Cancun, Mexico Trip

I am finally getting around to posting some pictures of our trip to Mexico! Life just never slows down, except when you’re on vacation…which is probably why we enjoyed our trip so much!

We stayed at the Grand Oasis Cancun Resort. It was a great all-inclusive deal that I found through an online travel agency. One thing we learned during this trip is that all-inclusive is the way to go. It made the vacation so much more enjoyable and relaxing to be able to stay in one place the entire time. Everything we needed was available. Food, drink, snacks, beach chairs, and entertainment were free of charge. You just can’t beat that.

The little pond out front had these beautiful lilly pad flowers.

The hotel was very pretty inside and kept very clean. The staff was super friendly and helpful. No complaints about the hotel. Here are a few pics of our room.

I loved the art in this hotel—it was everywhere. This painting was in our room.

A unique feature of the hotel—the resident peacock!

The beach wasn’t the best I’ve ever seen—but it wasn’t a problem or anything. The hotel is just right next to the Marina and the beach itself was pretty short. No problems with not finding beach chairs or a spot in the shade if we wanted it though! I even had the best nap of my life on a beach chair in the shade, with the sea breeze and relaxing music playing in the background. It was heaven.

The Grand Oasis Palm had two beautiful pools. One benefit of staying at the Oasis Resorts chain is that you can visit any of the numerous resorts in Cancun for the day—everything all-inclusive except a room. We stayed put at the Grand Oasis Palm though since we weren’t there for too long.

They had numerous all-inclusive restaurants and we enjoyed them all! We got turned away from one because hubby had shorts on—so we never got to try that one, which was disappointing. But the food was fabulous. I couldn’t get enough fresh papaya, pineapple, and mango! And the flan—oh how I miss the flan!

This was our first trip to Mexico and our first time to visit another country while not on a cruise. It was a really great experience. We can’t wait to visit other parts of the world!

There were the most beautiful flowers there and I discovered my new favorite flower ever. Absolutely gorgeous. I saw these in numerous colors, but my favorite were the bright pink with the little white flowers in the center.

We took a quick walk in the jardin del arte. Saw some interesting things!

Here we are all tan. I miss that tan! We tried to use the timer to take a picture.

And on our last evening, we took a short stroll on the beach. Beautiful at sunset.

Looking forward to our next trip!

Weigh in day

I meant to post a lot more this week than I have! The week that was supposed to be low key turned out to be chaotic and busy. Next week? Maybe? I hope so!

I am not weighing every day anymore. I'm taking a big break from the scale and so I weigh once per week. This morning I weighed in and lost 2.1 lbs. in 6 days. I'm so happy for a loss. Onward and forward!

Returned Items

I am bringing this post to you a little later than usual, but since I took all of the photos—I decided to post instead of skip the day.

For breakfast, I ate an egg white omelet with cheese and turkey, light toast with peanut butter and banana, and skim milk.

While working, I had my usual coffee.

The thing about eating a bigger breakfast is that you save calories later by not needing a snack!

For lunch, I used leftovers and made parmesan chicken along with a spinach salad topped with tomatoes, feta, and light dressing.

I also had an apple with peanut butter.

By the afternoon, I was slightly hungry, so I ate a fresh peach. Mmmm I love peaches!

Hubby ended up getting home earlier than normal and soon after getting off of work my mom needed a ride in another town—so we headed out the door.

We ended up grabbing supper at Panchero’s. I ate a spinach, artichoke and chicken quesadilla and a few chips with queso. Not my best choice but I was so hungry!

We used the trip to get our father’s day present for my dad and to pick up a few things to install our new dishwasher.

Installing the dishwasher was a nightmare. Actually shopping for it was a little nightmarish too! The moment we walked into the appliance department we had three sales associates on us like vultures. They wouldn’t leave! Hubby and I would like to decide if we want to buy something without a third (or fourth, or fifth, or sixth!) party! I finally kind of shoed them away and said we’d let them know if we were interested—they were none to happy but backed away about 5 feet.

But we were able to save $200 on the dishwasher we wanted because it had been returned. The store said the customer returned it because “it didn’t fit in their cupboard space”. Hubby said he knew they were lying because all dishwashers are made to the same size, but after looking it over- everything looked ok, except for a few missing parts—which they assured they would take out of their storeroom and wrap up with the dishwasher.

Well, they didn’t. Not only that, after it was finally installed, we found that it didn’t work. I called the store and they were ridiculous telling me that I could hire a service guy to come out in two weeks. I said, absolutely not.

Thankfully, Hubby and I are both pretty handy. We took the latch system apart and figured out that was causing the issue and also discovered how it might happen again and how to very easily fix it. Not a big deal. But someone obviously returned it because they didn’t think it worked and the store turned around and sold it again. Frustrating! But it’s installed and Iguess that’s the risk you take buying a returned item. All seems to be good now and it should save us some $ by being more efficient and will use half the water of our old one—which had started rusting out inside.

Whew! Sorry for that long drawn out story! lol

By the time we finally figured that out, it was 10 p.m. and it was hot. We ate some light ice cream (no picture) and relaxed a bit before bed.

I ended my day with over a 600 calorie deficit again- I’ll take that for the kind of day I had.

Better day today!

A Food Picture Post

Hello everyone! This week should be fairly normal—finally! This will be my first week without the stress of a 2nd job and with being at home most of the week. I am looking forward to it. And in a few days, hubby will hopefully be home to stay! Things are looking up.

I started to get back on track on Saturday, but I wasn’t 100%—who starts a “diet” on a weekend anyways? I did good for the most part.

So today is my first official weekday on track, so I’m doing a picture post today. Yay for a little extra time in my day!

For breakfast, I ate oatmeal with fresh mango and a glass of skim milk.

While in Mexico, there were vendors that walked along the beach selling various items. There was one man that had a melodic tune as he walked the beach. He would say “Mango, mango, cocos, y que mas” over and over again. It was very catchy! Hubby and I can’t help but say it every time we eat anything with mango.

By the way, a Mexico trip post is coming soon!

While working, I sipped on coffee.

Mid-morning, I ate Greek pineapple yogurt—I think this is my favorite flavor. It’s SO good.

I also ate a KIND bar.

For lunch, I had baked chicken with a spinach salad topped with feta, cherry tomatoes, and a little bit of dressing.

I also ate an apple with peanut butter.

I was hungry on my last break, but resisted eating more yummy foods for broccoli instead. It wasn’t very good tasting—but it did the trick.

By the end of my work day, I was so hungry! I ate 2 leftover turkey brats on light bread along with kale chips.

I finished it up with FF chocolate pudding and a little Cool Whip.

Check out my new coat rack. There is a store here in town that is like walking into Pinterest. This was one of my finds there. I love it! it’s an old piano piece with old door knobs for hooks.

With my new found time, I hope to be able to accomplish more projects and catch up on things that I’ve fallen behind on. I made a list of a few things that I want to get done.

I still do the extra photography work here and there—so I had some work to finish up tonight. Shouldn’t have taken long but I had some computer problems which resulted in about 1/2 hr. extra!

After that, I headed outside for a walk. I planned on only walking, but .8 mile in I decided to run 1/2 mile. I accomplished a total of 2.2 miles in 40 minutes.

I was exhausted when I was done. I am looking forward to getting my fitness level back. I did it before and I can do it again!

And now it’s time to relax! As of this moment, I have a 606 calorie deficit for the day. Eventually, I want to get to a 1000 calorie deficit, but I’ll work my way there.