One week down...

So...one week into 12wbt and already I'm feeling and noticing changes.  

My sleep has improved GREATLY and I am now waking up feeling rested and relaxed, rather than always fighting the feeling of being exhausted. 

My waist circumference has dropped 3cm - probably water weight and from the reduction in calories, sugar and carbs, but I don't care cause any loss is a good loss. 

My water intake has increased dramatically, and I'm finding that I'm losing my taste for sweet drinks.  No more iced tea or cordials or even juices -- now, it's about mineral waters with a hint of lemon/lime and/or just plain water. It's so refreshing, where as before I was guzzling drink after drink and still being thirsty. 

My skin is getting much better. And by that, I mean, it's gotten really bad as all the impurities and crap and so on come out on the surface. But drinking so much water has helped with the softness of my skin, the elasticity of it, and I no longer look so tired (see also: improved sleep)

Lessons I've learnt so far:  

- Listen to my body. If I am thirsty and what I am drinking is not refreshing me -- it's clearly wrong for me. If I am hungry, eat. If I am no longer hungry, stop eating.  It's working for me, and I'm finding I'm less and less hungry as the days go by. 

- Exercise is really hard to do when you've been off the wagon for a while. It's hard to convince yourself to get out there and just do it when you really don't wanna. I've found myself incorporating exercise into my daily movements, but not yet setting aside dedicated time to exercise. This must change.

- Keeping track of every.single.thing you eat is hard. And confronting. And an eye-opener. Normally, I'd eat to console myself -- or celebrate a big achievement -- or just cause I wanted something. Now, I'm finding that by being accountable, I'm less inclined to eat bad things cause quite frankly...seeing that calorie count at the end of the day is frightening on a bad day, and really, really rewarding on a good day. 

- Eating well is more expensive than eating crap food. Carbs are cheap. Supermarkets have sales and discounts and deals and specials on dodgy, processed, low-nutrient, high-sugar and high-fat foods. Eating good, healthy, whole, natural foods is expensive. 

- I am a glorious freaking sunset

2014 - Time to get healthy

This blog was started as a way of chronicling my journey and travels, but something amazing just happened and it's part of a larger journey I am on towards health, so I have to blog about it. 

I was just signed up for Round 1, 2014 in Michelle Bridge's 12 Week Body Transformation (12wbt). I have been through significant health crises in the last few years, from gallbladder infection and removal, to appendix infection and removal, to post surgery complications, to totally blowing out my knee and tearing multiple ligaments, dislocating my kneecap and tearing the meniscus.  I've spent a lot of time laid up, in pain, off work, and eating my feelings.  

And lord knows, I had a LOT of feelings to eat my way through. Despondency, happiness, elation, pain, grumpiness, tiredness, boredom, anger -- you name it, I stuffed it down with food. 

A few friends have had huge success with the 12wbt, so I was looking at signing up, but as I'm not working right now, and it's a wee bit out of my budget as we're on a single income, I was hesitant to spend the money. 

So a good friend purchased round 1, 2014 for me for Christmas.  I was stunned, and astounded, and amazed. And hopeful. But also a wee bit terrified. It was real. I was accountable. I had to rock it.  

In the hour since I became a 12wbt'er, I have signed in, set up my profile, and started the first of my warm up challenges (Round 1 starts Feb 2nd, 2014.  Pre-season commences 31st December).  

Warm up challenge #1: Set yourself one small goal

My goal: No more soft drink.

Warm up challenge #2: Write down everything you eat and drink for 7 days

Eek. This one I imagine will be confronting. And challenging. And confronting. Must not eat feelings over confronting nature of this! 

Warm up challenge #3: Cook a recipe using fresh ingredients -- this is to get used to creating fresh, healthy, portion controlled meals. This will be fun. 

So... off to get started on my food diary :) 

Wish me luck 

xx Alicia 

So, we're getting on a boat. A big one. 

(I think they prefer to be called ships, but whatever). 

I hate boats. Of all sizes and shapes... ok, I don't really hate them, they haven't done anything to me, ever, I just really, really dislike the idea of being in/on one. 

I have always hated being above water. Jetties, fun rides at amusement parks suspended above water, ships, dinghys, canoes, kayaks... all for me are torture devices that come with an imminent threat of death (most likely either via drowning, being dragged down to the deep blue by a Kraken, or eaten by a crocodile -- sure, the last 2 are less likely, but I don't have the best luck...)

So the idea of getting on a boat (ahem, ship) and sailing around the wide open ocean for 7 full freaking nights was blasphemy. Not happening, no how, no sirree. I mean, who would want to do something that has like, a 99% chance of killing them dead? And voluntarily?? Hells no! 

But then I decided to grow up, stop being a baby and put on my big girl pants, so ... we're going on a boat! 

Oh, and we're going during hurricane season.  Planned that well, didn't I? 

Disney Fantasy -- our home for 7 fun filled nights:

In making this big cruise decision, I based it on stuff I thought was important at the time (your mileage may vary) such as: 

Price 

Is this cruise cheaper than organising travel & flights to similar places & accommodation & transport & tickets to get into places myself? Is it cheaper than staying somewhere else and doing something different? Will it save me eleventy bajillion dollars? 

Destination 

Is it going somewhere cool that I didn't know even existed before... but now that I know it's there, I can't NOT go and see it?  -- Example: the cruise I picked includes a trip to a location featuring Mayan pyramids.  Not ruins. An actual, still standing to this day, pyramid. A pyramid they were going to let sweaty tourists (like moi) climb on it and take pictures of it...oh, and we have to trek through Mexican jungle to get there ... SOLD!

But there were other cruise companies that were going to the same/similar places with similar experiences. So why did I choose this one? Convenience, amenities & services and ethos. 

Disney's private island -- Castaway Cay:

Amenities & Services 

It's my vacation. I want it to be awesome. That means the things I do and the places I stay have to also be awesome. Which means this cruise had to be awesome, and that means things like comfort, convenience, a huge range of activities that I find interesting, simplicity when it comes to doing things, entertainment I find enjoyable, and overall -- just how much magic and fun does it look like I will experience? 

Am I going to get left behind in port? Am I going to get drunken yobbos banging on my door at night? Am I going to have to fight some tourist from Tulsa for the last crab leg at the buffet, or have to sit in the kitchen because the dining room was full -- these are the types of questions I ask myself (read: make assumptions about, then carefully research) when making these decisions. 

Also, amenities like common areas, public seating, restaurants -- do they promote relaxation, conversation, just plain old hanging around doing nothing etc or are they so uber-trendy that they end up being awkward and unusable?

On board characters -- making the magic happen: 

Convenience 

If you don't advertise your costs in a clear & upfront manner, then you're flat out of luck getting my money.  

If you make it so that I have to download a form, print it out, fill it in & then fax it back to you each time I want to ask a question, or heaven forbid, pay for something, then buh-bye, stop wasting my time. 

If you make your website clear to understand, intuitive to use AND you advertise your prices upfront, clearly, and in a way that I can fully break down and compare to other quotes I might have been able to scrounge up from other cruise lines, then ... you may proceed to the comparison chart stage! 

(yes, it's true, I do comparison charts, cost/benefit analyses and pro/con lists. I believe I mentioned I'm an OCD planner, no?)

Pirate deck party -- fun and games, kiddies:

Ethos

Totally subjective.  It is what it is.  Like porn, I know it when I see it (or in this case, feel it).  How does a company make me feel? 

If they have spelling mistakes and poor grammar on their website, I'm probably gonna give it a miss. If you can't invest the time to spell correctly in your advertising material, you'll probably screw something up with my booking, and that's a nightmare I can live without. 

If I've heard stories of people getting huge bills for a bunch of 'turns out it's not included even though our website says it was' at the end of the cruise, then nope, I don't need that hassle either. 

If you've had some recent issues like food poisoning or MRSA or ... you know... you ran aground and dumped your passengers into the middle of the ocean, then yeah no... I think I'll avoid you like the plague. 

For me, it also comes down to decoration - I might be willing to pay steerage prices, but it would be totes awesome if my room decor wasn't a modern homage to a 1950's Holiday Inn hotel, or worse, a playful contemporary take on a vintage prison cell. 

If it comes down to it, I will totally pay more per night and add $$$ to the final bill if it means I get to cruise on a ship that does modern or stylish decor even in their rooms below the water line :)

Another totally objective (kidding!) factor for me is the demographic of my fellow cruisers... would I prefer to be on a boat full of young families with kids or singles looking to party or retirees with a fondness for unfiltered cigarettes from Turkey? 

All of these factors go into a big fat blender and then ... presto, magicko ... a decision is made.

Blender: (dramatised re-enactment for your viewing pleasure)

And usually, my decision making blender spits out a decision that matches the decision I have already made in my heart... But if not... I either go back to my drawing board, or adjust my expectations, or dates, or budget until I have an answer I can live with. 

So for those considering a cruise, or considering how to go about deciding whether a cruise is for you... this is how it worked for me :) 

In my case, I went with Disney Cruise Lines. 

p.s.  Only 19 more sleeps til we depart on our vacation!

So this trip, this amazing trip that I am about to embark on with my fellow travelers has been a long time coming. 

The first trip was planned for 2012 and was going to be amazing. Jaw dropping. Epic. And then it got cancelled. I got really sick and landed in the hospital. 

But a good travel fanatic and OCD planner can't be kept down, and I furiously got through a rough case of cancelled-plans-itis with the cure that was prescribed to me by so many of my other travel fanatic friends -- plan a new trip!!

So this amazing, fantastical, magical, awesome trip came into being. It's been a rough road, and required another hospitalisation along the way, but now we are here... the final countdown.  Our three intrepid travellers (myself, my man Carlo and my sister Katrina) have all had our share of ups and downs this year, and this trip has been the light at the end of the tunnel... 

So, we have just 18 more days to get our respective posterior's in gear, to get everything packed and ready, for me to get all my checklists checked, all my final preparations prepped... and then we are off! 

Our final itinerary looks like this: 

October 18th - fly Brisbane to Los Angeles, head down to Anaheim and stay across the street from Disneyland. Explore the local area, celebrate Carlo's birthday at Disneyland Resort, and attend Mickey's Halloween Party on the 21st. 

October 24th - fly Los Angeles to Orlando, head over to Walt Disney World and spend some time there at their new resort Art of Animation, catch the Not So Scary Halloween Party on the 25th and hopefully spend some time in all four of the theme parks. 

October 26th - board the Disney Fantasy for a 7 night Western Caribbean cruise departing from Port Canaveral (so sad we won't have time to stop in at NASA). We have 2 sea days, a stop in Grand Cayman (Cayman Islands) where we will be taking a tour around the island including a stop at a turtle farm, a stop in Costa Maya (Mexico) where we will be going to Chacchoben to visit some Mayan ruins, a stop in Cozumel (Mexico) where we will be just meandering through the local port & town square to shop then spending more time on board to catch up with some of the offered activities, and finally, a stop at Castaway Cay (island in the Azores, Bahamas) which is Disney's private island in the area, and we will have a total relaxation day at the beach. While on board, we will be celebrating Halloween, so we are looking forward to seeing what exciting plans Disney has scheduled on board.

November 2nd - debark the Disney Fantasy in Port Canaveral and head up to Universal Orlando to spend some time at Royal Pacific Resort and the Islands of Adventure theme park, including Wizarding World of Harry Potter (cause we are giant nerds and couldn't be in Orlando and not go there!). Also, I have been craving one of their frozen Butterbeer drinks ever since our 2011 trip :) 

Update:  my sister just called me and she just met at her work here in Brisvegas, Australia, the executive pastry chef who is shortly flying back to the USA for his next rotation on board the Disney Fantasy!  So excited as he told her to look him up while we are on board --- I see glorious pastries in our future :) 

So... that's the plan, pumpkins! Wish me luck with the final preparations...so much still to organise... deep breaths! :)