Post Wedding and Summer Ahead

I'm back from my wedding and honeymoon! Everything turned out perfect! You know I like to tell my stories with photos, so I'll save the details until I get my wedding photos back.

While on wedding/honeymoon, I gained about 8 lbs. The strange thing is, according to my bodyfat counter, my bodyfat has stayed relatively the same. Did I gain muscle while on vacation? Even with all inclusive food and drink? It is possible! My husband and I aren't lounging on the beach types. We like to walk on the beaches, around town, snorkel, swim, and dive. We're action oriented vacationers. I was doing some activity pretty much every day.

It was pretty easy to stick with my low carb diet at the all-inclusive resorts where we stayed. I loaded up proteins and veggies, and indulged in occasional french toast for breakfast in the morning. Because of the heat where we were, my main drink was water. Wine and beer were my main alcoholic choices, with an occasional pina colada or daquiri, but I didn't down them one after another. Fruity drinks were like a dessert, and I had only one per day.

Before the wedding, my best friend said she wanted to lose some weight (didn't we all!). I told her to try cutting back on breads, pasta, rice, and sugar. Just load up on protein and veg. We're both half asian, so asking her to give up rice for a little while was scandalous. But she gave it a try. A week before the wedding, she told me my advice worked - she lost 20 lbs! She looked fabulous!

In the final stretch before the wedding, I was running low on time juggling my college class and wedding plans. Costco had a special on Nutrisystem, and I thought it might save me some time if I had prepared meals handy. This was a bad idea. Yes, I lost some weight, but I think I could have done better with my own meals. And they tasted awful. I'm still eating them for the next few weeks because I paid for it, and I have some left. But I will not be doing this again.

Now that I'm back home, I've just been working on getting the apartment back in running order. First priority was the kitchen, cleaning it from top to bottom. I've been watching too many episodes of "Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares" and "Restaurant Impossible", that I'm having nightmares about kitchen cleanliness. I may have to stop watching those shows because I may never eat out at restaurants ever again! It's almost to the point that if I can't see the restaurant kitchen, then I won't eat there!

I've bought some plants from the garden centers, and am rebuilding my balcony garden. I grew some balcony vegetables and herbs last year, if you remember, and it worked out pretty well. Until I went on vacation then all my plants died. Except this year I've already gone on vacation, so hopefully my plants will live! I'm growing cherry tomatoes, basil, rosemary, cilantro, chives, and lettuce in containers.

We honeymooned in Aruba, and the flowering cactus inspired me. I have a concept to recreate a small container cactus garden to remind me of our time there. Obviously I can't use the actual plants, but I bought cactus from the garden centers that looked similar.

Still hunting for work, but my other project is to get programming mobile device applications, and possibly some freelance work. I may start investing more in my cooking blog, too, and tie one of my iPhone apps along with it.

Shouldn't be getting bored over the summer, there's plenty for me to do!