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We had guests over again on Saturday, and it was terrific! One of the families rented from us several years ago. They are a darling little group, with stairstep children, all full of life and joy. We served an identical menu for this group as we did last week, including steaks from the grill and many other Hawaiian favorites that I did not eat. I am still holding strong and not tempted by all the other menu items we offer our guests. My weight is going down by the ounce, but each adds up to pounds, so I continue to feel good about my progress. This week we are planning activities for our daughter's visit. As I said last week, we are very anxious to show her around, and as we do, we get to revisit our favorite places on Oahu. In the meantime, we will spend our week getting ready to entertain. I have found some really great recipes that sustain me, helping keep me on track. My new favorites include rosemary chicken, turnip and green chili stew, pork asada, and no crust vegetable quiche. I have also invented a cream gravy similar to my mom's southern white gravy but thickened with egg instead of flour. It makes everything that needs a kick much better. I plan to make breakfasts, including bacon, eggs, turnip hash browns, and southern gravy. I will also make huevos rancheros with some red chili I ordered from Amazon that claimed to originate in Hatch, New Mexico. However, I will not repurchase this item, as it did not taste right. I know the flavor of Hatch red chili, and the one I bought at Amazon is definitely not Hatch. Two other additions to my diet are desserts and include keto brownies and ice cream bars. These favorite things are available at Costco, my best food supplier. I plan to make as many items as possible ahead of time so when our daughter visits, we can warm things up when we get home and eat out as little as possible. We will only go to a few of our favorite restaurants because eating out gets very expensive. We leave Hawaii a week after our daughter departs, so we will wrap things up here as best we can following her visit. Then we begin our Birch Bay adventure interrupted early on with a trip to Tortola, BVI. Aloha until next week.
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Our Hawaiian friends are coming over for a cookout, and we're serving several local favorites, including macaroni salad and baked beans, both absolutely not keto. However, I'm also serving slaw, veggie quiche, and grilled steak. These items are very satisfying, and I won't be tempted. In fact, I'll do fine, especially since I don't really like the sweet in baked beans and can always do without the macaroni salad that's a favorite of the Hawaiians. It is such a pleasure living here and enjoying our friends and family. We often entertain friends in our front yard, chatting away as Steve cooks our meats on the grill. Our son and his husband visit regularly, so we're usually hanging out with one group or another. What's more, our daughter plans to visit at the end of the month. We're excited to show her all the exciting things available on Oahu. We plan to take her to the Polynesian Cultural Center to see the show there. That's always an exciting thing to do, and we enjoy it every time we go. Of course, we'll go to the Dole Plantation, Diamond Head, the Bydo-In Temple, Manoa Falls, the Makapu'u Point Lighthouse, the Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden, Nuuanu Pali Lookout, and lots more. We intend to take a day trip to Kauai and visit Waimea, including the Canyon State Park and end our trip with Ahukini Recreational Pier if time permits. This, in our opinion, is the best part of the island. However, Lodging is terribly expensive, so we'll avoid that part. We've spent time in Princeville and, although beautiful, found the area somewhat contrived. It is filled with empty timeshare properties and hotels blocking ocean views. Even the roadways are privatized, so we will avoid that area and devote ourselves to Waimea. We might stop by Warehouse 3540 if we have time. It houses little shops where local dealers sell their items. We'll definitely stop at Ginas Anykine Grines Cafe for brunch on the way to the Canyon. Through it all, I'm managing my keto diet just fine. However, I had a radical lapse last night. I began obsessing about a box of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts that our neighbor gave us several weeks ago. Instead of tossing them at the time, we kept them on top of our shelf, and last night, overcome with desire, I opened them, and Steve and I ate them all! Wow! This is my first significant lapse since I began keto. I already forgave myself, and I'm right back on my regimen, which is never oppressive. My meals are delicious, and I do not feel at all deprived by this diet. I find new recipes and discoveries making keto more enticing every day. For example, I've invented a cream gravy that perfectly mimics my mother's southern cream gravy, and it's delicious! I continue to lose in increments, and I'm happily moving toward my goal weight daily, though very slowly. Nevertheless, I'm enjoying every part of every day and will continue to do so.
We're in Kauai this week with our sons and thoroughly enjoying our time here. The island is beautiful, and we are staying in a lovely place loaded with amenities. There's a pool, exercise room, and a fully equipped kitchen with everything we need. While waiting for our check-in time, we accidently stopped at a really great place to eat that is a little close to the airport, and it is wonderful! It's called the Good Times Sports Bar and Grill. This is a great place to eat. Moreover, there is a breakfast place we enjoyed called Daddy O's. I like eggs benedict because I can eat everything but the bread, and it's rich and yummy. While I realize that much of my blog posts focus on foods, it is because I am creating a keto way of life that does not feel deprived. After all, I intend to permanently continue this style of eating. It is helping me in many ways. Therefore, surrounding each day with enjoyable meals no matter where I find myself is very important. Steve and I spend our days walking and plan to visit several top-rated hiking trails. We've hiked a trail leading to a beach close to our Airbnb. It's called Wyllie's Beach Trail. The hike down to the beach was steep, making the hike up daunting for me. Steve and Jake found it easy, so it looks like I need to do some practicing climbing. It seems the stair stepper is my next best exercise plan. I shall also spend time doing more yoga. We planned to visit the Queen's Bath trail and were told its a fantastic experience. However, given the dangers of the area and the difficulty of the trail, we decided to miss this one. Another trail that we hiked called Nounou Kuamoo was a very good hike, and much easier for me. We spent one afternoon at Tunnels Beach, a very lovely space but dangerous for swimming due to riptides. Kauai is beautiful. We've really enjoyed staying in Princeville, but I must say that timeshare-type organizations appear to have taken over the housing. The roadways are private and also controlled by timeshare and other tourist-type corporations. Moreover, these groups also control access to the beaches and even block all possible views. It's very disheartening to see this beautiful island overtaken by corporations and remote from the beautiful native Hawaiian culture. So, while Kauai is beautiful, We prefer our Waianae life on the island of Oahu, warts and all. However, for now, we are really comfortable in our unit. It is lovely and peaceful but contrived like the other spaces on this side of the island. I'm delighted I came here, but I think this is my last visit to Kauai.
Last week, my weight began to drop again following a very long plateau. My initial mistake was failing to get measurements at the beginning of my keto diet because weight does not always tell the whole story. While people around me consistently said I looked thinner, the scale remained stagnant. So, while it's a little late to tell you, please take your measurements. I wish I had taken my measurements because the period of plateauing where I didn't lose any weight was almost 4 months long. That was profoundly discouraging. However, if I had taken my measurements, I might have realized that I was actually losing even though the scale was not reflecting that fact. I remember that friends and relatives commented that my midriff looked thinner, my behind smaller, and I appeared more toned. I was probably increasing muscle mass even though I was not losing weight, which makes good sense. Also, because muscle weighs more than fat, the scale is not trustworthy because it cannot differentiate between them. So, while I was probably losing weight, it was not verified. Even though it's a little late for me to tell you to measure yourself, you can start now. I've started measuring myself and documented my measurements, so if I fall into another plateau, maybe the inches will continue to go down, and I'll stay encouraged. However, even if I lose fifteen pounds every 6 months like I've done so far, I'll get to my goal weight in a year and a half. That's actually very exciting. However, I had to make several adjustments to my diet in the end. As I mentioned before, one of the significant adjustments was discontinuing the wine that I had each evening. I had two glasses of wine and just assumed that I had limited my carbs sufficiently to get by with those two servings. However, I wasn't counting my carbs precisely like I was supposed to be doing. Also, to achieve ketosis, you have to balance fat with carbs and everything else, and you're supposed to have a certain amount of fat each day. I wasn't cautious with all of that, but I shall be as I go forward. I'll continue measuring myself, weighing myself, and counting and tracking fats and carbs in every food I ingest. However, my point is don't be discouraged if you plateau. That's the moral of this blog session. If you start to plateau, hang in there because you'll probably be able to see improvement in inches. At this very moment, I'm on my daily walk and talking my blog into my phone as I navigate the pathways along Po'Kai Bay. I achieve half of my 10,000 steps each day along this beautiful bay, and it's a gorgeous walk. The waters change colors depending upon the skies, from hues of blue to greens with white-capped waves gentle enough for novice surfers to learn how to catch one and come all the way into the shore. It's beautiful to watch... a lovely sight to see, which brings me to my next piece of advice. I suggest to anyone visiting any of the Hawaiian islands that the west side of Oahu is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. The water views all the way to the horizon are absolutely stunning! I shall make a comparison everywhere I go and write about each place, but for now, Oahu's northwest side has my whole heart!
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September 2024
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