On Thursday, we attended the worst ever Thanksgiving dinner! The turkey was extremely dry. The gravy was canned, and the green beans were covered with ordinary mushroom soup and topped with onion crisps.  The desserts were similar to those at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet.  We expected a lovely buffet meal because it was at an upscale resort called Semiahmoo and was very expensive.  Instead, it was set up like a school cafeteria lunch, but the food was less appetizing.  It was okay for me because I'm sticking to my keto diet, but what a disappointment to others, especially given the price.  We purchased tickets in advance but would not have had we seen the food and layout ahead of time.  None of the menu items tempted me.  I chose the only palatable items available, and both were salads. We won't do that again if we are in Birch Bay over another Thanksgiving.  We are heading out to Hawaii on Tuesday early in the morning. Both of us are looking forward to getting there. I'm anxious to enjoy the beautiful days and evenings hanging out on the Lanai of our little mango shack. I'm still losing weight consistently. As I said last week, I'm not doing anything differently. However, with the hormone support, my workouts and keto diet are making a difference. Of course, we'll shift from our workout place in Canada to 24-hour fitness in Kapolei. It's an excellent facility, but I much prefer the facility in Canada. Still, I'm not complaining. We're blessed to have places available. I treated myself to a facial on Friday, and it was great! I went to a Lady in White Rock, BC, who was recommended by a young woman I met at my Zumba class.  She and her husband joined Steve and me for lunch after our workout at an excellent Vietnamese restaurant they frequent.  This is a season for meeting new people.  We met a lovely couple at the terrible Thanksgiving meal. They regularly travel to Oahu, so we plan to get together the next time they visit. They got our contact information.  Also, we've made arrangements to attend the Nutcracker Ballet in Honolulu.  Of course, we'll have several graduation activities to attend to celebrate our Jake. In the meantime, I'm continuing with keto, my regular exercising, and continue having success losing weight!  

​     This past week, we went out to lunch two times.  On Wednesday, we had dim sum, and on Friday, the Indian food we have every week. I enjoyed both meals because both places offer menu items I can eat without negatively impacting my keto diet. Regarding my diet, I'm continuing to lose weight every single day. At this rate, I will be able to meet my goal by spring. I'm still working out every single day. I'm completing deadweight lifts on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.  On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I'm doing free weights. I'm also continuing to do squats and leg presses on alternate days. I do Zumba every morning, and in the afternoon, I do high-intensity interval training to complete my daily cardio goal, which meets or exceeds 40 to 50 minutes. With the hormone support, my hard work and commitment to my diet are finally paying off.   Steve and I had some lovely steaks last week. I'm trying to have as much protein as possible because my doctor encouraged that. She wants to ensure I don't lose muscle during this weight loss. I'm trying to use less red meat, but these steaks are delicious. I've also made some scrumptious chicken fajitas. We're using the green tomato salsa with these, and it's yummy! The green chili asada also turned out well, and we've had it several times with an egg on top. Amazingly, I can continue to lose eating these foods, but that's how keto works. It is the perfect diet, and it's been so easy for me to stick to it, especially now that there are keto-friendly wraps I can buy.  Lately, we've been counting down the days before we head out to Hawaii.  We're very anxious to get there.  Steve and I are spoiled by the beautiful weather in Birch Bay in the summer but can do without the rainy gloom in the fall and winter.  Hawaii is perfect this time of year, but it gets too hot for me by summer.  We're so lucky we can enjoy the best of both worlds.

     ​I've had an excellent week for weight loss! The scale continues to go down, down, down, so I feel secure leaving my doctor to go to Hawaii. She prescribed all the refills I need of semaglutide so I won't be worrying about continuing to lose weight.  My weight loss is such a blessing after spending so much time on a plateau. My appetite remains the same as before, and I'm continuing to ingest about the same number of calories daily, so it's working differently for me than others, according to what I'm reading. I'm continuing the same workout patterns and the same eating patterns.  The only change I've made is adding the semaglutide. Apparently, others who begin using semaglutide think that their weight loss is due to a loss of appetite.  In fact, many say that they have lost their usual cravings. They also feel full more rapidly. The keto diet has that same effect on me, so the only change I can attribute this to is how my brain is instructing my body and how my body is responding to the triggers causing my body to burn fat. I'm beginning to research this to see exactly how that might occur. In the meantime, we've been communicating with our son Jacob.  He is at the tail end of completing his master's degree. That means he's almost finished with his thesis, so I am helping with his editing. I don't mind doing that at all. However, I can only help him with punctuation and grammar because his paper is about electrochemistry and is very technical. That is definitely not my field. This weekend, we brought a couple from Birch Bay to our workout place in Canada. They were thrilled to be here and very happy that we brought them along and showed them how convenient and easy it is to use our facility. Thank God for Canada and its beautiful facilities! It's been fantastic for us, and I'm sure it will be for our Birch Bay neighbors. After our workout, they introduced us to their favorite Vietnamese restaurant.  Steve enjoyed his Pho, which he has really missed.  I am much less interested in Vietnamese food than he is, but I had a relatively good soup filled with meats.  It turned out well, and the prices were low.  Add to that the currency rate, and we made out very well.  So, in two and a half weeks, we head back to Hawaii. By then, Jake will have finished his thesis, and we're looking forward to doing our routine in Waianae, including going to the marina every day so that we can fish with his buddies. I hope they're all still there. They live in such shaky circumstances.  Ung!  Steve and I are very grateful that we live a blessed life.

​     We had a good weekend with Steve's brother Ken, and his wife. They brought an entire Thanksgiving meal along with them so that we could celebrate early together since everyone's going their separate ways later on this month. On Saturday, Ken and Steve went fishing in British Columbia on the Vedder River. They said they saw the salmon jumping, and some were swimming along the shore, but they weren't biting. The one salmon they did catch had already spawned, and they decided not to keep it. However, they said it was beautiful, and they enjoyed the time they spent together very much. In the meantime, I continue to lose weight, and I feel terrific about it. I'm consistently losing the expected number of pounds, which is the average loss per month when being supported by similitude. This is a huge relief because I felt discouraged being on a plateau for so long and then losing so slowly. I feel lighter and much more comfortable already.  Even though the Thanksgiving dinner that our company brought was filled with carbs, I was not tempted by any of it. I stayed within my carb and caloric allotment for the day, so I'm feeling pretty proud of myself.  I'll continue with the similitude when we leave for Hawaii in a few weeks.  We're both really looking forward to that because it is such a comfortable and beautiful space. We will enjoy visiting with Jacob, too!  He will receive his master's in material science in mid-December and will participate in the graduation ceremony at UH Manoa. We're very proud of him and hope he is able to continue with his dream of getting a Ph.D.  We'll see!