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Just to remind those of you who don't remember (and I am not expecting you to!)...
Before vacation I weighed about 142.4 pounds. Today I weighed in at (drum roll please)...145.4 pounds. That means I put on 3 pounds while on vacation.
I really expected it to be a lot worse. Ireland grocery stores leave a lot to be desired and so I ate a lot of pasta and potatoes. And we ate at McDonald's 4 times during the two weeks.
I would love to be in the 130's for Florida. Even if it is 139.9 - ha!
We have 42 days before our Florida vacation and so I need to lose about 5.5 pounds in 6 weeks. That is just one pound a week.
What am I going to do to lose a pound a week?
I am going to stick to the 30-day Isagenix plan and add walking into the mix. My knee is feeling much better and I am able to walk 2.5 miles in about 45 minutes.
Today I had my morning shake, some blueberries for a snack and a piece of grilled ham for lunch. I am on my way! I am going to post updates every week on Friday so I can stay accountable.
Want more information on Isagenix? Click here: LINK.
The hubby & I are back in the good ole USA. It is gorgeous here in PA - about 90 degrees and sunny.
We weren't supposed to come back until July 4 but my father-in-law was back in the hospital. He needed a pacemaker and was in the critical care unit for awhile. We changed our plans and came back late last night.
I am not sure why but I am always amazed by how God works out the details of our lives. For us to get back to PA early, we needed to change our flight. The cost was staggering but God had allowed us to receive a credit voucher for being bumped on our flight to Ireland. We were able to use that credit voucher to cover a large portion of the tickets.
The doctor kept his father in the hospital until we could get back home. We went to the hospital this morning and he was discharged into our care. The hubby will be living with his dad (again) for awhile. Please keep our family in your prayers.
I will be back to ebay on July 1 and am looking forward to thrifting. They did have thrift stores (which the Irish call 'charity shops') in Ireland but I didn't recognize a single brand name. Ha!
Here are a few more of our Ireland photos. Our last few days in Ireland were full of sunshine. We were able to visit almost everything we had wanted before we came home.
At Glendalough:
At the Avoca Mill, where they still do hand weaving:
A random castle we found along one of our drives:
My husband befriended a few local horses close to the house we were staying in:
Our Home Exchange house & car:
Tomorrow I will be posting my post-vacation weight. I ate a ton of McDonald's, pasta and potatoes. We will see how much I have to lose to reach my new goal weight.
The hubby & I are sitting in a McDonald's in Ireland and we have free wi-fi (something unheard of here in Ireland). The weather been beautiful for the last few days. I will post more photos when we get home.
Well, we are finished with our first week in Ireland. We are here for a total of 3 weeks which was probably too long honestly. I would suggest a 2-week vacation for anyone wanting to see Ireland. Tonight is our last night in a hotel before we go back to the house we have through HomeExchange.com and will be the last post for awhile.
Here are our thoughts so far on Ireland: It is cold and wet. I never really thought about it but Ireland is so green from all of the rain. We have been here 7 days and it has rained each and every day. It seems like it can go for about an hour without raining and then . . . it rains again. Thank goodness we have good jackets and an extra pair of sneakers.
Tuesday and Wednesday we stayed in western Ireland. Our hotel was a short drive from an old cemetery and a quaint beach.
We took a boat tour of the cliffs and then walked around the smallest of the three Aran
Islands - Inisheer. The island has been my favorite part so far.
Castles are wonderful but they all kind of look alike after awhile
(sorry Ireland!).
On Inisheer Island:
The gorgeous beach on Inisheer.
O'Brien Castle at the top of Inisheer Island:
Clearly those Medieval people were much smaller than my 6'6" hubby.
The island was covered with these stones. The farmers gathered them and made walls. The entire island is covered with the stone walls. Amazing!
My hubby pretending to fly (I'm not sure why). You can see the stone walls in the background.
A shipwreck on Inisheer Island:
The Cliffs of Moher have 1000 foot drops from the top and there are no guard rails. Very scary!
We are now in a hotel just outside of Cork, Ireland and we will hopefully (if it doesn't rain tomorrow) go to some of the southern beaches and castles.
Today we are went to a few fun places in Northern Island (UK). The Giant's Causeway is "THE" place to visit if you come to this area and it is amazing. God is amazing!
It is made up of about 40,000 interlocking columns which are a result of a volcanic eruption. Most of the columns are hexagonal and the tallest is 40 feet high.
Today was our only day to see these amazing columns and it was raining. We stuck it out and it did finally clear up a bit. Ireland has a lot of rain.
On our way back from the Giant's Causeway we stopped at a few castles.
This one is named Dunseverick and it is from 500 AD! It is mostly in ruins (since it mostly slid into the sea) but a few of the walls still stand.
This next castle was in amazing shape. It is called Dunluce Castle and it was built in the 13th century.
This was a posed shot. We did not go beyond the fence.
Next we stopped at the Carrack-A-Rede Rope Bridge. The bridge is put up every spring by fisherman to get across to the island of Carrickarede. It is 66 feet long and is 98 feet over the sea. I didn't look down. At all.
Isn't the water gorgeous? It is a tropical blue-green color in spots. I wish it was about 30 degrees warmer so we could swim!
On the way back to the hotel, we picked up a few groceries.
We tried yesterday but it was closed when we got there (after 6pm). The concierge at the front desk said it was open 24 hours a day.
The large sign on the side of the building gave us a chuckle.
Tomorrow we head down the west coast to our next stop in Galway. More photos later this week.
Well...the hubby & I made it to Ireland safely. We had a great flight over. We actually volunteered to be bumped off of the over crowded flight from Canada to Dublin and we went from Canada to Germany to Dublin IN FIRST CLASS! It was awesome. Our seats folded down into a bed and the meals were awesome. Shrimp, a gorgeous salad, beef tips in wine sauce, roasted potatoes....and then I fell asleep. My hubby stayed awake to eat the cake.
Here is the only proof we have that we were in Germany - ha!
We found a 4 bedroom home through HomeExchange.com and the couple who owned it picked us up at the airport. They were very nice. They dropped us off at their home (it is their second home) and then explained how to use everything. They had a second car at the house for us to use for the three weeks we are in Ireland.
The first night we went to McDonald's and had their Irish beef hamburger (it actually tasted better than the US version) and then went to a 24/7 grocery store to stock up on basics.
After a great night of sleep, we unpacked and organized yesterday. Then we drove around the small town. Here are a few photos which have the Irish Sea in the background. Pardon the lack of make-up.
Today we drove up to Northern Ireland which is actually part of the UK. We are staying at a hotel for two nights and will be seeing the "sights" up here. Thankfully the hotel has Wi-Fi. I was dying without it. I'll be posting more photos as the trip progresses.
