SoloAlaska

Izena good luck tomorrow hopefully no more bad news. Jan congrats on your lost this week. I've lost 6lb this week. Most of that was water weight from my trip to Texas. I was hoping to be at my goal weight before my big family cruise but now my two cousins are trying to get pregnant which means we need to move the cruise from March 2025 to February or March 2024. So no way I’ll reach my goal by then but I won’t be too far if I keep up a good rate of weight loss. I’m 1/3 done and should be reaching 2/3 if we cruise in March. It’s going to be insane though here over the next several months because of my work schedule while trying to fit in work trips and vacations. I’ll have to make some big batches of soup and freeze to make sure I have good food while working long hours.

2 yetis of water first is amazing as a technique. I’ve never had soda in my life but I do enjoy a good scotch. No reason you can’t put some pasta in your soup. I try to keep mine whole grain and just moderation when I add pasta. Oh I also love adding a bean mix to my soup. Sometimes I’ll do the math of what I put in my soup and just keep healthy macros in mind. I try to stay around 40% carbs, 30% protein , 30% fat. So if you play around with low carb veggies go ahead and add that pasta or potatoes to your soup. I don’t have private insurance and when I did it didn’t cover the meds but I’m in Canada so out of pocket the meds cost me 2800 Canadian a year which is about 2100$ USD. When I started on the meds I had about 100lb to loose. It’s not something I would recommend to anyone only looking for a little weight loss and it’s not a magic pill, you still have to do the work.

Honestly it took me a prescription to finally make a dent in my weight loss. I was a classic yo-yo we’re I would loose 10-15 pounds and then put it all back on and more. I’m at almost 35 pounds lost in just over 4 months. I couldn’t do that if I didn’t have all the knowledge from before plus the support of the meds. Everyone’s body is different so do what works for you and feel no judgement if you need that extra help. Have you tried an alternative to diet soda? I know it’s a hard one to break the habit but the side drinkers I know that gave it up found it much easier to loose weight after. You don’t need to eat salad to loose weight. The benefit to salad is it fills your stomach. My favorite “fill me up” food is a home made soup using home made bone stock, lots of protein, lots of veggies, good seasoning, and a small amount of whole grains. It’s easy to make each batch unique by switching the protein (I usually use chicken or pork) and switching what type of veggies you use. I try to avoid veggies high on the glycemic index except in moderation. Freezing portions is something that really helps me save on cooking time and I always try to have some at hand so I can have it when I get home instead of picking up fast food on the way etc. Being healthy is so much more than our weight. Being active, toning our muscles, and having good mental health is all so important, it’s great that you already have been so consistent on going to the gym.

I’ve only cruised so far with unlimited wifi so I can’t say with any certainty. I’ve read conflicting information online. The only person I’ve cruised with so far uses Samsung when I’m IPhone but we always use WhatsApp while travelling. If I’m in Europe I just get a local SIM card for a month and everyone knows to just message me on WhatsApp instead of texting. It’s so much cheaper than paying the daily fee through my provider and I use my phone mostly in port wether to send photos, post on social, find directions, use google translate etc. At sea I will have to see how it works with limited internet in a few weeks. There’s 6 sea days on my cruise but I will try to mostly disconnect and relax.

I’ve lost some of my boobs and tops are fitting better too as I’ve lost weight. Other benefit was once I lost 30lb I noticed lumps on my breast, thankfully non cancerous and no worry but had it not been for loosing the weight I wouldn’t have noticed.

Welcome Erby. This is an awesome little group full of support and understanding. Being a picky eater who likes variety must be really difficult when trying to make changes.

Looking forward to seeing how it’s done with NCL. So far with Celebrity I’ve never had to wait in line a line of more than a handful of people. Basically just walked from one station to the next to get through check in, security, etc. One cruise the ship was full but we boarded later due to an excursion and the other was September 2022 and I boarded at prime time. In 27 days I’m cruising out of Civitavechia and should be at the terminal by 1pm. The ship isn’t full and it’s attracting a lot of solo and experienced cruisers so I don’t expect boarding to be bad.

The rule claims to be to avoid fire hazards. That’s not something they change for charters. If they’re allowing on charters then obviously it isn’t a significant enough risk to justify the rule.

You can if you use something like WhatsApp. It’s what we use when we travel or want something more secure. All my friends and family use it plus a lot of my business contacts especially overseas.

First thing read the prohibited items list. Walkie-talkies are a big NO. Why are there no cell phones? https://www.ncl.com/ca/en/prohibited-items

Price is pp/pd and usually as a solo we pay double for things. Not a great deal but at least we aren’t charged more.

The fish are disappearing. All the new corridor carpets are sans fish.

For once something that is cheaper when cruising solo.

Haha no but I have been there and to every other quilt shop along the way of my two Alaskan cruises. The magnet is from a company called Legit Quilts and they make the COOLEST quilt patterns that are very non traditional. The pattern I’m working on now is a skull with over 100 colours but I’m trying to convince a friend to do their F18 fighter jet pattern for her husband who use to fly them.

One of the reasons I like Vancouver is because it overlooks the container yard. I have shipments come through that port so I like seeing where my long awaited orders come through before boarding a train and crossing the country.

Izena congrats on increasing your distance. Having your own business has to have some perks. Long term one of my dreams is actually to teach on craft cruises and get paid to actually cruise.

I’m sailing on Gem for a TA soon which is a similar itinerary and it’s ~357USD to upgrade to unlimited premium.

Departing Civitavechia with stops in Livorno, Provence, Barcelona, Seville, Lisbon, ponte delgada, and Bermuda and finishing in Manhattan. It’s my first NCL cruise and I’d only be paying the gratuity but still that’s almost 2 drinks a day. I don’t drink wine at diner and when I travel solo I make sure I don’t get more than tipsy ever. Plus it’s a work trip where I need to spend my days writing and crafting and photographing and while in port researching and getting inspired. I figure there will be a couple days with 3-4 drinks but some days with none and the other days will be one drink.

Either way adding a ghost is easy and my friend thinks it’s really funny she’s “coming” on my family vacation. If she has vacation time and no one else is coming she’s more than welcome to join us though.

It was much cheaper for us to book 2 rooms than to get a room for 3 adults on a 2025 cruise. So we booked a balcony for 2 adults and an interior for 1 and a ghost booking. This way if another wants to join us we have the rate locked in but if there isn’t we can cancel that ghost and save a few hundred dollars. Our RCI cruise is charging 200% for solos so the saving is just the taxes and port fees etc. Our TA just told us to make sure to update the name 3 months before our cruise date.

I’ve done Seward and love how small the terminal is. The transfer for me was part of the adventure wether by train or the long bus transfer. In a few weeks I’m doing a cruise from Civitavechia to NYC (NCL) but am taking the train again to get to the port. Thankfully I travel fairly light and love the train.

Well it didn’t take long I watched what I ate and drank since Thursday and am back to my pre travel weight. only 26 days till I leave for my first transatlantic cruise. I was going to add the drink package which wouldn’t be much but it would encourage me to drink more which wouldn’t be great for my weight loss.

Two older ladies ended up in a fist fight at a quilting wholesale show last week. People keep surprising me.

Ya Soak is my favorite. It’s developed for delicates and knitwear. I usually fill the sink before I hop in the shower and put my clothes in. Once I get out of the shower I squeeze (don’t wring) my clothes out then lay it on a dry towel and roll it up before stepping on it to get as much liquid out as possible. Hang to dry on the clothes line in the shower and it’s dry before I get in the shower then next time usually. I don’t wash everything by hand like this but with smart packing I can wash some items during the trip and get through a 2.5 week trip without sending anything out. The most important part is to ask your steward for extra towels. On the days I wash my hair and laundry I go through 4 towels.

I use a laundry powder which only uses one tablespoon per load. Off course I save a bundle by buying it at Costco which lasts me upwards of 5 years though. Not much storage savings but my skin doesn’t react to it and I love it. For travel I have “pods” from the same brand ill carry one or two in case I need to do a load of laundry. For hand washing I prefer the liquid because I don’t have to rinse it out. I’m pretty sure the sheets need to be rinsed out.