Roaming About

A Life Less Ordinary

Category: Food (page 8 of 8)

Weight Loss Experiment – Take 1

In November, I did a case study. Of myself. After months of staring at massive bathroom mirrors and the reflection being exactly the same, I remained disgusted and could not deny the horrible truth anymore: I am (getting) fat. For months, I thought all the scales in the houses we took care of were wrong. Yes, I was that naive. Until recently, when facing – and admitting to – reality. It boils down to this: I am not all-around fat; it just has accumulated in certain spots. My body has been disproportionate for a decade: skinny on top, bulky on the bottom. Recently, the bulkier parts can be labelled fat and some new areas of concern have appeared.

People that have known me for a long time are probably raising their eyebrows reading a post about weight loss… coming from me! Most of those people have probably not seen me in a while either. Yes, I was skinny as a teenager and happy with my weight in my twenties and thirties. Sure, I was still OK wearing bikinis on our boat two years ago, ignoring the emerging belly fat, attempting to sit up straight when in company. And then, I turned 40. I like to blame the unruly weight gain on my age, but it might have to do with Mark and I swapping our challenging boat life for a more sedentary and comfortable house sitting life as well. Food is readily available in a plethora of varieties now. Sitting behind the computer all day and eating more western food probably didn’t help. Despite going for a decent walk almost daily, I gained 10 pounds in the last year… How do I get rid of that, at this age, with temptations everywhere? Continue reading

Then and Now – My Birthday

Last week, Donna from Retirement Reflections suggested I do a “Then and Now” post about my birthday. While the thought had crossed my mind, I was hesitant to pursue it, because I thought I could do something bigger with that topic than “just” a blog post. See, a little while back, I played with the brief idea to make my variety of birthdays a thread in the memoir I am writing, or at least incorporate my last decade into an article, “Sailing through My Thirties” or something like that. As always with most of my genius ideas, not much ever happens with them. So, why not turn the thought into a blog? Some parts will still make it into my book, so I can’t reveal any juicy details or you won’t buy it. 🙂 The photos will not be able to make it into the memoir,  so… here are some birthday galleries!

30 – Monterrey, California, USA

My birthday in 2005 was a bit stressful and exciting at the same time, since our sailboat F/Our Choice/s (on which we were living) was getting hauled out of the water in the morning and undergoing an inspection to be sold. Or not… We spent part of the afternoon in the amazing aquarium and went out to dinner. We both love Monterrey, especially the wildlife, like sea otters swimming by the boat.

31 – Belize, Central America

Continue reading

Then and Now – Thanksgiving

This blog follows the theme from last week, but with much less color! 🙂

Thanksgiving didn’t mean anything to me as a Belgian, until I started visiting the US over a decade ago. Being married to an American made me appreciate this day of thanks, and I am always happy with an extra day off, of course. Thanksgiving is Mark’s favorite holiday, since it is not commercialized and involves no gifts. Instead, the focus is on good food (lots of it) and being with friends or family. Continue reading

Six Word Saturday – Reaping the Fruits of our Garden

The fruits of our labor have been very tasty in the form of a  small selection of vegetables we produced in our (current) yard. It was our first ever attempt at gardening

My  Six Word Saturday is full of vegetables. How is yours?

6wsButton

A Fun-filled Memorial Day Weekend

I’ve mentioned before that one of the nicest things about the A-Z Blogging Challenge was meeting a bunch of interesting people online through stories and comments. That I would actually meet one of these blogging travelers in person a month later came as an unexpected bonus!

The second half of April, I discovered Jaye and Dan’s blog “Life Afloat”, where she writes about her minimalistic life on their 33’ sailboat Cinderella. I learned that, over the summer, she and her husband would crew on the tall ship El Galeon a second time. This life-size replica of a Spanish galleon would pull into Newburyport over Memorial Day weekend. And the rest was history as they say…

With our tour guides Jaye and Dan

With our “off duty” tour guides Jaye and Dan in front of the tall ship El Galeon

Continue reading

How to Get Spoiled with a Tasty, Healthy and Affordable Dinner Every Night?

Cooking asparagus and shrimp

Cooking asparagus and shrimp

The answer: marry Mark. But, since Mark is already taken – sorry ladies – try marrying someone who loves to cook, someone who cares about healthy food, someone who is as frugal as you and someone who is creative in the kitchen. Ideally, all these someones are one and the same! In appreciation, you can do the dishes and, to keep the scrumptious meals coming, take care of the shopping as well. 🙂 Continue reading

Newer posts

© 2025 Roaming About

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑