Mi Mexican Casa

There's times I think I work to support my vacation habit. I come about it honestly, my parents were great travelers, and my mom still is- just returning from a cruise through the Panama Canal. As a child we traveled a lot - cross country to California, toured most of the west, the southeast. I am nearly always dreaming of my next trip. I keep a count up of last time I was at Disney, or snorkeled/scuba-ed, and countdowns to next trips on my facebook page. Friends comment on how often we take trips. My timeshare weeks and points allow us to go to some incredible paces - this trip was no exception.

The latest trip was to one of my favorite beach destinations, Playa del Carmen, Mexico, on the Yucatan Peninsula about 45 miles south of Cancun. This time we didn't trade a timeshare week, but instead purchased a $200 “Extra Vacation" from RCI for a 2 bedroom unit at Hacienda Tres Rios. Of course, we still had to pay the all-inclusive fees, but overall for considerably less than it would cost to book this resort through a travel agent.


Loved Tres Rios. Highly recommend. Wish we could have spent more time. If you go, try to do the bike tour and the coati (snorkel) tours early in the week, just to give you a good feel for the resort. After that you can check out bikes, grab kayaks, and swim the cenotes at your leisure.

The Resort:
Hacienda Tres Rios bills themselves as a luxury, all-inclusive, eco-friendly, "green" resort, spa and nature park. As stated on their website, they are "at the forefront of sustainable tourism development, creating amazing guest experiences while protecting the region’s natural beauty and culture". Loved the nature park and all the included activities. We biked through the jungle to the cenotes,



Snorkeled from a cenote down the river to the sea.

Kayaked up a river from the sea to another cenote

Sailed on a hobie cat in the Caribbean sea

Played volleyball on the beach, chilled where the river meets the sea, toured their nursery where they are working to restore the vegetation lost in Hurricane Rita, and skipped countless rocks into the cenote or the ocean.

Of course, we also relaxed on the beach. Oh, those beach beds. Nothing could be better than a mid-afternoon siesta on a bed on the beach, feeling the sun, hearing the sounds of the ocean.

Resort also has two pools and three hot tubs. My son and his new BFF loved what they called the cliff area of the upper pool - which conveniently placed them close to the pizzeria.

The Food and Drinks:
The resort has a buffet style restaurant open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. A dinner-only restaurant that rotates 3 nights a week with an Asian theme, 3 with an Italian theme. A fine dining Mexican dinner restaurant. An outdoor grill open for lunch and dinner, and an outdoor pizzeria open from noon-7pm. They also offered two theme style dinner parties, a Mexican fiesta on Sunday evening and a Caribbean party on the beach mid-week. Finally, there's a coffee/pastry restaurant. Son loved the pastries, I loved the mid-afternoon pick me up of a perfectly foamed cappuccino. Oh yeah, also 24 hour room service.

We mainly used the buffet restaurant for breakfast - nice fruit selection, really good granola with a wide selection of yogurts. Interesting selections on the buffet, son loved the pastry, chef making eggs/omelets’ or quesadilla to order. Never ate lunch there, dinner was ok, chef doing pasta.

Spent a lot of time at Hacienda Grill - the outdoor restaurant /bar. Lunch there was very good, dinner even better. But our favorite was grabbing a table w/ friends around 4pm for some chips and guacamole, or shrimp and having happy hour. Close to the pool to watch the boys. Fresh, yummy guac. Nice steak at dinner.

The boys couldn't get enough of the pizzas. Lunch, dinner. Gotta admit I loved the European pizza - a white pizza with guyere and gargonzola. Oh my. One thing we did find odd was the "Italian sausage". Probably better described as hot dog.

The most interesting meal was the adults only "chef's table". This one required the purchase of a bottle of wine. Was a five course meal in the kitchen just outside head Chef Oscar's office. Oscar helped present most every course. Started with a summer roll, then a coconut shrimp with a great mango, peach and sundried tomato sauce, a duo of cream soups, salmon with saffron sauce and vegetable risotto, beef with miso sauce (sorry, Chef, I'm not such as fan of the sweet, clingy miso sauce which you seem to love to use, and I think overpowers everything), and a chocolate dessert.

There's a tradition for Chef's table guest to sign the chef's apron. I choose to sign next to the Prince and Princess of Denmark (who were also guests of the resort while we were there).

Italian concept was very nice. From appetizers through dessert. I had a well done risotto with sausage, hubby had a veal dish which he loved, and others at our table enjoyed their meals. We all agreed on enjoying this restaurant. The first time we ate at the Asian restaurant, did not enjoy it. Sushi was three pieces of rolls with minimal fish. I had something with the words sashimi tuna, tempura and miso in the description. To me sashimi tuna implies something other than heavily battered fried fish with a sweet clingy miso sauce. I admit to not noticing the word tempura first time through.

For our last dinner, we'd originally planned to go back to the grill. However, ran into Chef Oscar and made a comment about the coconut shrimp. He said if we came to the Asian restaurant, he would make us a plate of them as an appetizer. We decided to give the Asian restaurant another try. Noticed though some folks were eating lobster. Hmmm, that's not on the menu. Talked to our server who arranged a special menu. Quite good. Choice was just lobster, surf and turf or surf and surf. Between the six of us we had all of them. Plus the coconut shrimp. And a mixed dessert platter to share. Highlight of the evening was tableside preparation of Mexican coffee.


As to the bars at Tres Rios;
I think bars are the one big miss here. Granted there is a very good selection of premium/top shelf products. No skimping there. However, with all-inclusive comes the expectation of pool bars (the swim up kind), no such thing here. In fact outdoor drinks are a bit tough. There are servers on the beach and pool side, but service is slow (like 20-30 minutes to get a drink, hour or more to get food). While we enjoyed "happy hour" at Hacienda Grill, if you weren't there by 5pm, you were out of luck as they closed from 5-6:30 to prep for dinner. Which means the only outdoor bar is closed. There is spotty bar wait service at the outdoor tea/martini bar - but on a couple of nights servers were not present. With all the lovely scenery and beautiful weather more options for outdoor drinks with friends (esp. casual, post beach time) are sorely needed.


This is not a big night life resort. Yes, there are shows and events at night - but all fairly low key.


The Room:

Magnificent, huge, well equipped. We basically had a one bedroom suite with a connecting hotel room. Fridges in the rooms stocked with sodas, water and beer.

Overall an incredible vacation. Made even more special by meeting some new friends. Tom, Stephanie and their son Spencer. The boys hit it off as fast friends. The parents also. From the time we all meet, we were pretty much inseparable. Hope to travel with them in the future, enjoy more meals, more wine, and games of find Stephanie a new drink. Great, great family. And huge thanks to Tom both for taking me out on the Hobie Cat not once but twice, and even more importantly, the really good pictures on the blog are his - thanks so much for allowing me to use them.

Tis the season....

Great week here in southeastern Wisconsin. The first hints of spring. I'd left for Mexico with the yard covered in snow. In fact, don't think we'd seen the ground since around the 1st of December. I'd hoped the snow would melt while we were gone - and that prayer was answered. Even better was the bonus week of sunny days, temps in the 50's. Gave me an opportunity for my first outdoor ride of 2010. Well, not exactly the first, I had a fun ride down in Mexico through the jungles, er, nature park at Tres Rios.




But this week, the bike came out of the basement. It felt great to take off on a ride. I did one of my favorite routes which takes me through two local parks. Fox Brook which has a nice mile long loop around a pond. Did two spins, enjoying the laughter of a little girl on a bike with training wheels riding the opposite direction. She seemed to find me passing by and saying hello quite funny. From there I head over through Mitchell Park and its boardwalk over the Fox River. First lesson of the trip - in the spring be mindful of the water level of the river. At first I considered turning around, but then decided to go for it, and ride on. (thanks to the mom and daughters, I knew the depth. I'm not sure I'd have been brave- or stupid- enough to ride through if I hadn't)

The second lesson of the ride. Sporadic rides on the trainer over the winter are no substitute for actual riding. Esp. when those trainer rides were few and far between the last few weeks, and not exactly at maximum effort. The hills around here killed me. It will take a few more rides before I tackle my first goal hill (the section of Brookfield Rd driving north from Bluemound to Gephardt).

And as a bonus I got to rock my colorful, spring-y, new Terry bike jersey.

Meanwhile, back at home, it's also the start of the gardening season. This will be the year I start to tackle this garden. I'm starting to get a vision. Feeling more settled in this house thanks to some changes at work. Ready to move forward, start the heavy and not so fun work of clearing some of the overgrown mess and making my own stamp on the place. There's signs of spring here too. Daffodils foliage growing through the leaves I'd piled on the beds. Teeny little hosta noses just peeking out of the earth.

On my walk Thursday, I'd taken this picture of the still ice and snow covered pond at Rolling Meadows park to remind me that we weren't quite at spring yet.

This morning, on the 1st official day of spring, awoke to a reminder from Spring herself, that we still have a way to go before the real outdoor season. But it sure feels good to know we are marching towards just that!

Fuzzy math......

It's all about calories in vs. calories out. So simple, right???

There's so much more to this fat loss thing. When I first started, when I was 100 pounds overweight, just changing my eating habits (giving up fast food, eating as clean as possible - staying away from processed foods) and beginning a regular exercise program was all I needed to drop the first 20-25 lbs. Then I stalled. For three months no real change. Doctor told me not to worry, in his mind I'd just lost nearly 10% of my body weight, needed to give my body a chance to re-set.

But what I really needed was a better understanding of my calories in versus calories out - and then also an understanding that even doing that math; weight loss is not linear. I can't just assume that for every 3500 calories I don't eat versus what I burn, I will lose a pound, more specifically a pound of fat. Other factors can be at play...that at certain times I retain more water (hormonal, eating too many carbs, inflammation from a heavy strength training session, or even "cloaking" where your body fills the space of the empty fat cells with water temporarily). But over time it is a good guide, provided you really know what is going in and what is being burned. And that's why when I am succeeding at dropping pounds, I do it not just by upping the workouts. Those are a factor - hell, I sit on my butt in front of a computer most days. Without working out, I'm lucky to burn 2000 calories in a day. But it is not until I meticulously plan my food, weigh (yes, on a scale, not measure with cups) my portions, journal all food and activity that things really start happening.

Yes, that all sucks. Yes, it is time consuming. But most importantly, yes, it works.

This week's results and fancy graphs.

Weight down 2.2lbs. I'd been suspecting a little bit of cloaking because while I haven't been hitting my avg deficit goal of 750 calories a day, I have been in a deficit for nearly three weeks with zero scale movements. Had a little mini-whoosh (fancy weight loss term for the retained water suddenly going away). Glad to see today's number because it is the lowest I've been since before we started doing the Body for Life weight training - and means I've dropped below the start weight, even with the expected glycogen load of beginning a program. (and am back to a pre-holiday weight).

I've done better at hitting my burn targets, the activity goals and steps per day. But must really must get tighter on the diet. I know, sounds like a broken record from last week. The last two weeks deficit will probably only bring me a bit under a pound a week average loss. Hoping to pick that pace up a bit for the next few months. I want to be out of the suck of fat loss, and into the journey of maintenance, of body recomp, of training for endurance events.

Hello 2010.........

Time for the official 2010 Resolutions, er, Goal Setting. I really hate to call these resolutions, as I've blown off far too many resolutions in the past. In fact, I'm not sure I have ever kept a New Year's resolution. However, I do believe in the power of publicly setting goals, creating a plan to hit the goals, and then publicly holding yourself accountable to those goals and plans. In that spirit, here are my goals for 2010:

• Lose 100 pounds*
• Continue to challenge myself physically via endurance events
• Get that damn scuba license
• Get my garden mojo back
• Make this the year of the purge
• Blog 

* OK, so the lose 100 pounds one is a bit deceiving. It's really complete the 100 pounds, which means lose 35 more in 2010. After meeting the original goal of losing 65 lbs, and being able to wear a size 12, I've been in a 6 month stall - or more positively stated a maintenance period. Time to stop flirting with that 100 lb number and get to it!!

The details and the plans:

 Balancing those first two will be slightly tricky. For the first 3 months of the year, I will focus on the fat loss. Oh, and the scuba thing. Don't expect to get all 35 pounds in the three months - that would not be realistic, 15 or so would be good.

I've learned so much about my body in the past 18 months. I know that I am most consistent in weight loss at 1 - 1.5lbs a week driven by an average 750 calorie a day deficit while eating high protein, a decent amount of healthy fats and filling in the remaining calories with carbs. That I must plan my meals, weigh and log my food. The sweet spot for me seems to be eating around 1500-1600 calories a day while burning 2400-2500 for 6 days a week, plus one day at maintenance (approx. same calories in as out, maybe 100-200 calories over). 

I know that in my efforts to burn calories, I can easily over train. That maintaining that calorie deficit saps my power, and ability to train hard. Overtraining for me has lead to inability to sleep, injury (Trochanteric bursitis), weight loss stalls driven by screwed up hormones and Cortisol, or big slips to diet. I had best success doing moderate strength training 2-3 times a week, plus steady state cardio at a moderate level 3 times a week (ok, so I throw in some intervals, but not HIIT). A regular yoga practice seems to ground me and keep me centered - not to mention improves balance (as in physical, not life- though I'd argue it does that also). 

Finally, I know that Speedy Gonzales I am not, nor will ever be. I saw that way back in high school when I attempted to swim competitively. I can get in a groove and go and go, but sprinting, just isn't in me. Still I love getting in that groove, pushing myself to my limits. April - September will be focused on endurance events, eating much closer to maintenance, slowing the fat loss to focus on training. I'll end the year finishing up any remaining fat loss- or if I've hit that goal already, focusing on body recomp, muscle development. 

I plan on doing this via the following events in 2010:

Half Marathons - Country Music in Nashville April 24th and Rock n Roll Chicago on August 2. These are becoming family traditions. Last year, I did Nashville in 3:39 (yes, I walk - and my dear brother, Jeff, stayed right there with me pushing me on - despite the fact it was over an hour longer than his previous time) and Chicago in 3:07 (Jeff did this one in 1:58 and hubby Steve did his first in 3:34). This year my goals are to start the season by breaking 3 hours in Nashville, and training to hit or beat a 2:45 pace in Chicago.

Triathlons - Want to do two sprint length triathlons (1/4 swim, 15mile bike, 3.1mile run). First will be the Pewaukee one on July 11th. I've also got my eye on the Danskin Chicagoland Tri August 21/22.

Duathlon - End the season with the Dousman Duathlon on September 19th. This one scares me the most - run 2miles, bike 20 miles, run 2 miles.

I have no clue on times to shoot for on the tris or the duathlon. As with my first half marathon, finishing will be a victory. In a side note: my 10yo son will be doing the children's marathon in Nashville (run 25 miles the prior month, finish the 1.2 miles on the marathon course the night before the grown up race), and the Pewaukee tri in his age division. Hubby will be doing the half marathons.

Scuba one should be knocked off before my birthday in March (it is a big birthday, and this is my present to myself). I am taking the class part Feb 5-7 and then an open water referral when we go to Mexico first week of March.


The gardening one and the year of the purge are both home related. I have been such a passionate gardener in the past. And since we moved to this house haven’t gotten back in touch with that piece of me. I’ve been a bit unsettled, not ready to tackle this mess of an overgrown landscape. I’m breaking it down to area, letting go of the need to do it all which has paralyzed me so far. This winter I will develop a starting master plan, and decide which areas to tackle this year.

There will be more to follow.

Which leads to the blog one. I enjoy writing this blog – and also know that keeping some sort of public log will keep me on track towards all of this. My blog goal is minimum of two posts per week. One a fitness/fat loss log, the other garden related – because a blog called GardenKim really should have something, garden related. Any more is a bonus…..

Like ripples in a pond..............

I've frequently read of the influence of those around us on our lifestyle choices - or looked at in reverse, how our lifestyle choices can influence those around us. It's like the ripples in a pond: when you toss in a stone, and cause concentric circles to move out from the center. As I think about the changes I've made over the last year and a half, I see these influences. They are both inward to me, and outward to those around me.

My first influences and motivators were my brother, Jeff, and sister-in-law Gina. In April of 2008, they ran Nashville's Country Music Marathon. They started talking about (and following) a variety of workout programs. At the same time, I was leading a very sedentary lifestyle -hitting my highest weight ever, and realizing that this weight was affecting my health. I had borderline high blood pressure, high cholesterol, which combined with being at a BMI considered obese led me to being turned down for additional life insurance. I was floored. In my 40's, and denied life insurance?!? I knew it was time to make changes. I learned about eating clean from them, about Body for Life, Turbulence training, Chalean, Px90 and most importantly for my journey was being pointed towards Leigh Peele and her Fatloss Troubleshoot program.

Later I discovered that my cousin Chris and his wife Kalli both followed a regular strength training / cardio regime. It was nice to have another set of folks to bounce ideas off, to hear of their routines, to add more folks in my life who already lived the lifestyle I was aiming to live.

On-line support systems followed. The forums at jpfitness brought another group into my life. Folks who worked out regularly, who weighed their food, who wore the calorie tracking device, gowearfit, I'd begun to wear. I learned so much reading others' fitness logs, beginning to keep my own, reading all the questions in the Fatloss Troubleshoot section, answering a few myself. Learned of "new Rules for Lifting", New Rules for Lifting for Women". More like minded people, more good influences, more support.

At work, I discovered people into yoga, several into various forms of cycling - from road to mountain, a women about to do her first triathlon. All of these influenced my choices. Kathy, a co-worker and yoga teacher, taught me so much about body awareness, the importance of balance. The cyclists introduced me to the sport that has become a love of mine.

Twitter was next, finding interesting fitness minded folks to follow. The occasional post about my workouts, my current activities. Recently, I've been fortunate enough to meet one of my twitter "friends" and join her in a great combination cycling/strength training class. Meeting the coach of that class, a female former triathlete has been an added bonus. I'm looking forward to seeing where these two new friendships could lead me.

Then remarkably folks around me started to ask me for fitness and diet advice. Really, me? They noticed the changes (in my body and my attitude). Over time I realized I was becoming an influence on others, one of those ripples in other people's ponds.

I needed all of this, all these people and their influences to hit my first set of goals - which were to lose 60 lbs and get all those health readings in line. Both of which I did. Blood pressure is an un-medicated 120/78, cholesterol has dropped to 165 (from 248, not bad, huh?), 65lbs gone. Two half marathons completed. A whole new lease of life.

But I realize now those goals weren't enough. That I still need to lose 30-40 pounds to get my body where I want it. That I want to challenge myself to complete a triathlon, to complete those half marathons at a much faster pace, to ride a century (100 miles in a day) on my bike. So much left to do. And maybe by discussing it all in this blog, I can throw a few more pebbles in a few more ponds!

Newborn, Natchez, Noshing, Nashville, November

Our family had a little something extra to be thankful for this year - my new nephew Jack Stephen. Jack is the first child of my brother. He's named in memory of my Dad, Jack, and in honor of his maternal grandfather, Stephen. My brother was a confirmed bachelor who hit the jackpot in his mid-40's when he met his wife, Gina. Smart, fun, beautiful with an incredible family to boot. Really none of us could have asked for more. So, this year for Thanksgiving, we loaded up the car, put the bikes on the rack and set out on the 10 hour drive to celebrate with Jeff and Gina's family and new son down in Nashville. And celebrate we did.

Gina's Aunt is a great hostess and great cook. As with many great cooks, they have friends who are equally good cooks adding to the fun. What a feast we had - a foodie's heaven! Two turkeys, one oven roasted, one smoked, two kinds of stuffing - including Gina's family recipe of an italian sausage and bread stuffing that was almost addicting.


More and more food kept appearing on the tables....a couple of different sweet potatoes, the most amazing layered jello salad, several versions of cranberries, I loved the cranberry ginger chutney. Wines of the day were Pine Ridge Chenin/Vognier, Edna Valley Chardonnay, and Ponzi Pinot Noir. Blue Moon Honey Moon was available for the beer lovers. A bottle of Woodford Reserve was around. (any guesses what hubby and I were responsible for bringing). I forgot to get a picture of the dessert table - but it was equally impressive - two kinds of pumpkin pie, pecan pies. All so yummy.


Thank goodness with all that eating, we'd brought the bikes. Got in several good rides. A couple around Nashville in the Oak Hill/Belmont areas. But the most memorable was a ride along the Natchez Trace. Beautiful and challenging with the continual rolling hills.

Discovered that I'm a bit of a wimp riding over this famous bridge over Hwy 96. Heading out I stayed a decent distance from the edge. Coming back, a crosswind had blown up, and I was scared to death. Rode at almost the center of the road. Even once we got across and I got off the bike to take these pictures I never was able to stand next to the rail. Just a bit too freaked out.


The nice weather also provided an opportunity for a walk around Radner Lake.


Ended the weekend with a celebration of Mom's birthday. A great trip, wonderful meeting Jack and spending time with family. Enough to wear a guy out!