The Cruise to Loose Feb 11-19, 2008

This is the story of my Winning Cruise...

Ann Louise Gittleman, author of Fat Flush Plan (..the plan that has made a new me!) and me.

And so it begins.....

We arrived at Logan at close to 7am...our flight was scheduled to take off at 7:40. Traffic had been heavy and we were sweating it out thinking we wouldn't make it to the airport...well, we didn't sweat long! Stepping out on the curb the temps felt like -7 as I checked my baggage at the curbside baggage check. Diane had to head into the regular check in area as her bag (being as big as her dresser weighed over the 50 lb limit). Bags checked, we began to walk toward our boarding area and then.... we hit a wall of people! The line to get through security was HUGE. Luckily, the woman who checked Diane's bag motioned for us to follow her and we were delivered to the front of the line and then off we went happily to find our seats on our Jet Blue plane. Prior to leaving home, Diane had cooked up a Fat Flush breakfast pudding and packed each of us an apple. When we were settled on the plane and getting hungry, Diane grabbed her bag where our breakfast was packed only to find the food missing! We think they absconded the food when it went through security. So...we settled for cashews and water.
This is the Carnival Miracle Cruise ship...our room is behind the 3rd life boat on your right... yep we had the exclusive 'Lifeboat view'

Unfortunately, most of the photos from day 1 were lost in a camera mishap...

Once you get through the terminal lines to board, they grab you for the first of many photo opportunities. We were asked to pose a sexy sister pose LOL!

Once we got on board, we headed up for lunch on the Lido deck. I was AMAZED with the amount of food and choices!! This is the first cruise Id ever been on. We were then allowed to check into our stateroom and from there we did a 'muster' that is where you don your life vest and practice the 'Titanic routine' At check in we met staff from Unikey and the travel agents. Everyone had a big smile on their face and were very friendly. We all weighed in and were measured (after lunch and a few glasses of lemon water mind you!) We each received a totes filled with goodies (concentrated cranberry juice, flax, probiotics,the book, etc). Dinner was a time to get to know one another and I was happy to meet our table mates. After dinner, the dessert menu was offered but we decided to ask for apples cut up with cinnamon. Our waiter gave us such of look as if he’d never heard that request! I then said he could give me an apple and a sharp knife ...he liked the idea of just whole apples for everyone! Diane had a whole bottle of cinnamon so that would work too! We then headed over to our first ‘class’. Both Theresa (the other winner) and I were introduced and asked to come up and talk a little of our experience on Fat Flush. I was a bit nervous to say the least!! I don’t really like microphones and generally am not a ‘public speaker on the spot! I can teach a class of children but speaking in front of a crowd is a little nerve wracking! (but no fear, I was told I did fine ). Before dinner we had a blast with the picture places. This is one of my favorites! We just had to much fun!! LOL! Before bed, we went over the tips on eating and the agenda for the week. Early morning exercising with Linda at 7am our next time together! Yes you read that right 7.. s-e-v-e-n AM…
Breakfast with Liz

7 AM came about quick and we were led in a Yoga class...the only move that remains ingrained in my head was the "screaming squirrel" and my squirrel was screaming up a storm! I've done yoga in the past...beginners class and let me tell you, it is MUCH more difficult on a rocking ship! Off to breakfast with Liz (Fat Flush Nutritionist and friend of Ann Louise Gittleman) she was very sweet and easy to get to know. We had a second class and then hit the gym after lunch. Walking on a treadmill is difficult on a rocking ship too...you take our life in your hands!!!Before we knew it it was time to get ready for our first formal dinner. Donning fancy dresses, shoes, fixing our hair and makeup we were off! They set up photo opportunity areas and Diane and I had a blast taking "Sister pictures" we did buy quite a few! Everyone looked stunning!

Posing together...

Dixie (in blue), Laura and Linda awaiting our group photo.

Professional sitting...we both wished we had our younger sister Jeanne with us!

Karen, Theresa (also a cruise winner), myself and Diane. We really had a great time together with them. They were a lot of fun!

The whole gang!

Ann Louise and James cutting up the rug as the waiters sang "That's Amore". They were very cute together!

Back up at 7 am the next day for a little Zoomba...what a fun exercise class!! Everyone seemed to enjoy it!

Then breakfast and off to the shower and class with Ann Louise.

Here are Theresa and I with our matching REI bottles brought from home. I'd been writing down the days adventures!

And then some R and R up by the pool. It was windy and a bit cool but the battle of the sexes must go on and today's feats involved synchronized swim! LOL!

Then back off for dinner that evening. Everyone was getting excited at our first island stop in the morning. Here I am with my starter...the bowl arrived with diced cucumber. I was a bit confused and thought this was it...until Chris came by with the yogurt soup and dill that goes into the bowl too! LOL!

We got up bright and early and watched as we arrived in the port of St. Maarten. We were so excited as this is the day we went off to Anguilla!

The island of St. Maarten.

Our story on Anguilla is the post before this one so I won't go into detail. BUT I will introduce you to "The Three Ds...Dorthy, Delores and Don. Our friends we met as we shared a cab...these 3 were adorable!!! Each time we ran into them it was hugs all around!

Day two.... we skipped the exercise and headed right to breakfast and watched as we arrived in the port of St. Lucia... then off the boat to get with our group. We were headed horseback riding! This little pup loved the attention she was getting..she was so tiny!

Diane on her horse ready to go!

My horse Calm...who was anything but calm! He wanted to be lead horse and I had a time keeping him at a walk the whole ride! We arrived at the beach and like in most places you'd find tourists, there was a bar and a souvenir shop! A video of riding bareback into the water...so much fun!

A visit to a local bar...the woman sitting next to me turned into psycho chick later that evening after way to much to drink. She was not part of our Fat Flush group...She kind of latched onto Diane, wanting to be her best friend. She then went into a tirade at a man with her own group who she claimed she saw a dark side when she looked into his eyes. She was obviously a very sad and hurt woman. We spent the rest of the cruise avoiding her! With the amount of people on board, it was amazing how many times we bumped into her!!

Dinner was a blast as usual as we shared our adventures!

Here, I am showing Kathleen my before photos.

How are your apples and cinnamon? My they are so much better than that chocolate melting cake on the menu! Don't you agree?? Riiiiiiighhht!! LOL!

Kathleen, Ann and Kathy (in black) at dinner. Kathy was our biggest FF loser of the week with a total loss of 13 lbs. We were all so very proud of her!!! She is a real sweet heart too!

On to St. Kitts...and the infamous catamaran cruise....what went on on the catamaran stays (hmmmmm) on the catamaran!! LOL!

Welcome to St. Kitts.

I found this to be the prettiest of all the islands. We had such a great time on our outing!!

The infamous catamaran!!!!!!

Leave your shoes and cares on the dock...board and prepare for fun!

Lisa (me), Diane, Theresa and Karen (Theresa's mom)

A Sunny Day

Amy and Kathy

and Snorkeling fun!

BBQ, beer, and lots of dancing on board!

Back to the boat...people actually stand up on deck cheering on those racing to beat the gang plank pulling in!

Our waiter Chris was a hoot!

Back to sea after 3 fun packed days and back to 7 AM exercise. We arose to a fun morning of Zoomba and then did some yoga to stretch. At the end, Linda and Theresa were demonstarting some favorite moves. No, not screaming squirrel .. they start with rock the baby... and then I demonstrated my favorite yoga pose..... hey sometimes its really difficult to relax!

James Templeton then gave us a talk on parasites and his own story dealing with doctors and a diagnosis of stage 4 melonoma...and his death sentence. He was amazing!

Dinner time again! There is Roz...happy birthday!...and her husband next to her. Then the blonde man and the man with the big smile (Richard) were the Travel Agents we all went through... Then a photo with Ann Louise Gittleman and her husband James Templeton. Off to a show... A tribute to the Beatles!

A tribute to the Beatles

The midnight buffet! Look but don't eat and take lots of photos!!!! The smell of chocolate just overwhelmed me! Nope, I didn't stay up for the 12:30 eating of the buffet... I went to bed...but some of our cruisemates decided to stay up for the night dancing, drinking, eating pizza and then ...EXERCISING!! sing along with me....Two of these Two are not like the others...two of these two just don't belong, can you guess which two are not like the others before I finish my song?....... hint..since when do you exercise is evening wear!?!

A beautiful 30 min walk and run along the deck at 7 AM...yes, those two joined us! And then the time had come...... WEIGH IN!!!


I stepped on the scale saying "Oh I probably stayed the same...I hope..I did have some cookies, and a bit of icecream..oh yea and some fries...but I did run the 9 flights of stairs and ate most of the time perfectly....
What? What's that you say? I lost 4 lbs!! Whooo Hooooo!!!!


And what!? 2" off bust, waist and hips each!?
Even better!!!!!!!!!

Our Final dinner together...
I decided to let Chee Chee do my hair....










Joanne had her hair done too and what a difference it made! Dixie, Laura, Diane and I posing pretty!

Dixie, Laura, and I ordered dessert! Chris was happy!!

The next morning our bags packed and our goodbyes all said. We made some new friends and had a blast! As we disembarked we ran into some from our group and decided a photo of our leaving was appropriate.....hey girls turn and smile!!!!.........

Hey you! YOU WITH THE CAMERA! NO taking photos in the terminal can't you read the sign!?!...ummm do any of you see a sign...well there is one...at the very top of the ramp behind alll those people ahead of us! LOL!