After three much less successful months than the first time around, Maude starts over. The 2020 Twenty: Entry Twelve. New Orleans Edition.
June 4, 2021
May meant a lot of things to me this year.
It’s officially been one year since I moved back home. And I’ve spent that year doing two major things, in addition to gaining twenty pounds. The first thing is what you’re reading. It’s a thing I’d long wanted to do, and was finally allowed to do, by a pandemic uprooting my life.
The second thing is a career change. That one I didn’t exactly see coming. While I did want something new, ironically I might not have found it if I hadn’t been forced to move my home and stay there for some time. The idea of working from home, as a very real need, gave me one idea. Then that idea bloomed into something else as the post-COVID world has, moving into focus, going slowly from home and distance, to the public in proximity, though not yet quite reaching fruition, despite much eagerness. In May, things I’ve been working on for the last year went from not quite realized goals and hopes, to a reality just within reach (but not yet quite in it). And that took a lot of work and focus. So The Mauve Report has been a very quiet place, and weight loss goals have simmered low on the back burner.
Where I live, it’s also been raining almost daily for about a month, so there’s that. Probably time to look into a gym membership, or just learn to slog it out wet.
But at the end of May, despite not losing twenty pounds since January, I had much to celebrate. So (in the spirit of Louis Armstrong) off to New Orleans I went, as planned, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly, with no guilt feelings. I did a lot of walking (calves still sore), a lot of shopping, and a lot of eating (and drinking). Red beans and rice with sausage, a great calzone with wine, a tropical smorgasbord of ceviche, sweet potato fritters, pork, plantain, and panela, a mojito and a pisco sour, pineapple coconut cream pie with blueberry sorbet, crawfish étouffée on scrambled eggs and hash browns with Louisiana hot sauce, a sweet potato cake, and a special breakfast cocktail, a coconut cream sno-ball (my sis got lemon basil), more than one Sazerac, the French Quarter’s best po-boy, the world’s Original Muffuleta, and one really good flea market daiquiri were the highlights. The Café du Monde beignet did not make the list only because we didn’t brave the Memorial Day weekend crowd–a sin, I know, and I’ll never live it down! I do regret it! But in only three days there was quite a lot I didn’t do, and I will just need to plan better next time! And, oh, there will be next times. As I predicted, I did fall in love with that city.
I am a ready celebrant of good times and great food indeed. I’m not going to get on here and say I’m not. But really, that’s all the more reason to keep it in shape most of the time. Somehow, I came back from New Orleans with no more than a couple extra pounds, and that keeps me approximately in Big Twenty range. At least for now! (My legs say it was the walking.) Now, of course, is time to get back into mode.
There is still more work to be done, on the career move, and on the weight loss train. It is now June, which means I am due for another A1C check next month. Thanks to May, I suspect I’ll be back for another one in October. But it’s never too late to start cleaning up.
And a p.s., if I may: this is The Mauve Report’s 100th post! So it’s a lovely day (Soul Rebels style)!
What do you think? I would like to hear from you, but you won’t find the typical Comments section here. If you have given the issue some thought or have an experience to share, please enter it here, or send your response to Maude@mauvereport.com. I would love to hear how the rest of America is doing with this in 2021.