January 2020

Time suddenly became of paramount importance for me when out of town travel and a January snow storm converged to almost cause me to miss seeing this play.  Having followed Hannah Moscovitch's work since I first saw East of Berlin and the double bill of The Russian Play and Mexico City, a decade ago I was curious to see how she could create an engaging work about a physicist studying the nature of time.  As an aside, one of my sons is a theoretical physicist, excellent at explaining abstract concepts yet the only part of his PhD thesis I understood was the dedication.

It was only when I reached back to my academic roots in medical biochemistry and decided that a ketogenic nutritional program and lifestyle was the physiological way to reach optimal body weight and composition that I finally got to my target weight with BMI ( Body Mass Index) at the low end of the normal range. 

One of several tools that I use to keep me on track is the wireless Fitbit Aria Scale. This scale uses BIA (Bioelectrical impedance analysis) to measure % body fat. Each morning I step on the scale  and my weight, %fat and calculated BMI is sent to my FitBit app.

Invigorated by 7 evenings of dance parties on the New Year Caribbean cruise, as we disembarked in Fort Lauderdale I was eagerly anticipating the South Florida dance experience that my friend had planned for the next week. Organizer-extraordinaire, she had us set for  dance classes or hosted dance parties every night. 

Apart from having fun, my goal for taking this 7 night New Year’s cruise was to start the new decade in the most fit,  healthy and relaxed state possible for me. I wanted to say serene but I don’t think for anyone who knows me that serenity would be a state of mind they could envisage for me. So relaxed instead of non stop go-go-going seemed an achievable mental objective.

As to the fit and healthy part, I have achieved my weight and % body fat targets through an LCHF/ ketogenic and intermittent fasting nutritional program combined with bioavailable multivitamin, mineral, trace element and phytonutrient supplements. My goal on this cruise was to maintain or lose weight but definitely not to add any pounds.

I wasn’t planning a dance cruise over the New Year time frame as I thought my foot would still be slowly healing from my toe fracture surgery in July. A quiet Dec 31 with my family seemed the most sensible plan. But when my friend called and said “ let’s dance in the New Year on a Caribbean cruise” the song from Cabaret popped into my mind and wouldn’t go away. After a few days of listening to myself belting out “what good is sitting alone in your room, come hear the music play” I figured the only way to change the refrain was to book the cruise. Sure enough it worked and instead my singing switched to "let me be a dancin' fool”. Quickstep anyone?

The Nieuw Statendam is an elegant ship and it's a pleasure to walk around and observe the design and the decor. She is the second in the new Pinnacle Class of Holland America cruise ships. The first was the Koningsdam. The Nieuw Statendam has been in service for about a year and the third ship the Ryndam is due to launch in 2021.