Giving Credit Where Credit's Due

I didn't credit the title of my last post, Beyond Lettuce, to my dear hubby. He was rightly miffed.

And not only did he suggest the title, he was the one who suggested the arugula. He is, by the way, a great chef.

Sorry Hon!

Beyond Lettuce

On our first night home from vacation, we decided to eat something quick that didn't require cooking and chose one of our favourites: tuna salad.

For some reason I'll never understand, when most people think of tuna "salad", they think of a can of drained tuna, mashed with a whole lot of mayo and a few measly pieces of celery as "vegetable" content. That's not our family tuna salad at all!

When we make a tuna salad, it's a real salad, full of greens, tomatoes, red peppers, cucumber, walnuts and tuna, topped off with my home-made dressing (a variation on French vinaigrette).

So what made this salad different?

Instead of my favourite, frizzy lettuce, we used ARUGULA.

We've bought arugula (I think it's called rocket in Britain and Oceania) before, but this was the first time it was the basic green in the salad. It's got a slightly spicy taste and combined with the other ingredients, it was absolutely fantastic.

I do not work for the arugula marketing board (does one exist??). I'm just a new convert. Try it, you'll like it!

And even more on the lettuce front:

Yesterday's supper salad was a fairly traditional Greek salad, made with romaine lettuce--also a real winner.

Today's message: Mix up your greens. You'll love them even more!

Facing the Music

As I set off on my vacation, three weeks ago, I felt a little trepidation. Was I going to gain weight, would I manage to keep my weight steady, was there a chance I could actually lose some weight? I got home yesterday afternoon, vaguely wondering when I would step on the scale and get the answer. I decided to take the bull by the horns and do the dastardly deed this morning.

Drum roll......

I gained about 4 pounds.

I am not happy, but I'm not throwing up my hands in disgust. In fact, I feel even more determined to stay on the road I began travelling at the beginning of this year.

So what happened?

First, I'm not terribly disappointed in the way I ate. I still think the attitude shift is slowly taking root. There's a lot less stuffing going on and the "you've had enough" signal is getting louder.

I do think that there was a bit of boredom snacking going on and certainly in that department, I have to be very conscious of how much is finding its way from the trail mix container to the mouth. I don't regret eating trail mix. I do think it would have been wiser to take the handful, put it in a bowl and before eating it, put away the container. A simple lesson learnt.

Then there was exercise--or just plain moving around. This was something I was concerned about before the trip and it did come to pass. My "thing" is walking and it's just a hard thing to do in my cottage country. As I explained before, the roads are narrow and twisty and although traffic is light, I personally felt walking was dangerous. So there was a LOT less walking than I would normally do. Just as an aside: during the two days we spent in Montreal, I walked respectively over 20,ooo and over 18,000 steps--probably a record for me.

I go on a lot about the beauty of the lake and it's all true, but the water was damn cold. I probably missed out on at least three swimming days--days when the weather was good, but I just was too damn lazy to make the effort to jump in the water. Another aside: yesterday morning at 8:15 a.m., while my family was still asleep in our room at the Holiday Inn, I did 20 circuits in the small hotel pool. The water temperature was lovely.

And speaking of things watery, I didn't drink half the water that I consume at home. Why? I don't know. I was just out of my normal environment for a bit too long. This morning, I've already had two large glasses and I haven't even had my coffee or breakfast yet.

So the bottom line is: that's life. I'm glad I weighed myself, despite the results. I'm picking myself up, dusting myself off and getting back on the horse.

I'm Home!

Yes friends, I'm home again after a three-week vacation. In a nutshell, it was great and very relaxing, but we're all really happy to be back in our own home.

Over the past nine years, we have gone to the same cottage six times. It is situated in a gorgeous location--the lake is small, quiet and there are no motorboats. There is also the nicest resident cat I have ever met in my life. But the cottage itself is not rustic...it's falling apart. Last year, the bathroom sink started seriously leaking a few days before we left. It was impossible to turn off. This year, there was a slow but persistent leak under the kitchen sink and by the time we left, it was getting pretty smelly. The satellite TV went kaplooey a few days after we arrived. Our rule is no electronic devices until after supper except for the radio. That way, we spend as much time as possible reading, swimming, walking and decompressing. But after supper, it's nice to watch the news and catch a silly TV show. Not this year. I could have called the satellite supplier but I didn't dare. I suspect the owner of the cottage has a pirated connection. And then there's the washing machine. The internal water house only lets in a trickle, so we basically fill it up manually with potfulls of water. And more potfulls for the rinse...

The owner and her husband apparently lead a very "hand to mouth" existence, paying their bills at the last possible moment, only repairing things when the alternative would be disastrous. And usually waiting until the disaster arrives before doing anything. The amazing thing is that they actually live in this place during the off-season. I really don't think it's very healthy to spend a long time there with all the windows closed during the winter.

So why do we keep going back? Because of the lake, the friendly (and responsible) people who own properties around the lake, the absolutely adorable cat (Pushkin), the village nearby, the fact that it's in Quebec so I can speak French and that we can drive down to Montreal fairly quickly if we want/need to. And she doesn't charge us an arm and a leg for the pleasure of living in her dump. I guess this means that despite my bellaching, we'll go back again next year.

I've got a few topics that I'll be blogging about over the next few days, but right now, I'm just catching up on reading YOUR blogs.

So stay tuned, I'm BAAACK.

Hello Again

It's the last week of our vacation and of course, the weather is gorgeous. I've already been swimming in the lake once this week and plan to go again today. Yesterday, we took the boys to the water park, where they went crazy and I sat and read for several hours. Oh well, when you're a parent, you give up your own swim to make your kids happy. But this afternoon, it'll definitely be a good dip in the lake for me.

Believe it or not, we've actually decided to cut our out of town vacation down a bit and get home for a few days of staycation. One of our sons (Mr. "50 of my closest friends") hasn't been home for 5 weeks since he was at camp for two weeks just before we left for the cottage. He's dying to get back and connect with all his friends. Our older son (Mr. "Sleep in til 2 p.m. if he can") wouldn't mind getting home either. Hubby and I could stand a little time in our very own house too. Although the location of the cottage is totally awesome, the condition is pathetic. I honestly miss our washing machine and toaster...lol. I also miss my nice long walks and want to get back to my elliptical trainer again. I guess I'm going to have to build up my time again. Oh well.

I'll be back full speed ahead by the middle of next week and will post a few pictures.

See you then!

A Quick Hello from the Cottage!

Well, we've been here for about ten days of mostly rain, but it's still a wonderful place to be. We're heading down to Montreal for a few days at the World Science Fiction Convention--my husband is a huge SF fan. I'm actually going back to the cottage earlier with the boys while hubby stays for more SF fun and games.

I haven't been doing as much exercise as I like. What with the rain, there's not much swimming and I've been quite lazy about the yoga (not totally though, I do some yoga every 2-3 days). Yesterday, we all went for a long walk along the road running by the cottage. It was fairly safe going in the opposite direction from the village, though not particulary interesting. I may try to do it again nevertheless, just to get moving a bit more.

Food-wise, I can't say that I've been particulary conscious nor terribly laissez-faire. Am I dreading the scale when we get home? Slightly. I may tweek things for a few days before weighing myself. I really don't think anything terrible has happened. My skinny jeans still fit!

It's great to see that you, my faithful readers, are still dropping by. I'll be doing a quick scan of your blogs too while I have access to a computer.

See you soon!

I've Tagged Myself

Sniff, wail, sniff...nobody tagged me! So I've tagged myself, so there!

1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Your hair? curly
3. Your mother? dead
4. Your father? dead
5. Your favorite food? chocolate
6. Your dream last night? weird
7. Your favorite drink? lemonade
8. Your dream/goal? happiness
9. What room are you in? office
10. Your hobby? ranting
11. Your fear? sicknessi
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? here
13. Where were you last night? here
14. Something that you aren’t? tall
15. Muffins? yum
16. Wish list item? Spanish
17. Where did you grow up? Toronto
18. Last thing you did? yoga
19. What are you wearing? t-shirt
20. Your TV? off
21. Your pets? insane
22. Friends? sweet
23. Your life? challengingl
24. Your mood? meh
25. Missing someone? moms
26. Vehicle? Subaru
27. Something you’re not wearing? earrings
28. Your favorite store? antiques
29. Your favorite color? blue
30. When was the last time you laughed? yesterday
31. Last time you cried? huh?e
32. Your best friend? Marsh
33. One place that I go to over and over? blogosphere
34. One person who emails me regularly? André
35. Favorite place to eat? Paris

And you?