Defying the Odds Bravely

     Forgive me readers, it has been one month to the day since my last confession (entry).  I survived my first cruising experience despite the seasickness and looking forward to our next adventure!  Coincidentally, Colin ended up joining us on our vacation!  During the flight to Barcelona, I selected "Nanny MacPhee" to view and listen to Colin's voice as Mr. Brown lull me to sleep as we crossed the Atlantic (how romantic!!).  There was a cinema on the ship, and on the eve of arriving in Greece they aired "Mamma Mia" which elevated the anticipation even further!  We also watched it on the TV in our room one night.  And finally, on the flight home - the icing on the cake - I watched the charming Mark Darcy in Bridget Jones!  I titled this entry Defying the Odds -  why you may ask?  Because I actually defied the odds and lost weight over the 2 week cruise!  You'll remember that I weighed in at 138 lbs right before we left on the trip - well, the morning after we returned, I went to Curves and weighed in at 135.75 lbs!!  And I certainly didn't deny myself any wine or desserts either!  John and I did however manage to run laps on the upper deck of the ship a few times - and also did a lot of walking on port days.  It was a dream vacation, and all the beautiful sights we saw seem so surreal now - Pisa, Rome, Athens, Ephesus, Santorini, Amalfi, Pompeii and Barcelona!  If I didn't already have the travel bug, I certainly do now!  We were supposed to port in Villefranche but the waters were too rough.  If we had been able to port, one of the excursion choices available went to Cannes, and the Cannes Film Festival was taking place at the time.  Can you guess where my mind drifted off at the mention of that?  Immediately I wondered if Colin Firth would be there and how wonderful it would be to run into him in France!  This time I would definitely come prepared with a pen for his autograph!  But alas, it was not to be, and upon our return I looked into it and found that Colin was indeed in Cannes for the festival but not at the time we would have been there - which is almost a relief!

So, now we are home and back to reality and I must also confess that defying the odds was short lived.  Last week when I had my monthly measurements taken at Curves I was back up to 137.5 lbs.  What can I say?  I've been pretty stressed out since we got home - trying to get on top of the yard work, house work, garden, cake orders and attending the kids' concerts and volunteering - I feel like I haven't had a moments rest since we got home!  Last week I heard some bad news from my cousin and was devastated - so I called Carla and asked if she wanted to go to Serendipity for lunch (my other weakness, after Colin Firth!) and devoured scones and tea.  I made an early dinner of salmon and beets because I had a meeting at 4 pm and then had to rush home to take Kristen to Irish Dancing and drop Matthew off to umpire a baseball game and Carla and I were going to see our friends' daughter star as Anne in the Anne of Green Gables musical out of town.  Normally we would have gone out for dinner first but we didn't have time between carting my kids around so we went to a convenience store and bought Doritos and Cheetos to tide us over.  Bad, bad, bad!  Those carbs blossomed into a relentless tailspin leading us to crave more carb rich foods.   Luckily, I think we've straightened things out again now and I hope to report more promising results in my next blog entry!

Before we left on our cruise, I planted some vegetables and herbs in the garden - watermelon, cucumber, red peppers, green peppers, beans, chives, parsley and kale.  The night after we got home, I made Shepherd's Pie for dinner and went out into the rain and picked parsley from my own garden - it was so thrilling for me to use something fresh my garden!!  Last week I made my homemade chicken burgers for dinner and picked fresh chives!  This past weekend, John removed some hydrangeas from the backyard so that I can expand the garden and I'm looking forward to planting more food!!!

One of my favourite meals I had while on the cruise was linguini with pancetta and fresh peas and I was dying to try to recreate it!  I cooked about 1/2 a package of linguini pasta, sauteed some shallots and garlic,  then cooked the pancetta.  Then I added some chicken stock and cream to the pan as well as some Parmesan cheese and let it thicken a bit before adding the cooked pasta.  I then added fresh peas and cooked for another 2 minutes!  It was just as good, if not better than the one I had on the ship!

Since it was Father's Day this weekend, I invited my dad for dinner on Saturday and made that Bruschetta Chicken Bake I've made before.  I paired it with a recipe from Massimo Capra's "One Pot Italian Cooking" book (I received a signed copy when I met him a few years ago - but until now had never made anything from it).  The recipe was Cavoletti alle Pancetta e Mandorle (he's Italian of course, just as Mrs. Livia Firth!) also known as Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta and Almonds.  I had always thought my dad liked brussels sprouts because he's the one who fed them to me as a child - apparently he grew out of them and never told me.  However, he said he loved them made like this!  In fact they were so good that I had a second helping myself!

Steve, I think you would even like them like this!  I hope all you dads had a great Father's Day on Sunday!  Jake made John a healthy breakfast to start his day!

OK, now here's a moment of truth - I donned a bikini in public for probably the first time in my life while on the cruise.  When John first saw me in it he commented, "Wow, that's brave!" which he claims was meant as a compliment but to my ears sounded more like, "I can't believe you are seriously wearing that!" and made me feel even more self conscious than I already was.  Well, if he thought that was brave, I'm about to step it up a notch and post a photo of me avec bikini in this blog entry that is visible to one and all around the world!  This is one photo I didn't add to my Facebook album.  Here it is folks - avert your eyes if you so wish.....



A few days later (after having returned to the safety of a traditional one-piece) I pointed out to John all the much heavier and obese women on the ship who shamelessly donned bikinis and said that if they can pull it off, then why can't I?  He told me that I was right, that I've worked hard and absolutely I should wear the bikini - and that is when this photo was taken!

So, now I need to regain my focus and get back to where I was and hopefully lose a few more lbs.  I feel somewhat deprived of my muse since I've returned which may indeed have taken part in the gaining of a couple of lbs. - well that, and the scones of course!  This weekend certainly calls for a Colin Firth flick and in the meantime I shall listen furtively to my Mamma Mia soundtrack and swoon over Colin singing, "I can still recall..our last summer.." and remember how far I've come since last summer and not get so down on myself when the scale dips a little in the wrong direction!