day 180: back at it
You can’t say no to food when you’re on vacation. Maybe it’s possible, but it’s just wrong. How often am I going to have buttery clam chowder on the Atlantic? or creamy vintage hot chocolate in Montreal? On vacation it’s like every day is a special occasion and each of those 9 special occasions add up to one pimply and bloated Samantha.
Even though I broke up with my scale I confess that did go back to him, and it wasn’t pretty. But I’m not here to dwell on the numbers (almost 6 months of work lost in just over a week, fyi), I’m just here to tell you all that I’m getting back to my normal routine of eating right and exercising.
I had a great workout today with my cousin who’s reason for getting into bikini shape is probably more valid than my own; she’s moving to Grenada in a few weeks. Here’s what we did:
Treadmill: 30 minutes, 3.5 miles
4 sets of 5-8 reps
- Plyometric Pushups
- Incline Dumbbell Press (40 lb)
- Wide Grip Lat Pulldown (180 lb)
- Reverse Flys (90 lb)
- Iso-Lateral Low Rows (160 lb)
- Hammer Bicep Curls (30 lb)
- Machine Tricep Extensions (135 lb)
Last night in celebration of our anniversary I made Matt a very simple bowl of comfort food: Bread Soup. It was the perfect solution to our stale bread, desire to celebrate low key, and craving for something hearty.
Bread Soup
Ingredients
- 1 red onion, sliced
- 3 stalks celery, diced
- 1 large carrot, diced
- 1 white potato, cubed
- 1 enormous zucchini, cubed
- 5 dried shiitake mushrooms, chopped
- 1.5 cups fresh herbs (I used sage, basil, thyme, parsley)
- 4 thick slices of stale Italian bread, soaked briefly in water
- 1 dried hot chili pepper
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Add all the veggies to a pot (not herbs) and cover with about 8 cups of cold water. Bring to a boil.
Reduce to medium low. Add 1 cup of the herbs (reserve the rest for garnish) to the soup and let simmer for 25 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
Add the chile pepper and salt and pepper to taste. Crumble the soaked bread into the soup and stir until the bread thickens the soup (about 10 minutes).
Serve with herbs and drizzled with olive oil.
We finished off the night by watching Couples Retreat (Did anyone else see that and wonder why it wasn’t very funny?) and drinking the Muscedere ice wine that I bought at the Sip Into Summer wine tasting.
Liquid Gold.
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- e-mail: samanthaamenzies@gmail.com
- Samantha Menzies is an opinionated young firecracker who just happens to enjoy distracting web surfers with chronicles of her mildly entertaining daily pursuits.
ur cousin is moving to Grenada? wow exotic!
awe bowl of anniversary comfort food!! YUM <3
Don’t feel bad about the vacay!! What I try to do is to make a conscious effort to eat healthy twice a day and splurge on one of my meals
Or share with my hubby 
~Alyssa
Vacations can be sooo frustrating, especially when you are traveling someplace new! I explore cultures via food! I’m glad that you are not dwelling on it, though — you had such a fab time, and now its just back to regular life =)
Don’t feel bad…a life without vacations would be no fun! You will be back at it in no time!
aw, don’t beat yourself up over some weight gain. it happens on vacations and i’m sure now you’re back in routine it’ll fall of naturally before you know it…
yummy soup.. i bet your weight will re balance a bit and that it’s just reacting to the recent intake of food and not a “permanent” or actual increase. Soup looks delish!
This is indeed a fantastic resource. Thank you for making this publicly available.
Howdy I am wanting to know if I can use this post on one of my blogs if I link back to you? Thanks