Time to Engage in Some Travel

(oh how I miss the days of Spain - Fall 2006)

Two nights ago, I gathered up enough courage to finally purchase some round trip tickets for Spain. As a nervous flyer, it's never easy for me to actually go through with the act of buying plane tickets but I forced myself to do it given how reasonably priced the tickets are nowadays. I'll be leaving in mid-March and I'll stick around for a week. I'm really excited about going and this trip has been the theme of my journal writing for the past week or so. What excites me most is the fact that this time around, I have a different challenge facing me than my last tour there...

If you've read some of my posts from either the spring or summer, you'll come across some mention of when I spent a school year in Spain. I was situated in a mid-sized city called Zaragoza where I lived with a pair of wonderful host parents and was able to become proficient in the Spanish language (however, my proficiency has surely declined). I call my host parents every once in awhile and I send them cards and packages whenever possible. Keeping ties with them is super important to me because they took amazing care of me while I stayed in their home. My host mom always tells me that I'm welcome to stay at their house whenever I visit Zaragoza but I may actually opt to stay in a hostel this time around because she is expecting a baby around the time of my arrival.

(My host parents and myself--that's not their baby by the way)

The challenge that I mentioned above will be largely related to my diet. When I stayed with my host parents, they provided me with two meals per day - breakfast and dinner - and lunch was provided by the school that I attended. Spanish cuisine was very new and different for me; it definitely took some getting used to but I was very appreciative of the opportunity I had to experience such a vastly different style of food first hand. Some examples of a typical dinner my mom would cook are: Seafood Paella, Blood Sausage with a side, Rabbit meat with grilled, sliced potatoes, Lamb with potatoes, and Pasta with Clams and Mussels.

Two things that I didn't realize about the Spanish is the quantity of food that they eat and how late they consume their food. I probably would have been fine during those nine months if I kept my portions small and ate 3-4 hours before I went to sleep, but I was under their roof and thus, their rules were the only one's that mattered.

I ended up heading back to the U.S. with an extra 6-8lbs on me and, I'm sure, a great loss in muscle mass due to my lack of exercise.

This time around, even though only for a week, I will keep close tabs on my eating habits. This will be more of a practice of self control rather than a fear of weight gain while I'm over there. The trip has also motivated me to shape up a bit before my departure...I want to look DAMN good upon my arrival.

I'll discuss my Spanish Eating Plan in further detail next time and I'll also see if I can come up with some survival tips for myself.

Raw. Love.
-Nat