As everyone and their mother knows I gained most some of my weight back in 2011 from travelling. Really and truly, I thought I was invincible to calories and weight gain because I was on vacation. I would look at food as experiences, and not as, holy-hell-that-is-gonna-make-me-tubs. 

Well, ever since my epic fail, I’ve become quite conscious that travelling is still real life, and when travelling, effort needs to be put forth in an attempt to maintain and/or shed some poundage (ps. I never try to lose weight on trips, just maintain).

Remember Perth? Well Anna and I managed to maintain our weight and still live it up in the city (oh hai there stumbling down the street with McDonalds fries at 4am and the worst hangover I’ve ever had in my adult years, wut up?). But I won’t lie to you, it was quite the obsession of ours - must. eat. healthy. Must. not. gain. weight.

And then there was New Zealand. I travelled New Zealand with my friend Natalie who doesn’t give a hoot about weight, or food or calories. She is actually the most sane/normal person I have ever met regarding food. Whereas I associate road trips with treats & candy, Natalie associated it with a bottle of water. Another example of how normal she is: We woke up one morning to find a loaf of bread in our hostel’s kitchen with a sign that read “FREE.”  Natalie got excited as she handed me two slices of bread (no toaster/butter/anything) and said, “excellent, this will fill us up until lunch.” She views food purely as fuel. I view food purely as, “mmm you are so delicious, all the food must get in ma belly now!” Ha, but you know. We’re different. So essentially in New Zealand I pretended not to be obsessed with food and just followed what Natalie did - and get this, I LOST weight. And nope, I never went hungry, I just ate normally.  

And now I am travelling again, but this time there is no Anna to help me eat healthy, and no Natalie to secretly copy, which means, the pressure is on. But, but I think I’ve done really well lately…

Last night I went to the grocery store and put my hostel’s kitchen to good use. I made myself a delicious salad, and lunch for today… ta-da!

(not paleo - as there was feta cheese in there).

And then this morning I woke up and made myself Paleo Pancakes - sooo good, and a great talking point. (Pss. As if my ‘paleo pancakes’ post hit 15,000+ notes! Crazy!!)

(totally brought the cinnamon from home in anticipation of this - balla’!)

AND, then this morning I also went to CrossFit Brisbane. It was, ummm, intense. The people there were SO fit it was unbelievable and *very* intimidating. Seriously, I felt bad for telling my blog, “sign up for CrossFit” because it’s soooooo terrifying walking into a new CrossFit. The pros/elites/people-with-god-like-bodies were finishing off the CrossFit Games Open WOD 13.1, which had just been released - it was incredible to watch.

99 men to 1 woman. Well, at least that’s what it felt like. I could also not stop staring at some of the guys’ bodies. I was *that* girl with drool running down my face. Fine specimen those men were, fine, sexy, men indeed.

But! But the downside to the Workout of the Day (WOD) was this: I really felt (could be wrong, but this is what I felt) that because I wasn’t fit (or don’t look it), I wasn’t taken that seriously. Like, the trainers didn’t care too much. They discouraged me from doing band pull-ups, and made me do ring-dips when I really wanted my money’s worth, to push myself, and get a good workout. It was kind of frustrating.

Anywho, a *huge* thank you to Mary who was my partner this morning and who drove me back to my hostel - I shall make sure to pay her kindness forward.

And let it be known I also got myself a McDonald’s cone-in-a-cup this afternoon when I sat down to plan the rest of my trip. File under: balance.