Oh hi there ridiculously, ridiculously, good looking people - okay, okay let’s not dance around the proverbial mulberry bush and simply cut to the dirty-dirty chase.

Ready? Ready.

I, Liz (of awesome fame), am notorious for eating poorly while travelling. Like, probably the worst person at eating healthy while travelling that you have ever, and I mean EVER met. Virtual or otherwise.

SO.

Remember how I WORE A BIKINI (<— linked for proof) on a beach in Croatia? Yea, well that was right at the beginning of my trip when I weighed about 147 pounds (66kg). And then remember how A YEAR MINUS ONE (1) DAY later I weighed in at 174 pounds (79.1kg)???? Remember? REMEMBER *shaking your collar as I ask*?!?

For those who aren’t good with math, here the facts:

September 30, 2011 —> 147 pounds (66kg)
September 29, 2012 —> 175 pounds (19.1kg)

This means, in 364 days I gained 28.2 pounds (13.1kg).
That’s an average of 2.25 pounds (1.02kg) a month

Ps I am 5’4” and 27 as I’m sure someone will ask :)

Well aren’t I being honest tonight? #FACT.

Now look, you may or may not believe me, but I truly, with all my heart, believe had I not gone gallivanting all over the world, I wouldn’t have gained it back. Which means the culprit, my culprit, my excuse, my kryptonite, my Achilles’ heel was (IS) travelling.

I Liz, (of not-so awesome fame), have no self control when it comes to travelling.

Why yessssssss, I would LOVE a sugary drink
Why yessssssss, I would love a cupcake
Why yessssssss, I can order the HUGE sandwich
Why yessssssss, I’ll just pop into 7-11 for a gander
Why yessssssss, I can drink all the wine in the world

Why? Because I’m on vacation of course.

False. False Liz. False.

Now luckily I have become wiser with age (phew!), which meant that this time around when I knew I was heading to Perth for a week I became very conscious of not hitting up every carb and/or sugary drink in sight.

I made a goal, I asked for ideas (thank you so much for the comments - totes magotes took them to heart), I (wait, we - Anna and I) made a plan, and I am soooooo happy to announce we stuck to it!!

The result?

Before Perth: 174 pounds (79.1kg)
After Perth: 174.4 pounds (79.3kg)  (0.4 up? that’s A-okay with me)

(And it needs to be noted that Miss Anna LOST a kg (2.2 pounds!!!)

So, how?

It’s rather quite simple (and obvious - as the story goes); we simply looked at Perth as ‘real life,’ because, well, that’s what it was.

We easily bought at least 60% of our meals from grocery stores and always tried to plan ahead. We bought nearly all of our breakfasts the day before, and often ended up enjoying a pre-packaged (cheap!) salad at the end of the day.

We always had lots of fruit on hand (for those long drives), and low calorie rice-cake snacks which were so flavourful (mmm sour cream) that they satisfied those “I want a treat now” evil little bursts.

We also (as per the comments telling us to) ordered salads when we could, or ate at Mad Mex (Australia’s equivalent closest thing to Chipotle) for a cool 450 calories a meal.

And, we both tried to continue to track our food on My Fitness Pal, but I have to admit, as the days went on, this became harder ‘n harder.

Now it needs to be noted I didn’t LOSE weight on this trip (but I was/am seriously SO THRILLED I stayed the same and didn’t gain), and that is because we still enjoyed treats here ‘n there. We both splurged one night and got a MEGA burger n’ fries (although we both left the buns on our plates and some fries), and we ate more cheese and drank more wine than we should have. So overall? I would say it was a good vacation-enjoyment-yet-I-do-not want-to-get-fat balance.

A mixture of the good, the bad, and the delicious from our trip:

AND AND AND AND, then, we also (and I have NEVER done this before on a trip) exercised while we were away. Oh yes. You read that right! We went to not one, but TWO crossfits to sweat some of that cheese out.

A huge (HUGE!!) thank you to Coo-ee Crossfit and Raw Edge Crossfit for hosting us. I can’t exactly say I excelled at either of their WODS (WOD 1 and WOD 2) and if you’re a creeper, you’ll notice there are no reps next to “Liz” (me!) for WOD 2. Why? This is because (and I seriously need to work on this as it happened at both new crossfits), I felt my really old, self-conscious, “I AM SO FAT” self creep in.

It was SO intimidating being at a new CF that I completely let my nerves get to me and my obsession with how I looked (re: fat) get in the way of pushing myself. Thus, I didn’t count my reps - as I was too embarrassed by my (what I assumed would be) low score.

But still, I am happy I went - baby steps folks, baby steps.

We also went for beach walks (seriously, sand = burning legs), and tried to stay active as much as we could (swimming/walking). We were THISCLOSE to renting bikes, but we decided the $28 was better in our pockets.

So, the lessons here, and I truly hope I will take this with me for the rest of my days is this:

A calorie is a calorie is a calorie. Whether I’m on vacation. Tired in bed. Out with friends for a special occasion. Standing at the fridge and sneaking some ice cream. Or the moment I quickly decide to switch my black coffee for a latte…

It absolutely all counts.

I can cheat myself, lie to myself, forget and move on, but my body is my ultimate food diary, and there is no secret to this crazy obsession I have;

I’m either doing it, or I’m not, and in Perth, I am oh-so-very-happy I (we! thank you so much Anna for helping me!!) did it!

When I decided to move to Australia with the intention to travel and see as much of it as possible, several people told me to “skip Perth.” It’s so far out of the way from every and any where, and “there’s nothing much to do there, it’s just an old Western, big town.”

Photo Credit: From Bing.com/maps

Now, as you may or may not know, I love me a good city; New York City (first) will always hold a special place in my heart, as will Chicago, London, Melbourne, & Toronto, but after the past week I have to proclaim, I absolutely LOVED Perth. So much so I’d jump it into my third favourite city behind NYC & Chi town, and that, my friends, is saying a lot (I’m fairly picky with cities). 

A view of Perth, along with their city beach, yes, this is their CITY beach. So lovely.

We put nearly 900km on our little car and zoom-zoom-zoomed down the coast to Margaret River (their wine country), and then back to Fremantle (a gorgeous area outside of Perth), took a ferry to Rottnest Island, and then drove back to Perth for two nights.

Anna’s description of the trip sums it up nicely:

We drank, we ate, we crossfitted, we laughed (a lot), we were lazy, we saw whales, we saw seals, we went on winery tours and slept.

‘Twas glorious.

I thought Perth itself really was a big, little town (kinda like Boston). It was so clean & pristine, and Anna and I kept commenting on how quiet it was.  The city only introduced Sunday trading this past August, and they don’t have daylight savings time because the farmer’s believe it disturb the cows’ sleeping patterns.

It’s quite a sprawling city (but really, aren’t they all now?), and had one of the most stunning city beaches I’ve ever seen. One thing I didn’t like about Perth (and this is sooo minor, but it bugged me) was that you have to pay for parking on public holidays - ugh, annoying.

Anywho, the BEST, thing about Perth (besides their constant, warm, weather), has to be Rottnest Island. I had never heard of Rottnest Island until Anna told me about it, and I am so pleased she did! It’s a 25 minute ferry ride from Perth (18k / 11 miles) and is literally a little piece of paradise so close to the ‘big’ city.

In 2010 one of their beaches was name Australia’s top beach and we were not disappointed.

In the morning we went whale & seal watching (super cool - and Aus$50 - so I thought totally worth it):

I had never seen whales before and I (we) got awfully excited when they surfaced, and the seals were sooooooo cute, perhaps even better than the whales. The seals looked like they were doing yoga as they’d lift their flippers into the air to stay cool. The water temperature on the island was 22 degrees (71F) !!

And in the afternoon we strolled from beautiful beach to beautiful beach. If you ever head to Perth, Rottness Island is a MUST SEE, as the photos will prove:

So that’s really it (whoa, lonnng post!), but if by chance you are ever in Australia, and ever get the opportunity to see Perth, I highly, highly recommend the trip out west. The beaches are golden and silky, the sun is always shining and the city so pristine and clean, with a nice old-town feel… perhaps you could even say Perth was Perthfect (don’t lie, you thought that was funny!).

Remember when I thought I was going to move to London?  Well a huge reason, at the very last second, I decided to move to Australia was because I wanted HoT, SuNsHiNe, and BeAcHeS! And oh how this trip has delivered!!

I’ll let the photos do the talking, this is Margaret River, Western Australia

One of my top five things to do in this little life I lead, and something I’ve been fortunate enough to do a few times, is drive beautiful coasts:

Aruba’s Coast,
Croatia’s Coast,
Great Ocean Road (Australia)

And now, with my Anna-Bear, I get to coast the coast of Western Australian. Lucky me! I love-love-love driving coasts. There’s a goal, a mission, and it’s just you, your friend/s, loud music, the open road, and not a care in the world, but to stop and admire the little towns, beaches or places and people you see.

Here a few pretty photos of Bunbury, Western Australia.

Matt dropped me off at the airport on Sunday afternoon. We hugged. We kissed. We said goodbye. And then I strolled through the airport gates to meet Anna.

One week. That’s all. That’s all our goodbye, our hug, and our kiss was for. One, simple, easy, week.

But in a few months it’ll be forever. I’ll be forced to leave Australia (government visa issues), and Matt will be forced to stay here (he’s locked into school). And if we’re still together then, we’ll say our goodbyes 23 days shy of our one year anniversary.

And we’ll be saying goodbye forever.

It’s hard. Really hard. Being in a relationship with a defined ending. That little, huge fact has forced us to ask and answer huge questions too early on in the relationship. It’s forced us to figure things out, and jump to conclusions before we’re given a fair chance.

It’s awful.

It’s really awful when we think about it. But the rest of the time I believe we’re just like everybody else. Living in the moment. Holding hands, laughing together, teasing the other person, figuring out what they like, how we work together, and what we can never do together (cough shopping cough).

But the mere thought of leaving Matt is so awful I’ve, we’ve, pretty much blocked it out. It’s this huge elephant in our relationship, which we rarely address… we rarely speak about. A month or two ago, as the clock struck an unreasonable hour, I (gross) cried into Matt’s chest as he pulled me in tighter, but we didn’t say a word.  

I mean, what could we say? It’s going to happen, early next year, and then that will be that. I already fear we’ll come out of this broken people, ‘the-world-feels-like-it’s-ended’ posts are sure to hit this screen. And then Matt will be here (pining for me – obviously *if I used emoticons on my blog I’d insert a wink here*). And I will literally be on the other side of the world. It’s going to be absolutely awful and there really is no solution; I miss my family/friends too much, and Matt’s family/friends/life is embedded in Melbourne, and I wouldn’t even allow him to leave school or his family, or do something stupid for me.

It’s simple. Our timing is off.

—-

When I moved to Australia I was confident and full of carefree, easygoing, life-planning, thoughts. And yes, I can’t deny it, a relationship was certainly something I was looking for. And then I met Matt. And it just felt right. So easy. So simple. And as I pretty much loved every second I spent with him, I never really looked back.

But I was stupid. Oh-so-very stupid. I had never actually sat down and thought about how the relationships I would make in Australia would be real. With real people and real feelings.

I was so naïve. So stupid.

Moving to a new country has a whole whimsical-cool-exploring side to it, but what people often fail to mention is that from now on, no matter where I am in this world, I’ll be missing people. Either home: my family & friends. Or Australia: the community, life, friends, and this guy that still gives me butterflies when he texts me.

It’s hard, so hard.

However… part of me thinks that if it’s meant to be, it’ll be. I’m not one to let a true love pass me by (I think)…. so maybe it’ll work out. But in the grand scheme of relationships, we’re still *very* new. And then there is the distance. And governments. And embedded lives in opposite cities on the globe… It’s scary. I don’t know what will happen as I sit here in Perth and miss Matt (and it’s only been 4 days!!), but what I do know is that if we go out separate ways (oh God… tears are a-coming), the girl that ends up with him will be lucky. Oh-so-very lucky.

And so for now, in this little, naïve, avoid-the-big-issues world I live in, I pretend it’s me that lives Happily Ever After with Matt, because that’s the only thing I can do, and for now that has to be enough.