Challenges

My weight climbed again today.  I'm extremely frustrated, but trying not to let myself be swayed into old habits.  It's wednesday and thus far I have had a very successful week.  I've worked out all three days, and have had pretty decent eating habits.  I ate too much nasi at dinner last night, and felt guilty about it afterwords, but it was full of vegetables and yummy spices so I let that help my food conscience.  I'm not going to dwell on the scale.  I'm just going to keep doing what I know and has proven to be successful in weight loss.

Today, I'm going to be focusing on some of the challenges I've been facing since I moved to The Netherlands and I started this journey.  What comes to your mind when you think about The Netherlands? For some people it is legalized marijuana, but for most it's cheese, really really good cheese.  I'm living in a cheese and bread country.  Not necessarily ideal for weight loss, but statistically the Dutch are thinner than Americans and have an overall healthier lifestyle.  My opinion is that this is because they walk everywhere.  Seriously, everywhere.  My fiancee and I walk to the grocery store, to the market, even to dinners out and to meet friends.  It's definitely a completely different world on this side of the pond and one I'm rather fond of.

The first time I came to visit Holland I was miserable.  I was sore and exhausted from all the walking.  Living here for over two months has quickly gotten me over that.  I enjoy walking (when it's not raining) and enjoy the freedom of not having to drive everywhere.  I'm attempting to learn how to drive a manual car, and it's going pretty well, but they have all these round-a-bouts here and walker and bikers are everywhere! It's going to take awhile for me to get comfortable enough to drive here.

Anyway, being in a bread and cheese country has serious temptations.  Also, I forgot to mention the chocolate.  There's a serious Belgium influence on the chocolate here and it's to die for.  Love it, seriously.  But that's making it harder.  The food here is delicious and that's what is making this the most challenging.  Cheese is full of fat, but good fat for the most part, if you don't consume too much.  Bread, here it's not as bad for you.  There's less sugar in it, and mostly it's fresh.  Like so fresh you have to freeze it otherwise it's bad after just a day! I'm trying to consume less bread than most of the Dutch, but they have all kinds of flavors full of seeds and nuts.

The delicious food is something that I'm struggling with over here, but my eating habits have been better, and I'm working on keeping them that way.

Stay positive.