No Quick Fix to Fat or How Traveling Kills the Waistline

In the past month, I’ve been fortunate to visit 3 continents, 4 countries, 20 cities. With all of that travel comes fun, thought provoking moments,working out “vacation”, oodles of pictures, and LOTS of eating. Bavarian sausages, Moroccan tagines and couscous, Spanish bocadillos, black forest ham, and smoked prosciutto, café con leche, well-aged red wine, and the list continues. I mean, I’ve said before that if I could just eat myself through the world, I’d be happy. Now, in typing that publicly, I’m not so sure if I should still be proud of that fact or ashamed but the point that I’m trying to make is that I like love food.

Groceries this week with my new BRAMP diet.

As a youngster, in high school, I was the one who never gained a pound and I was even picked on for being so skinny. Later on, in college, I started to understand what it was like to have curves. Now, ten years after undergrad, I know what it’s like to eat and gain weight, easily! (And just to think that I used buy chocolate-flavored Ensure, a high-calorie weight-gain drink for seniors, by the case load to gain weight in college!)

With that said, travelling is taking a toll on my waistline. I'm not even really sure how it happened. I'm quite a conscious eater. I mean I'm one of those let's-buy-organic-and-eat-well people. Seriously! Maybe one too many bratwursts or plum cakes? Well, I’d show you a picture of the cruel results except that umm, I’m sure you don’t want to really see what that looks like. But the great news is that I decided last Friday to do something about it. I went on a diet for the first time in my life. I call it the BRAMP diet. No bread, no white rice,  alcohol, no meat, no pasta, and potatoes are kept to a minimum. I chose these specific items because I consume more of them in Germany than I normally would I think (with the exception of rice). As far as beer, it's like the Germans' version of the Americans' coke. You can find tweens and senior citizens alike partaking in regular beer drinking without the taboo that's sometimes associated with it in the States. Today is the fifth day of my travel detox and I feel good. Lighter, I’d say. It’s interesting to think about how addicted to meat I must have been because these two weeks feel like something of a sacrifice when it shouldn’t. I love vegetables, always have. My ideal meal is meat + veggies. Now I eat mostly grains+ veggies + soups.  I also eat yogurt, nuts and fruit to stay satiated. I like the BRAMP challenge. I shouldn’t be a slave to food. It’s absolutely absurd in my opinion but that’s what I’ve been, I think. A slave to food.

Here’s my interpretation on food's purpose: it is meant to energize our bodies so that we have the fuel to live life. Period.  But oftentimes, in our crazy capitalist-led, privileged lives we bring something else into it called indulgence which has such side effects as overeating and greediness.  I’ll raise my hand high because I’m guilty of both.

I’m on a two week schedule for the detox but extending it is essential to seeing flattened belly results.

Summary: I’ll still travel and eat my way through the many countries of the world including the U.S. where I can’t get enough of good chicken wings. But for now, I feel that my BRAMP detox is necessary and deserved.

Try it? (aren't these pomegranates beautiful?? they were as good as they look!)