eat well. travel often. move

Friends are traveling to Ireland this week. I’m so excited for them and looking forward to some vicarious adventure! Immediately after being told they were going, I started listing off my transit musts. Like most travel addicts, there are things I just can’t to without on those long transit days and flights. So here’s my transit nerd list of things I do and take. Airplane socks. I use these every…

After Dubrovnik we visited Greece. As I mentioned in previous posts, Wheel Experience Abroad and Remembering Santorini, this was not my first time to this lovely country. In fact, this was my 3rd time to the island of Santorini and honestly, the first time I completely enjoyed it. My other visits were overrun with tourists. This time, ours was the only cruise ship visiting and the visit was much…

Dubrovnik has been on my list of must visit places for years. I was so excited to discover it listed on our itinerary. This year we decided to do a two week Mediterranean cruise. We’ve cruised before. It’s great bang for the buck when you’re limited to two-week vacations. Usually, you get to see lots, hit many destinations, eat good food, and enjoy wonderful evening entertainment.  This ship…

Beginner classes, are they really?

Maybe it’s just me, but sometimes those beginner cardio, get fit classes leave me in the dust. I was feeling a little sore today after yesterday’s activity so went online looking for something a little gentle. Beginner salsa cardio. Mmm lovely. I’ve been dancing for fitness for over a year now. I debated on doing the advanced session instead but today I really just wanted some gentle movement.…

This is my first trip since eating intuitively. While I don’t want food and eating to consume too much of my trip prep, I also like to be prepared. I eat differently than I had. My portions are smaller. I’m hungry more frequently. I know better what foods sustain me and what foods make my tummy feel icky. I also know that we’re in for some long flights and days exploring. I looked up what kinds…

Rules are sneaky. You don’t realize you are creating them until suddenly you are breaking them. Intuitive eating is all about eating without rules and restrictions. Eating what and when feels good. Simple right? Not so much. That is if you are like me, you might discover you have rules for everything. And don’t even know it. Early on, when I was just learning to honour my hunger, I had a late…

On my second visit to Greece, a friend and I decided we would rent a car and tour the Peloponnese for a week before skipping off to the ever popular islands. We wanted to see the country-side without guided excursions, have the adventure of following their roads and…their rules. Traverse down narrow lanes, navigate through a herd of mountain goats, glide the open spaces, and bend along the sharp cliff-edged turns.

I would wheel the cities relying on my friend’s navigation and she the country-side. Trusting a Greek travel agent I had used before, our hotels and car were booked. Great prices and great itinerary; we really couldn’t complain. Anxious to get there and start our adventure, days moved at a snail’s pace.

The day we finally arrived in Athens I was astounded by my memory and walked us straight through the Plaka to the travel agent. The ancient city stayed true. Nothing changed. Why should it? 1000s of years or 7? What’s the difference there?

Sitting there, excited to get our vouchers and itinerary we were all a glow…until:

“Did you say the car is a standard?”

Blanched faces, fluttering tummies, eyes as big and white as the moon.

“We don’t know how to drive a standard!”

Images of trying to learn how to drive a standard in downtown Athens raced through our minds.

“What do you mean we’ll be ok? Isn’t the Peloponnese mountainous?!”

We spent our first night in Greece silently pleading with God for an automatic.

The next day tentatively walking into the travel office we were greeted with excitement, which we caught when they told us that the last automatic in all of Athens was ours. Their exaggeration not ours. Someone canceled their car. Whoever you are, thank you!

Beaming we drove off. Praising our blessings. That car took us wherever we steered it. We learned fast is good and stop is just a suggestion.

Days later our dear Matrix had a flat. Stereotypical girls, we couldn’t figure out the jack. So my friend ran back to the hotel where we suspected we would find help.

I can imagine the scene even now: A 6’2”, slender woman with chocolate hair and eyes, and a brilliant smile running into the hotel lobby past the dining men on the patio. She’s wearing short shorts and a tank top and has tourist written all over her. Who could resist her cry for help?

Shortly after I see her running back with not one, not two, but five (YES FIVE) members of a local soccer team to change the tire of one wheel. Cheers to my friend!

Oh and FYI, they had trouble with the jack as well.

Because it feels good

Part of intuitive is eating and doing things because it feels good. It sounds hedonistic but as I practice it I’m seeing it for what it really is. I’m finding that there are different stages to “because it feels good”. First it felt good to indulge in as much previously forbidden food as I wanted. It was freeing, liberating, yummy. It felt good. But now what feels good is eating vegetables. Not…

I started regular strength training about a month ago. I’ve recently read about all of the health benefits being active and specifically strength training provide. But honestly, I just want my legs and knees to be able to keep up with my fit hubby this coming vacation. We’re going to some of my favourite places along the Mediterranean. I’m excited to share them with him. Although we are taking an…

Lessons from my tea cupboard

For years I collected tea. Many kinds of tea. Fruity, chocolatey, black, green, sleepy, and so on. I had so many that I truly had one cupboard full of tea. Teas that I didn’t drink. Then it hit me. I actually don’t like tea. I immediately proceeded to purge my tea cupboard. I got rid of it all. If nobody claimed it, I tossed it. I embraced my ever present coffee addiction. Years later…

Intuitive eating is not about eating what you want when you want. It’s much more than that. Intuitive eating is about eating what you want but also about eating what makes you feel good. It’s about satisfying that craving and about making your body feel right as rain. Part of being able to do this is to have on hand the food and meals that you enjoy and make you feel good. I personally like what…

Move because it feels good

When I first decided I was done with dieting and everything that came with it, I asked myself what kind of lifestyle did I want. Healthy. But without dieting, what did that look like? After some thinking about it, I realized that I wanted to be an active person. So I spent the first year of #nomoredieting building active habits. I recognized that I could easily quit or injure myself if I did…