Walking Abroad

Wednesday, July 16, 2008


Sightseeing in Paris was awesome. We took the city by foot and metro of course. We did a lot of walking and I do consider walking from place to place exercise because at the end of the day we were walking for 6 hours!

I wanted to take advantage of the awesome parks and roads by the river but I didn’t, which is okay. I didn’t exercise for 30 minutes each day so walking around was all we did.

Perception of other cultures: this wasn’t our first time in Europe but it was our first time in France and Switzerland. We weren’t there for long but I noticed a few things:

1.The culture didn’t revolve around food. Both countries had awesome cuisines but food didn’t seem to be their number one concern. There weren’t as many food commercials on television like you see in American (that was amazing). Also there weren’t as many medicine commercials. You can get around without a car. The public transportation system is huge, so you can use that or walk anywhere you’d like. I miss that about living in Brasil.
2. People didn’t seem very obese. People seemed normal to me. Here in America I see a lot of obese or underweight people. I did learn that in Geneva there were a lot of women who suffered from anorexia.
3. People eat bread daily. Now, that was a treat! I saw skinny people eating bread every day! The bakeries were not running out of the business because of the lowcarb craze. We have bakeries in Brazil too, so I miss them dearly.
4. There were a lot of fruits to be found. It was possible to get 5 a day. It was all a matter of what choices we made. I could eat croissants all day if I chose or I could have eaten fruits and veggies as well. I loved the salads I ate in Paris! They use a lot of cuscus in their salads – I’m gonna implement that. It was awesome to see the different plantations on the countryside. Sunflowers, grapes and other stuff I couldn't id.
5. I had delicious salad dressings. It was mostly combinations of balsamic vinegar and olive oil but their vinegars tasted so much better! One of the best ones I had was a mixture of mustard, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and milk. Awesome! I noticed that people didn’t think about eating or food until they were hungry. That was a nice change. I didn’t see people doing a whole lot of snacking although they were available.

I visited both countries for a short period and I understand you don’t get a full picture unless you actually live there. These are my observations and I hope you enjoy them! Also, enjoy the photos of me walking around Paris!

Update from My Goals for the Week:
* Walk 13 miles (I have 7.8 to go!);
* Eat well; focus on protein and dairy intake;
* Manage stress in healthy ways;
* Treat myself this weekend.