Photos from South America: the Food version

My husband, Derek says that he enjoys being married to me because he never knows when he'll wake up next to a different woman. While it might sound saucy, this comment actually refers to my life-long habit of constantly changing myself: my hobbies, my appearance, exercise du jour, preference in music or a whole host of other interests.


Not surprisingly, my blog follows my this fickle trend. It isn't truly a "Healthy Living Blog" or a day-to-day account of my life. Some days, my blog provides a smoothie recipe. Other days, a protein-spiked fudge muffin. I might have a post about a 16-year old cat or a young cheeky kitty or two. Topics might involve my family (the good and the sad), the many friends I've made or people I continue to meet. It can involve my struggles with trying to balance my simultaneous love of food and exercise and my life-long battle to keep those 90 pounds away forever without driving myself stark-raving mad in the process. I suppose you never really know who you'll get when you read my blog over your morning oatmeal.


Only the most astute of readers will notice that I failed to deliver my post last week. That is because I'm just catching up and re-entering home-life after being fortunate enough to be traveling for nearly a month. In the past, my blog has followed me on trips, but this is really not a travel blog either.  I don't see the point with boring you with my random vacation photos. Rather, I'd want to share some pictures from this trip that you might find interesting, heart-warming or at least amusing.  Here we go...


For Lovers of food and drink:

This is a specialty on Easter Island: a creamy seafood concoction served over fries

Found all over South America: CEVICHE!

There really is a treasure at the end of this rainbow

Another seafood-over-fries meal: think Seafood pasta but with fries instead of noodles

Another typical dish in south America: Huge Seafood Soup

Empanadas! Empanadas everywhere (Meat- or veg-filled pastries)

"Pisco Sours" ...common in Chile & Peru: Pisco is a liquor made from grapes. Then add lime juice, froth of egg white for the pretty foam on top, splash of bitters and simple syrup (or not, as they did for me). Then you can get fancy and add some other juice, such as mango or guava...very tasty!

Penguins are all the rage in Chilean Patagonia

These meringue/chocolate penguins were cute and tasty

Favorite Hobby: Grocery Store Aisle Perusing

Look! Yogurt refills! You reuse your plastic/glass container and buy big bags to refill- GENIUS! (thankfully, they aren't $898 US dollars)

Yuck?

He might not read Spanish, but...hmmm.

Spotted in Argentina. This burger is barftastic.

Fiber-filled "Twig" cereal exists everywhere- even in south America

This very official stamped document confirms not that I have permission to enter a restricted country, but rather than I bought strawberries

Mesmerized in the cookie aisle

Can you believe that this is in a McDonald's in Buenos Aires?

Vegans, look away, this is how they barbeque in Argetine (called Asado)

Lamb Asado, mmmm

Helado/gelatos...totally obligatory on vacation

Ice cream: Best meal of the day (yes, it subbed as lunch on several occasions)

I'll continue this series next time. Topics will include: ideas for exercising on vacation (in addition to my lunge & squat video), cute doggies & other animals and maybe nature/beauty.


Q: What is the best or most memorable food you've eaten on vacation? Is Ice cream 'a must' on vacation (even when it's freezing cold out?)

Sliding Lunge & Squat (Hotel room) routine - video

So just to catch you up from my last post when it was questionable whether or not I'd be able to go on the Patagonian cruise due to the fact that my tummy, bones and I were feeling awful. I went, and by the end of the trip, I was nearly good as new.


My Spanish is usually good enough to make myself understood, but when I make a mistake, I'm often off by a letter or two. On the second day of the cruise, I broke down and saw the ship's doctor. I managed to tell him that my testicles ache (huevos) but luckily he understood that I really meant that my bones (huesos) ache. 

He kiboshed all foods except nutrient-devoid white carbs and diet coke (Honest! Something about potassium!) Needless to say I loved him dearly.  My all-carb diet and some (free!) meds had me sorted out in a day or so, thankfully.


A couple of photos:

More white carbs than I've consumed in the last 10 yrs combined

Not gonna lie: this was fabulous.

Concerned husband looks on as I attempt to self-administer my medicine

A real live glacier- I felt well enough to go ashore and snap this shot...

...but pretty soon I felt a bit green and went back to the ship.

Now, back to the real purpose of this post: to share one of my go-to workouts for when I travel: My Hotel Room Lunge & Squat routine. I know that a lot of people take time off from training when they travel and if this is what works best for you, then that's great! I would feel completely out of sorts if I stopped working out when I travel, so I always make it a priority (if energy levels cooperate, of course!) I often use this routine the day of our departure for home because I all of our clothes are already packed and I know I'll be sitting on a plane for hours. This starts the day off right.

This routine is great:

• If you don't have a hotel gym or you are staying in a small guest house or hostel
• If you don't feel like dealing with your hotel gym
• If you don't even feel like putting on clothes
• If all of your workout clothes are already packed but you want to bang out a quick workout.
• If your sneaks are packed: you don't even need them as you wont be jumping or putting massive amounts of pressure on your feet.
• If the weather is bad and you don't want to go outside: cold/hot/snowy etc.

You can do about 15 or so reps of each exercise and then repeat the series 3-4 times. I work up a sweat, especially with the dynamic version of this workout (ie using a 'slider'). So technically it's cardio and strength all rolled into one workout - love me some multitasking!