Me and Vacation

Me and Paris

We just returned from a two week trip to Europe, where were we traveled by planes, trains, automobiles, ferries, plus miles of biking and walking. The purpose was to visit my in-laws, which all live in the Netherlands, and we threw in a side trip to Paris. (Plus we got a bonus stop over in Iceland thanks to medical emergency on our flight...) We had a wonderful time, but got very (very) little sleep! 

I celebrated my birthday on the trip AND my two year anniversary of getting to my goal weight! That anniversary is very important to me. Lots of people lose their weight and we all know people who put it right back on. I am determined not to gain my weight back. I am a few pounds up right now, not at my lowest which is my goal for each anniversary. Keeping the weight off is hard work, work you do every meal, every day. But it is worth it, I promise you.

I hope you don't mind if I spend the next few posts on the trip! We did so much and visited great places. I had to eat at all those places and being on the plan so long made the choices very clear. I met up with a few family members who also do the plan, and it was clear (again) to me how confusing a low carb/low sugar diet really is to people.

We spent most of our time in Europe with the Hubby's family in Eastern Holland. My Mother in Law that also follows the Belly Fat Cure, and made me her version of the Minute Muffin for my birthday breakfast! Her flaxseeds were not ground at all and it turned out okay. She said they were ground, but it was more like the hull was broken on them. The Dutch have a million different types of dairy products and it took me a while to find with the eqivialiant of plain old cream for my coffee would be. They have something called Koffiemelk, like coffee milk, but it isn't quite right. I think it was actually evaporated milk, which has a lot of sugar, right? FYI, it is Slag Room in these tiny little yogurt like containers that is just like our cream. Not the already whipped Slag Room, which is just like our Whipped Cream. The Hubby's family, all serious coffee drinkers, thought I was a little weird for using the slag room unwhipped in my coffee.

Cheese Please! 

The kids and I at the market in the town square held twice a week. Can I tell you how glad I am that I follow a diet that allows cheese? My favorite is old Gouda, oude kaas. My Dutch is very bad and I make up meanings to help me remember a few words. The longer it's been layin' the better. In Dutch older cheese is belegen, pronounced "been layin". The longer it's been layen', the better. The Dutch are serious about cheese.

The look of pure joy on the boys' faces from the top of the Eiffel Tour as they look out over the (foggy) city of Paris was beautiful to me. The Hubby and I "fell in love" in Paris one Saturday afternoon 17 years ago, and it was so special to share the city with our children. They loved it! Only one of the elevators is working due to a techincal problem, so the line was hours long. We decided to take the stairs to the 2nd level and the lines for the elevator to the top were short from there. I would not have been able to walk all those stairs comfortably three years ago, but it was not problem now. My 7 year old (the blondie) counted 720 steps we climbed up... then later back down.

I wanted to thank Kellie for doing a guest post while I was gone! I hope she will do some more, she has done such an amazing job.