Portugal and Spain - Food, Fitness and Fun!

A month is a long time to be away from home but I certainly made tons of great memories and met amazing people along the way.

This trip certainly had it's challenges for me dealing with my eating disorder thoughts, living arrangements and household responsibilities, completely uprooting my routine, etc. etc. The blessings and memories far outweigh the challenges I had to overcome and I'm glad I did challenge myself. Challenge leads to growth.

I spent the first three weeks in Portugal near the capital, Lisbon. I engaged in volunteer ministry work there. We did a ton of walking but I did run several times as well! The cobblestone streets were a new experience but I managed okay and it was fun to have a change of scenery.

Running on Cobblestone!
We took a few day trips into nearby cities and even did some hiking near palaces.

The last week we spent in Spain. We spent a few days in Barcelona and a few days in a nearby coastal town. Again,we walked and walked and walked! It's a good thing I brought comfortable socks and shoes. We saw many sights in Barcelona including works of Gaudi, the arc de triomf and the monument to Columbus. We went out to eat more in Spain since it was harder to grocery shop for just a few days. One night we enjoyed tapas and sangria! The patatas bravas were amazing!


Though I wasn't able to do much weight training, follow my macros, or run on a regular schedule, I was still able to be active, eat good foods and have fun. Traveling is always a good reminder of the truth in the phrase: "memories over macros".
Paddleboarding in the Mediterranean Sea! 

Have you traveled abroad? Do you find it challenging to break routine? Where should I go next?

25 de abril Bridge at Sunset (Portugal)
Boca de Inferno (Portugal)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Not Your Mother's Cookie Dough - Gluten Free, Sugar Free, Bean Free!

Image
You've seen edible cookie dough recipes all over the World Wide Web. You've some cookie dough with garbanzo beans, cookie dough with flour, dough with sugar, without sugar, maybe even with sweet potato. But, have you ever seen cookie dough with... Cauliflower. That's right, folks. I said cauliflower. And then I said "folks" which is weird. The idea popped into my head as I was thinking about the versatility of cauliflower! It's used as rice, as a mock mashed potato, as pizza crust, even added into smoothies! So what can't this vegetable do!? This recipe is SO SIMPLE, you have to try it! Not Your Mother's Cookie Dough Makes 2 generous servings. Ingredients: 210 g cauliflower, steamed then cooled 1/4 cup powdered peanut butter 1/2 tsp imitation butter flavor 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/4 tsp salt 2 tbsp almond milk sweetener to taste (I used approximately 1/4 - 1/2 cup erythritol)  2 tbsp mini chocolate chips (I used KNOW foo...
Read more

Gut Healthy Gummy Bears! Keto Friendly

Image
Team Sour or Team Sweet? I'm team sour all the way! These gummies are surprisingly easy to make if you have a gummy bear mold (they're very inexpensive on amazon!) and they have the gut-health benefits of prebiotic fiber and gelatin! First they're sour, then they're sweet. Ingredients: 40g VitaFiber IMO syrup  1 tbsp gelatin liquid stevia to taste (I used orange stevia) 1/2 cup water Directions: Heat the mixture on the stove until bubbling.  Use the dropper to fill the gummy bear molds.  Place in fridge until set.  Just before eating, toss the gummy bears in a mixture of citric acid powder, and granulated sweetener of choice (I used a monk fruit/erythritol blend).  Voila! Sour gummies! 
Read more

Keto Meringues! Sugar Free!

Image
I recently had the idea to make Meringue cookies and my curiosity was piqued at the idea of making sugar free meringue cookies. I wondered if it would work!  3 calories a piece?! I'll take 10!  I took to Google, and to my surprise there were recipes with Splenda, erythritol, stevia and beyond! I decided to try my hand at sugar free meringues with an erythritol based sweetener I just purchased recently. The brand is Swerve and I purchased it from Luckyvitamin.com. It claims to have no aftertaste! Meringues can be a bit tricky to set up due to humidity and given that it was a hot August day in North Carolina, I think they turned out pretty well! The texture was good on most of them but a few of them were still a bit soft in the middle.  Factors working against me: I didn't have enough egg whites I didn't have cream of tartar I was attempting sugar free I didn't have parchment paper Humidity You may be thinking, why even bother? Well, I don...
Read more