Young at Heart

Returned from a 10 days family vacation in France. Despite the massive amounts of cheese and bread consumed, I did not gain weight. Hypothesis:

• 4 hours of skiing a day made up for the extra calorie consumption (I estimate 2500 cal per day during my vaca), especially since we mostly skied in powder snow, making it a super workout
  
• all the hours of exercising since August paid off: my metabolism shot up super high
• it's all a premature victory, the weight will come on with a few days/ weeks delay...

Food in France is simply irresistible. Presentation, ingredients and taste are outstanding. The digestion is definitively not great however (hello bloated stomach after the cheese course). Even though I could easily predict the stomach pain from overeating, I could not resist all the wonderful dishes sitting within 1 fork from me and unavailable or less tasty at home in New York. Every day, the buffet included:

• Viennoiseries: croissants, pains au chocolat, pains au raisins
• Multiple types of freshly baked breads: pain aux noix, baguette, pain au levain, pain complet, etc...
• Cheese spreads: reblochon, chèvre, conté, emmenthal, beaufort, brie, camembert, chaource, etc...
• Dessert spreads: crèpes, tartes, mousse au chocolat, moelleux au chocolat, buche de Noel, etc...
• Local delicacies such as: foie gras poele, riz de veau, pates aux cepes, tartiflette, raclette, hachis parmentier de canard, crozets savoyards, boudin aux pommes, choucroute, pied de porc, pot au feu, paté, etc...
  

This makes it even more difficult to return to my daily "Lean Cuisine" diet.

There were also inevitable moments of regression during the family trip:

• My brother took me running in the forest and we flipped out when we encountered an entire family of wild boars with their little ones. The mother grunted at us, fortunately she did not run after us.
• During the second run in the forest, my brother ran ahead and I got lost. I tried to follow a car that drove off on a road, but after 30 minutes, no signs of highway/ civilization and 20 minutes of daylight left, I ran all the way back to the last road I remembered crossing a highway. It was very Blair Witch Project with the forest entirely covered by snow. After a while I did find the highway and one friendly couple picked me up and drove me home. By then it was completely dark. Phew!
• A few days later, my brother and I lost our parents on the ski slopes. We had no phone, no blackberry. At the tender age of 30, I had to beg strangers to let me borrow their mobile to call our parents.
• The last night of my trip, my parents, my brother and I all lied in my parents' bed to watch a French movie (the disappointing third sequel to Les Bronzés, a cult film).
• I nearly cried at the airport watching my mother walk away after I passed security. Being home with my family was comforting and the separation causes me great anxiety. The older I get the less my feelings change. I will always love and miss my family and being with them reminds me of that : )