If you read my last post you’ll know that I am trying to be
much healthier in 2016 (and actually stick to it, unlike the previous five
years!). I couldn't have chosen a worse country to change my habits though! Adapting
a healthy lifestyle in any foreign country would be difficult but giving up
dairy in the land of cheese is inadvisable. I've encountered a few other
difficulties, so I thought I'd share them with you!
1) What to do when wine is cheaper than water…
Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration but it is certainly
not easy on your wallet doing Dry January in France. My first experience of
this was in Montpellier where I paid 5€ for a mocktail in a bar, while the
people around me were paying less for lager. To make matters worse, the French
don’t really do non-alcoholic drinks very well: it’s fruit juice or a fizzy
drink, both of which always cost the same if not more than alcohol. I miss all
the exciting soft drinks that England has to offer and even the not so exciting
but essential – soda. Soda is my go to drink at meals, nights out etc. and I
miss it so much. Who'd a thunk it?
2) Milk is in everything!?
Obviously France is the home of cheese and I now notice
every fromagerie, but my other dairy related problem's aren't strictly France's
fault. Until giving it up, I never really thought about how many things
contained dairy. Of course, there are the obvious things like butter, cheese
and cream. But over the last couple of weeks I’ve realised that I can’t eat
cake, biscuits or yoghurts. This is probably good for my diet but is sad
nonetheless. Luckily I’ve found some yummy replacements like hazelnut milk for
my hot chocolates and cereal, and now I just munch on fruit or veg instead of biscuits.
3) Why is eating healthily so darn expensive??
I did a food shop yesterday that consisted largely of fruit
and vegetables, some eggs and fish, some peanut butter (we’ll get back to that in a
sec) and some cereal. It came to over 30€! The heartbreaking fact is that if I’d gone in
and bought some pasta, some cheese, some crisps and chocolate, I’d have spent half of
that. I am beginning to understand why people find it so hard to lose weight – it
seems like the more calories something contains the cheaper it is. As for any rule,
there is an exception and that is peanut butter: probably the little indulgence I allowed
myself. It cost over 4€! The cost of nuts in France is
nuts!
4) Exercise is slowly, very slowly, becoming my friend :)
I’ve never liked exercising for the sake of exercising. I
love dancing, playing football or going for a nice walk somewhere. So, trying
to exercise here, around my busy schedule, was hard going at first. But, I’m
getting there. I’ve been going swimming a few times a week, doing some workouts
from home and the bike rides were supposed to start today. Me and Sapphire
wanted to cycle to the Eiffel Tower and back but we needed to pay a 150€
deposit each for the hiring of a bike - what?! As neither of us have that kind
of money hanging out in our bank account we decided to power walk there
instead. It took us an hour and we did 10,000 steps!
So, that's my life at the moment. It's tricky but going
fairly well so far.
I hope all of your New Year's Resolutions are going as
well!
Bisous à
tous
xxx
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