Pounds and Pence
Embracing Your Travel Fluff (or What I Gained Abroad)
When describing our travel adventures- from exotic cuisines, transportation mishaps, and unforgettable nights on the town to the vulnerabilities of culture shock, it is rare to hear about the extra baggage we pick up along the way. I don’t mean the three extra suitcases we somehow acquire (and fill), I mean the extra padding around our waists, thighs, and good old gluteous maximus’ from the umpteenth ‘You only go abroad once’ cupcake/donuts/exotic delicacy you inhaled or that 17th helping of rice and dahl that you downed under the ‘lovingly forceful’ eye of your host.
I’ve heard just about every theory that people have about gaining your “Abroad 8” (or 18 depending on your host countries preference for carbs and/or alcohol), about how to avoid it, why you shouldn’t avoid it, why you shouldn’t care about whether or not you avoid it, etc. I think at some level we’re all plagued by the ideal image of a jet-setting beauty or international man of mystery. People who spend their days lying on the beach drinking from coconuts and their nights downing champaign at the club and yet (since they don’t eat?!) have perfectly chiseled, Instagram-ready bodies. In my travels, I’ve met the people who fight for this image tooth and nail, who work out twice as much to earn that slice of carrot cake or who refuse to order desert and insist that they just want one more ‘teeny tiny bite’ of yours. More commonly, I met the people who give approximately zero fucks, and I saw people in both groups gain, lose, and maintain their weight.
For me, what the weight means is infinitely more important than whether or not I gained it (which, for the record, I did). I put on a little extra padding because, maybe for the first time since my early childhood, I had the time to sit down for a real meal, one that consisted of more than wolfing down dry spinach leaves while watching The Daily Show before running off to some event or meeting. I felt like I finally had the excuse to get desert at lunch, heck, sometimes I got desert at breakfast, and sometimes I threw out the rule book and had desert for breakfast, followed by wine for lunch, and tea and cake for dinner. I realized that all too often at home, negativity is attached to food, whether it’s the Snickers bar I paid $1.50 for to console myself after a tough interview, the 15 espresso shots I downed to pull that all-nighter, or that banana that exploded all over my bag because I didn’t have time to eat breakfast at home.
Everything is different when you’re traveling. Your ‘actions have consequences’ tether, the one that usually stops you from ordering that fabulous-sounding desert, that interesting appetizer, or that heavenly bottle of wine, comes lose, and suddenly you’re spending 4 hours at lunch, you’re leaving one cafe to go to another, you’re having life changing conversations over pizzas and pasta and rooster koek without giving a second thought to calories, time, or other peoples’ expectations. All too often I felt like I was tasting food that I’ve been eating all my life for the very first time, and I realized how messed up my relationship with food is at home.
So yes, I brought home a few more pounds than I left with, but if tight pants are the price of feeling not only well-fed but well-nourished; physically, socially, and emotionally, I’m ready to pay up. Don’t get me wrong, health and fitness are important, and finding a balance is essential, but these pounds are about more than unburned calories. They symbolize the start of my journey to reclaim eating, food, and the communion that comes with breaking bread that American’s, or at least this American, lost somewhere between the breast and the McDonald’s drive-thru. Eating is a sacred ritual, it’s our truest connection to the Earth, to our ancestors, and to each other. Food is the collective understanding that all mankind has amassed about our relationship with the planet, the sun, water, and life. I bowed my head in the temple of the dinner table and was given a new skin, and though its a little bigger than the old one, if fits.
