Of Europe, gyms, and spinning...

Today I am sick with some weird stomach bug BUT I was really good this week and actually went to the gym Monday to Thursday. This is actually the first week I have gone more than two times since getting back from Europe.

I travelled at the beginning of September to France, Italy and Greece. I did the whole backpacking thing where I only had what I could carry on my back and stayed in hostels. What I saved in accommodation I spent on food! The food was amazing if lacking quite a few veggies. I was craving veggies like crazy when I got back. I ate bread at every meal, sauce on everything and basically everything that is bad for me I tried. My theory was that I wouldn't be there for a long time, if at all, so why not try everything?

We did do a lot of walking which is what saved me, except that my shoes actually ate my feet. I couldn't walk for a long time after the first couple days because of all the blisters on my feet. Warning to all, you need more than a week to break in good hiking shoes! I also walked up all the stairs up until the second level of the Eiffel Tower and many sets of stairs everywhere else. Most of our hostels were 5 or more floor walk up buildings and many of the museums and buildings did not have elevators available to the general public. I don't think my legs have ever been in as good of shape as they are now. Who needs expensive gym equipment? After two weeks of fine dining and nothing but walking I thought that I had gained at least 5 pounds but I was actually one of the lucky ones and stayed exactly the same weight as when I left! Don't hate me! I think the only thing that saved me was I avoided a lot of the cream sauces, cheese, milk products and the like as I would have been very ill had I consumed more than I had.

There is a charity spinning challege at work happening in December where you can spin anywhere from an hour to 10. I have signed up for an hour and my goal is to raise at least $15 to do this. My only problem is I have never used a spinning machine before. I tried it out this week and actually worked my way up to 20 minutes, although I was very sore the next day (read: just like the first day of biking in the spring... ouch). Now the goal is to get it up to 50 or 60 minutes in the next 15-30 days. Claire has decided she is going to try the spinning class on Tuesday at 6am :S I am going to join her.... I will report on the exercise productivity at an insanely early hour later...