Quinoa in my Pants

August 3rd, 2013. Today was the first time… ever… that I had the whole house to myself the whole day. My host family doesn’t really go anywhere and usually at least my host grandmother is here, talking to the animals and shuffling around the kitchen. So today I soaked up my fleeting freedom and I actually acted like an adult the whole day! I woke up and made a yummy breakfast and drank 2! cups of coffee instead of my usual 1, then I started my laundry and went grocery shopping. I fed and watered the dogs (all 5 of them), finished my laundry, went for a run and ran 7! laps around the track instead of my usual 5, then prepared a super healthy lunch. This is the first time in my life that I’ve been working hard at losing weight. I’ve always been super lucky to have an awesome metabolism but I never tested it as much as I have here. Basically, my motto for my first 6 months in Ecuador has been “who needs friends when you have food?” So now I don’t enter 2 pairs of pants that I brought with me (in Spanish, to say something doesn’t fit, you say “no entro a mis pantalones”, which translates to “I don’t enter my pants”). I heard on the radio that if you eat mushrooms every day, you lose weight faster. So I bought 2 cans and the large pack of fresh fungus and have been eating at least a cup a day. For lunch, I made a quinoa salad with tons of mushrooms and homemade lemon garlic dressing and had a papaya for dessert. This is when I realized that cooking/eating quinoa is much like playing in the sand or crafting with glitter (not that I know anything about crafting). After you’re finished, it’s EVERYwhere! And you’re finding more and more of it in your clothes and crevices hours later, even after a shower. Ridiculous. 

Anyway, it’s been a good healthy, adult day. Now I’m going to cap it off with some chamomile tea and Despicable Me 2. (Because being an adult is exhausting.)