I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly / though it's not easy to tell you goodbye

Despite all the good food we were fed (and thus ate) in Peru, I came home to find that I'd lost 4 pounds. Wow! If only weight loss were always that easy! You can eat as much as you want and still lose weight because you're expending so much energy. It's just not fair that one of my favorite forms of exercise -- hiking up and down for miles amidst beautiful mountains and rivers -- is virtually impossible anywhere within 200 miles of Houston.

In all seriousness though, I was really surprised to find that I'd lost weight, because I know I was eating a lot. So I tried to think about what I did differently, and came up with the following:

1. Lots of tea (mostly coca).
2. Very little coffee.
3. Lots of water.
4. Very little soda.
5. Lots of soup.
6. Very few prepackaged foods or snacks.

I actually didn't eat many fresh fruits or vegetables for fear of getting sick. And I don't think the types of meals I was eating were all that different from what I'd eat at home, except that everything there was prepared more freshly (or, less out-of-a-box) than it would be here. But what I was drinking was really different, so now I'm wondering what would happen here at home if I cut back on the coffee and soda, and drank more water and tea instead. (And yes, I already knew that tea and water are better for you, but it's harder to avoid coffee and soda at work than it is on vacation.)

It's really too bad that it's illegal to import coca tea to the U.S. That stuff was awesome.