Why you shouldn’t love your fat body

In this day and age sooo many people are fat. Many are overweight and some are morbidly obese. Why are there so many fat people? Well let’s see the average North American diet is loaded with fat, sugar, salt, meat, cheese, pop (soda), enriched wheat flour, high fructose corn syrup and so many other fat causing foods. The average American eats 200 pounds of meat a year. How nauseating is that? Our consumption of meat, dairy and sugar have gone up significantly from 100 years ago. North Americans love their fast food. McDonalds, Wendys, Burger King, Taco Bell, Arbys, Tim Hortons, Harveys you name it. It’s a normal thing to eat fast food at least a couple times a week or sometimes even everyday. It’s actually rare for someone not to eat fastfood. Another problem is all our food is loaded with CORN. I challenge you to open your cupboard and look at the ingredients of your crackers, cookies ect. There’s an extremely high chance that there are multiple corn products sneakily added to these foods. HFCS aka as glucose/fructose in Canada is a by-product of corn. Palm oils is also a by-product of corn. There are dozens of other corn products (usually with complex names) commonly used in North American products. The corn used in these cheap common products are GM which in itself is extremely disturbing. That’s why corn is responsible for your large waistline. That’s because corn is very fattening. The livestock industry uses GM corn to feed cows, poultry and pigs because it’s super cheap and fattening. Cows aren’t designed to consume corn. Cows are designed to eat grass. Yet the only thing cows are being fed is corn which is causing huge problems. Even our meat, dairy and eggs are loaded with corn. All of these “love your body campaigns” mainly displays overweight nude women looking happy apparently loving their cellulite. These fat people are the result of what happens when you are a victim to today’s horrible food. Virtually all fat people eat fastfood and tonnes of corn products. The scariest part is that being fat is extremely unhealthy. Being overweight/obesity leads to a myriad of health problems. Most notably diabetes and heart problems. I’m not saying people should hate their fat bodies but rather they should want to change their bodies. Too often people feel they have no control over their weight. They say they’ve tried but nothing works. These are the same people that eat big macs regularly. I try hard to stifle any critism. If you want to lose weight you’d NEVER eat fastfood, you’d eat organic and avoid corn products at all costs, you’d go vegetarian or vegan work out quite regularly. I highly recommend for everyone to watch the film “Food Ink.” 

St. Pete’s

I think I only managed to get around four hours of sleep. Until you have traveled (no I don’t mean over the border or up North.) You don’t really know how much jetlag can affect you. It offsets your entire system and takes a minimum of 3-5 days to adjust. Side effects of jet lag include extreme irritability, lack of judgement and increased risk of freak outs (I had my share.) I woke up to realize that the air conditioning wasn’t turned on.. which only helped me to not get much sleep. I also woke up to find I lost an earring 😦 which I never could find. For we had a typical North American breakfast of bacon and eggs. The bacon is more like salina (Serbian bacon) and their eggs have a more profound yolk.

Residence Candia is located in walking distance and since we were not yet familiar with Rome’s metro system we decided to see St. Peter’s Basilica. I already read up on the strict dress code enforced by the Vatican- which was the sole reason I brought a slightly longer than knee length skirt and a blouse. It was an odd sight especially in 35 degrees Celsius weather; you can imagine how brutal it was. My mom faired only a bit better than me wearing a skirt and a short sleeved top. My mom described our style as amish pilgrims, two things that should not coexist.  The boys only limitation was no shorts (one of the advantages to being male.) We did end up seeing the Swiss Guards in their peculiar, flamboyant and colouful uniforms that were apparently designed by none other than Da Vinci.. Da Vinci never planned on anyone taking the design so seriously. Surprisingly no one really cared what we wore. There was people wearing things from booty shorts to a “little miss naughty” shirt. This did upset me a bit. However St. Peter’s definitely held up its expectations The giant pillars and the alcove ceiling were spectacular. Out of sheer luck we happened to visit St. Peter’s during St. Paul and St. Peter’s Feast Day an annual event that is more celebrated than Easter. It is celebrated as a solemnity and is considered a first class feast.  There was a grand display of roses and we got to see the corpse of a deceased Pope.. Yay? We actually got to see the Pope and listen to the Vatican’s choir and orchestra. Then we made our way up the long and narrow stone staircase to the top of St. Pete’s. Where we spent a good half hour admiring the view of Vatican City.

First day in Rome

I awoke in the evening to the sound of loud honking and Italian sirens. Italian sirens are the most freaking annoying thing on the planet to hear.. it’s like five North American sirens going off at the same time. Apparently this was a “quiet” neighborhood as advertised on the internet. I just assumed someone left the window open- I was dismayed to find the window was closed shut. Great. As if jet lag wasn’t enough to deal with.

We decided to walk around the idyllic Roman streets. Charming cobblestones streets were everywhere (we soon learned to passionately hate cobblestones because they kill your feet especially on long distances.) Every other place was either a pizzeria or a gelateria. We stopped off at the pizzeria close to where we were staying. All of the food looked like it was left out the whole day. I stayed safe with choosing the plainest pizza they had. Eating pizza in Italy… what could be better, right? Words can’t describe how disappointed I was. How could Italians screw up pizza this bad :S None the less I maintained a positive attitude and just thought that we happened to find the worst pizzeria in Italy. Little did we know that in fact that’s what most of the pizza in Italy would taste like. A dried up piece of bread with a bit of tomato sauce; all yours for just 2 euros! Yum.

The lady at the front desk informed us every night at 10 there is a fireworks display at Castel Sant Angelo. On the way there, my dad made a comment as to how much I fit in with the Roman crowd. My short, lean stature  large striking nose and dark features were normal physical traits in Italy. I looked like almost every other girl on the street.

Castel Sant Angelo has a desirable location on the Tiber River. The fireworks display was phenomenal, even by my standards (I’ve seen alot of fireworks living in Niagara Falls.) The predominant colours they used in the fireworks show were red, green and white. It was like Italy was officially welcoming us into their country. After the fireworks show we lingered around the Tiber River which I found to be a romantic setting (too bad I’m with my family.) The dull glow from the streets lights on the detailed statues just add to how surreal Rome is- especially at night.

The Beginning of a Journey

I won’t dwell too much on the whole airport business since it is a rather boring part of the trip. We left home at 6:30 pm traveled to Pearson airport using Niagara Airbus. We had plenty of time to make our 11:30 flight. Blah Blah Blah.. The flight ended up arriving half an hour early. (Cut down from 9 hours to 8 hours and 30 minutes.) It was the second best flight I have ever been on, I strongly recommend Air Transat.

Yay we are officially in Rome. Rome time it is 2 pm for us though it was 8 am. We are in one of the oldest and most cultural cities in the world and the only thing I want to do is sleep. Little did we know we would be suffering from jet lag for the next 3-5 days. The Fiumicino Airport was far less impressive than Pearson. We found a taxi and got the helk out of there. The taxi ride felt oddly similar to the Italian Job amusement ride at Canada’s Wonderland. Five people squished in a little Fiat going 140-50 kilometers on a narrow highway. It was pretty intense to say the least. But we arrived all in one piece.

We were plopped at our motel called Residence Candia. it looked like every other building in the vicinity. Around five stories. Not a daunting 60 floor Embassy Suites or Sheraton like back at home. When we walked in Residence Candia it felt like the House of Mirrors. Mirrors lined the walls which was an attempt to make the place look bigger but it only succeeded in  confusing lethargic tourists. It was not a beautiful, roomy, lavish lobby with a seating area and a flat screen TV. This was pretty basic. “Hello?!” I hear a voice speaking in a French accent I turn to see I’ve found the front desk hidden in a wall of mirrors. We finally get to our room but before that the person at the front desk redundantly reminded us that our room was on the fourth floor- she even resorted to using hand gestures. I was too tired to even care at this point. But just thought to myself that she must think all North Americans have a lower IQ than anywhere else in the world. The elevator was hidden in the corner and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I saw the size of it. Saying the elevator was small would be an understatement. It would be the worst night mare for a person suffering from claustrophobia. Miracuously it could hold me and my family (4 people.) But it was a very awkward, slow and steamy ride. Everyone was in everyone’s personal bubble. It didn’t help that the elevator moved at a glacial pace. When we arrived at the 4th floor the elevator was a sauna.

When we found our room, we were surprised it was not a typical North American room. There was a hallway leading into 2 bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. It was actually pretty nice to have the extra room; even if it wasn’t Hilton quality. I hopped onto the top bunk and snoozed the afternoon away.

Europe Trip: Intro

Hello, the sole purpose of this blog is to document our Summer Europe Trip.

I knew this trip was going to be the best vacation I’ve ever had. I mean it’s Europe.. I’ve heard so many things about it. Good and bad but mostly good. To me it was a foreign place where my ancestors descended from. My Baba (maternal grandmother) was born in a tiny village close to Karlovac, Croatia. I must emphasize that she is Serbian. She came to Canada alone at the age of 18 on an airplane and the moment she set foot on Canadian land thought of herself as a Canadian citizen and never really looked back at the “old country” I guess you could call her home free. My Deda (maternal grandfather) was from a small village called Staro Selo. He took the cough cough* illegal way into Canada. Originally in Tito’s Guard he managed to escape to Trieste, Italy which was no easy task. From there he took a boat traveling to Canada and two weeks later arrived at Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. My Deda (paternal grandfather) was born in a very tiny village called Pope, in Central Serbia. He too immigrated to Canada by boat. My Nona (paternal grandmother) although born in Sudbury is of Italian descent. Her parents coming from Pesaro and Fano (both Pesaro and Fano are located on the Adriatic Coast.) It case anyone cares I am 3/4 Serbian and 1/4 Italian.

Back to the trip. I knew this was also going to be the longest and most exhausting vacation ever. This vacation was really four mini trips comprised to make one super long, exhausting, overloaded, crazy, awesome trip. The first segment will be 6 nights in Rome. Then a week on a cruise to the Western Mediterranean. The third segment will be visiting relatives in Serbia. And the last seven days we will be spending in Venice. (Pesaro and Fano couldn’t fit into the schedule.)

This trip took a little less than a year of preparation. Deciding where we wanted to go, where we would stay, research about the places we were going to.. and about 10 zillion other things we had to worry about. We left all of that up to my dad. I must commend him for cutting the cost of the trip in half because of all deals he found. (My dad is one of the most frugal people on earth but that does make him exceptional at finding deals.)

END OF INTRO

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