Recently we took a 2 week trip to Canada with a friend. We got to stay in a lake cottage that is owned by his family. We were rather “green” in our lifestyle – minimal use of a car, boats to paddle or sail, no internet, compost the trash, no washer dryer, no going out to eat, etc. And this had us eating very healthfully and also very active.  Active meaning busy all day with chores, swimming, kayaking, canoeing and some running, but not near the training load we would usually do since we are triathletes. We didn’t mention it but I think we expected to gain some weight without our bikes.

We did not have a washer or dryer. And while I am not actually saying one should give up a washer and dryer, this was more work to hand wash things and put them on and off the clothes line which was on a hill.

We had to make one big grocery shopping spree  and plan all of the meals before going to the little island – you simply cannot shop every day or go out to eat. We also made a few farmer’s market stops on the way and I enthusiastically bought a lot of produce.  So, the good news is that I prepared almost all of our meals for 2 weeks (we did eat at a friend’s house once.) Everything was cooked from scratch:

• Oatmeal, fruit and fat-free yogurt for breakfast
• Fruit for snacks
• Lunch was whole wheat soy nut butter sandwiches and fruit (my son has a peanut allergy) or leftover dinner items or salads – all low in fat
• Dinner was rice or potatoes, lots of veggies, salad and fish or something vegetarian – all low in fat;  dessert was fruit although one night I did make cookies

It is amazing how healthy you can eat when you have all of the right ingredients on hand, you are not eating convenience foods and you cannot go out to eat. I guess it does help that I love to cook but I made really basic stuff. (I will post more recipes and photos in the days to come and you can  see the Ontario dessert here.)

Another thing we did that was green was to compost all of our food scraps – there is no trash pickup on the island. It means a daily trip to the compost bin – we did have a lot of waste from the produce.  And we did not have internet service unless we took a boat somewhere far away so we managed to fill our days with active types of things – climbing stairs, watering plants, paddling a kayak or canoe, chasing the dogs, bathing the dogs, cleaning up after the dogs, cooking, swimming, taking the scope outside to see planets, cleaning, etc. All this added up to a couple of pounds lost each upon our return. Even our big dog lost weight from running around and swimming and chasing squirrels all day

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