Just got back from a wonderful trip to Paris and Barcelona, and I’m surrounded by laundry, suitcases that need to be unpacked, phone calls that need to be made or returned, office that needs to be cleaned, and mail that needs to be sorted. Combine all that with the fact that I’ve been home about 24 hours and it’s 4:30 a.m. in Barcelona, and I can barely type a legible sentence, so I’m going to do a proper post or two about the trip later. I just want to mention the one thing that struck me when I got home-the fact that the only fat people we saw in those two cities were tourists. Seriously, we noticed it a few days after we got to Paris, so we started trying to find French or Spanish people who were fat. Sure, there were a few soft bodies, maybe a couple of bellies, but nothing like the obesity that you see here everywhere you go. It can’t be because they eat low carb, or low sugar, or low fat, or eliminate alcohol, because that stuff is everywhere. From the chocolate croissants at breakfast, the basket of bread that appears at every table whether you order it or not, the unbelievable butter and cheese in Paris, the fat-laden sausages in Barcelona, and the wine that flows freely from mid-day on, you don’t see any signs of French or Spanish people doing any sort of Oprah-endorsed cleanse.

This morning, J and I did the thing I HATE to do. We weighed ourselves and neither one of us gained any weight on this trip. And let me tell you…we ate. Boy, did we eat. Jambon et fromage with frites at lunch,

Ice cream for dessert…

Lots of Spanish Ham in Barcelona…

Many tapas…which we thought were supposed to be tiny so we ordered too many of them at first…

and more wine that I want to admit to. But we walked all over the place, and we never ate between meals because we just didn’t have time. We were pretty religious about fitting in a workout every day, but still felt like we’d eaten so much more than usual that we had to have put on a few lbs. Even if we had, it would have been worth it! But so far, we’re good.

In my opinion, I think it’s two things. More movement and portion control. No super-sized plates of anything. They walk everywhere. But they enjoy life, and good food. Real food.

Maybe they’re onto something.