Tehran - The Weight Loss Challenge
Readers of my blog will know that've I've been on a campaign to reclaim my waist line and reuse old clothes. Logging my daily weight and learning how my body reacts to food has been a revelation - I've been eating much more than I need to. Instead of counting calories and denying myself food I really wanted to eat, I've been practising portion control.
Prior going to Tehran for business and a wedding, I was wondering just how I was going to cope with all the fantastic food on offer - would I blow it completely and go back to 62.0kg? I put on weight by just looking at it; losing the kilograms is much harder.
Now I've been to Tehran before and I can tell you that the food is just wonderful! It's the sort of food I used to have when I was a girl; tasty, natural, unprocessed and plentiful. It only costs the equivalent of AUD$2 for a typical Iranian lunch! I was convinced I was going to come back fat.
To get to Iran, I had to fly from Perth to Dubai and then Dubai to Tehran. Flying Emirates is always a good experience and the food and service are wonderful. Because of the time differences and two flight, breakfast was offered twice. The meals served are just huge! From Perth to Dubai we were offered
Asparagus Omelet, roast potatoe and tomatoe
Croissant with jam
Roll with jam
Fruit salad
Muesli bar
Tiramisu
A piece of chocolate
Orange juice, coffee or tea
Considering I was sitting on my bum for over 8 hours, I ate a third of the omelet, ate the fruit salad and drank the orange juice. Later, we were offered a chicken roll which I passed up.
From Dubai to Tehran we were offered a similar breakfast, and again, I had a third of the main meal on offer and half the tiramasu (couldn't pass that up again)!
Amazingly, I never felt hungry during the flight. The guy sitting next to me on the first flight woofed his meal up and looked longingly at my tray, so I told him to help himself. He did.
The food is Tehran is the very best. Breakfast every day was a plate piled high with freshly baked flat turkish bread served with fresh feta cheese. I asked Ahmed to just put one piece of bread on the plate and halve the amount of feta. He said, "You not like?". Well Ahmed, the problem is not that I don't like it - I love fresh turkish bread and could easily eat everything served up.
The meal of the day for me was lunch. The chicken kebab is the best you're ever going to taste! It's served on a plate of safron rice glazed with ghee. The local salad is so fresh and crunchy and tasty - we don't have that at home! All topped off with fesh yoghourt. Last time I visited Tehran, I ate everything on on the plate. This time, I put aside one piece of chicken, a tenis ball size of rice and ate all the salad and a small serve of yoghourt and never felt hungry. Dinner I normally skipped.
Even at the wedding, I ate something of everthing but just a small amount of it. When I got home, I stood on the scales and was amazed that the same rate of weight reduction had continued. It proved to me that portion control can work wherever I am. I'm down to 55kgs now.
While I wasn't ablt to do any running, the oppressive living conditions in Tehran made a very good subsitute. It's averaging over 38 degrees celcius every day in Tehran, and while men parade around in cool slacks and short sleeve shirts or t-shirts, the women must wear long black trousers, coats and head scarves as a minimum. I saw many women painfully trudging up the hills of Tehran, carting their shopping and wearing black all covering chadors while the men ambled happily and cooly in western atire.
There really isn't anything to do after work in Tehran, so people work long hours and go shopping in the evenings for enterainment. The coffee shops are a popular place. Most of the time, I just couldn't be bothered putting up with the heat and humidity and having to wear approved clothing, so I just stayed in my hotel in a pair of very un Islamic short and t-shirts.
The national obsession is food - there isn't much else for people to do and alot of middle aged iranians are as overweight as we are. Men play all sorts of sport while I didn't see much for the women - how on earth can you play sport in that gear? I wondered alot how the men could subject the females of their family to wearing such unhealthy restrictive clothing? When discussing it with men both in Tehran and Perth, I did notice a certain amount of male satisfaction in practice. I think it makes men feel privileged and superior in Tehran to wear free clothing while woman suffer - they were certainly not going to start a revolution for women's equality. I wonder if the roles were reversed, would the men in Iran happily wear the all black chador? Would they change the situation if they had to wear it for even a month? Would women, knowing how it feels to wear it, impose it on other? It's an interest proposition.
Prior going to Tehran for business and a wedding, I was wondering just how I was going to cope with all the fantastic food on offer - would I blow it completely and go back to 62.0kg? I put on weight by just looking at it; losing the kilograms is much harder.
Now I've been to Tehran before and I can tell you that the food is just wonderful! It's the sort of food I used to have when I was a girl; tasty, natural, unprocessed and plentiful. It only costs the equivalent of AUD$2 for a typical Iranian lunch! I was convinced I was going to come back fat.
To get to Iran, I had to fly from Perth to Dubai and then Dubai to Tehran. Flying Emirates is always a good experience and the food and service are wonderful. Because of the time differences and two flight, breakfast was offered twice. The meals served are just huge! From Perth to Dubai we were offered
Asparagus Omelet, roast potatoe and tomatoe
Croissant with jam
Roll with jam
Fruit salad
Muesli bar
Tiramisu
A piece of chocolate
Orange juice, coffee or tea
Considering I was sitting on my bum for over 8 hours, I ate a third of the omelet, ate the fruit salad and drank the orange juice. Later, we were offered a chicken roll which I passed up.
From Dubai to Tehran we were offered a similar breakfast, and again, I had a third of the main meal on offer and half the tiramasu (couldn't pass that up again)!
Amazingly, I never felt hungry during the flight. The guy sitting next to me on the first flight woofed his meal up and looked longingly at my tray, so I told him to help himself. He did.
The food is Tehran is the very best. Breakfast every day was a plate piled high with freshly baked flat turkish bread served with fresh feta cheese. I asked Ahmed to just put one piece of bread on the plate and halve the amount of feta. He said, "You not like?". Well Ahmed, the problem is not that I don't like it - I love fresh turkish bread and could easily eat everything served up.
The meal of the day for me was lunch. The chicken kebab is the best you're ever going to taste! It's served on a plate of safron rice glazed with ghee. The local salad is so fresh and crunchy and tasty - we don't have that at home! All topped off with fesh yoghourt. Last time I visited Tehran, I ate everything on on the plate. This time, I put aside one piece of chicken, a tenis ball size of rice and ate all the salad and a small serve of yoghourt and never felt hungry. Dinner I normally skipped.
Even at the wedding, I ate something of everthing but just a small amount of it. When I got home, I stood on the scales and was amazed that the same rate of weight reduction had continued. It proved to me that portion control can work wherever I am. I'm down to 55kgs now.
While I wasn't ablt to do any running, the oppressive living conditions in Tehran made a very good subsitute. It's averaging over 38 degrees celcius every day in Tehran, and while men parade around in cool slacks and short sleeve shirts or t-shirts, the women must wear long black trousers, coats and head scarves as a minimum. I saw many women painfully trudging up the hills of Tehran, carting their shopping and wearing black all covering chadors while the men ambled happily and cooly in western atire.
There really isn't anything to do after work in Tehran, so people work long hours and go shopping in the evenings for enterainment. The coffee shops are a popular place. Most of the time, I just couldn't be bothered putting up with the heat and humidity and having to wear approved clothing, so I just stayed in my hotel in a pair of very un Islamic short and t-shirts.
The national obsession is food - there isn't much else for people to do and alot of middle aged iranians are as overweight as we are. Men play all sorts of sport while I didn't see much for the women - how on earth can you play sport in that gear? I wondered alot how the men could subject the females of their family to wearing such unhealthy restrictive clothing? When discussing it with men both in Tehran and Perth, I did notice a certain amount of male satisfaction in practice. I think it makes men feel privileged and superior in Tehran to wear free clothing while woman suffer - they were certainly not going to start a revolution for women's equality. I wonder if the roles were reversed, would the men in Iran happily wear the all black chador? Would they change the situation if they had to wear it for even a month? Would women, knowing how it feels to wear it, impose it on other? It's an interest proposition.
posted by Jacqueline Smith at 4:48 PM
1 Comments:
Jacq! This isn't so much a comment on your great blog, but rather a fervent attempt to get back in contact with you!... I'm not sure if this means will work, but perhaps you could email me if you have a chance! (I have the same email address as in the olden days!)
Michelle (in Rome)
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