bite by bite, step by step.

Since my return from Dubai, Ryan and I have been living like royalty. Or at least we've been eating like it.

Shrugging aside the fact that our wedding date is fast approaching, we opted for a summer of delicious meals regardless of their nutritional content. I re-experienced all of my favourite Canadian foods. I had a birthday party with enough food to feed a family for a month or two. Oh, and then there was the roadtrip. For 4 weeks Ryan and I drove through the United States eating like Americans. We had to get the full cultural experience, and that just happened to include Starbucks and a whole lot of burgers and hot dogs. The west coast was a seafood mecca and we took full advantage of the fresh crab, prawns, mussels and oysters. Every day was filled with glorious food and more treats than we needed or deserved.

All good things must come to an end, and unfortunately for us that meant returning home and facing real life and the end of our long vacation. It also meant returning to our long deserted former hangout... the gym.

We'd discussed it many times during our trip. We'd justify our calories with the fact that we'd go to the gym as soon as we were back home. Time flew by and before we knew it we were forced to accept our fate. The gym awaited and it wasn't going to go easy on us.

Still sore from our hike up a mountain days earlier, we forced ourselves out of bed this morning and reluctantly drove to the gym. We purchased our monthly pass and made our way to the track where we endured a mixture of running, walking, sit-ups and push-ups. We stayed an entire hour and were feeling rather proud of ourselves, but that wasn't the end.

Later in the day we returned, just in time for a circuit training fitness class. Ryan and I may be out of shape at the moment, but there was a time a long time ago when we were fitness junkie, gym addicts. We've been to the classes and at our prime, they were a breeze. Today, however, I thought I just might die. Everything hurt. My legs, my arms, my back, my abs. During one of our ten flights of stairs we were told to run, we contemplated escaping. My genius of a fiance had left the car keys in the other room and we were forced to return to our perky over-energetic instructor, who commanded us to proceed to the next station. Both Ryan and I struggled to get through each station, cheating and taking breaks and feeling rather embarrassed at our state of fitness. We did survive, and the class did eventually end, much to our surprise. Just 2 hours of workouts and I've got to admit, I'm sore and tired but I'm feeling great. Combined with our ridiculously healthy meals, we are well on our way to getting into shape for our wedding. The moral of the story: Nothing great comes without consequences.

That said, if we can do this, anyone can.

I'll leave you now with a tribute to the food that we ate and enjoyed. If I could take it all back I wouldn't, I loved every single gram of fat and calorie.