Aussie Hunting

The night before I left the Whitsundays for Sydney, my Airbnb host made a joke about how we wasted time and should have been out hunting Aussies for me. Now, I don't know about that... wait - yes, yes I do. That would have been fun. Not my style, but fun.

There are a lot of really good looking men (and women, too) in Australia. And there are a lot of tall, long-legged men and I am alllll for it. I chatted with two women the other day in Bondi beach and we each acknowledged that Bondi is full of super attractive men. It's a bit out of the norm compared to the rest of Australia that I've seen so far, but no matter where I am I turn my head and think to myself how good looking a man I see is. The Hemsworth brothers are beautiful men, but honestly, in Australia they're kind of common. I mean, don't get me wrong - they are very good looking, but my idea of an "average Joe" is much different now than it was a month ago. LOL

Something that is majorly different than in the US is that so many of the men in Australia are fit. There is a clear commitment by a lot of the population to be active and to eat well. There are gyms for sure, but my impression is that many people in Australia just want to be out and about, and don't want to be sitting at home watching television from the moment they get home from work.  Restaurant and take away meals seem to be made from fresher ingredients with fewer pre-packaged, preservative-laced components. Portions are smaller. I'm interested to see how well this works out for me, but I think I'm getting a bit of a reset with regard to drinks in particular. If I stop and get a chai tea somewhere the standard large is about the size of our American medium, or even small in some cases. I think this experience is going to be teaching me what's appropriate again. Now more than ever I'm realizing how skewed my perception is.

Being in a society where there's a wholesale commitment to moving and eating better is making me think a lot about how I'm living my life.  There's no secret that I got into some really bad habits while my back was bothering me so much. I definitely self-medicated with food and was inactive for so long that I lost any real level of fitness I had.  My hope has been that this trip will help me break my habit of over consuming sugar and improve my fitness. Being in Australia has done nothing but confirm that goal for me and crave regular physical activity even more.