On metrics, wieght loss and shawarma

So recently Tafat and I have been making a concerted effort to keep track of most measurements in their international forms, that is, using the metric and centigrade scales. I actually prepared myself for it before we left Los Angeles by switching the thermometer in my car over to centigrade. It took a while but now I feel fairly comfortable seeing the temperatures in centigrade. I still have to do a small calculation in my head, especially when using the oven, but I feel as though the hardest part is over.

We’ve also taken to measuring things in centimeters and meters simply because it doesn’t help to know that a room is twelve feet across if your trying to fit something that’s six meters wide. Everything here is in centimeters so its obviously sink or swim. Since we don’t drive, we haven’t really had to deal with kilometers.

Kilograms, however, are another story. The scale we have in our bathroom lists are weight in kilograms. All this tells me is whether my weight is moving up or down. Inevitably after seeing my weight I use my laptop to do the conversion to pounds.

What I do know is that I’ve lost weight. Seven kilo to be specific, I’ll let you figure that one out. Tafat and I were actually concerned about my weight loss when we realized how much I had lost.

The scary thing is that I haven’t really been trying. I have been doing an incredible amount of walking here, well at least incredible when compared to the negligible amount I did in Los Angeles, so I guess that explains most of it. But I haven’t really consciously changed my eating habits so it was surprising to see how much I’d gone down. I hadn’t wanted to lose a few pounds that were lingering around my midsection but I never really thought about this much.

Tafat and I were both concerned that I had lost some muscle as well as fat so I decided to try and stem the tide. I think this is the first time since high school that I’ve thought about what I’m eating in order to gain weight. I’m focusing on increasing my protein intake since that should hopefully help build muscle. The funny thing is that the first thing that crossed my mind was that I should eat more shawarma. It’s everywhere, its cheap, its kosher, its delicious. I never thought I would say this, but as part of my diet I’m actually trying to increase my shawarma intake.