On the North American diet

I returned back to England on Monday afternoon have been regretting it ever since. Canada, and the little I saw of upper state New York (Niagara Falls State Park) are utterly, breathtakingly, terrifyingly beautiful.

Now, as the cliché goes; everything's bigger in North America. I can confirm this is certainly true of their sea-like great lakes, massively ugly cars (one could easily get the - incorrect - impression that most people run haulage operations on the side; or the - correct - impression that they drive everywhere - even though everywhere in central Toronto is walkable), and most of all of their food.
You can buy a Double Big Mac for about $6. You can also buy some of the best raspberries you'll ever eat for $3 a punnet, or some of the best salmon for just over $10 a pound.
Living there would make eating healthily much easier and cheaper than here. However, eating unhealthily and excessively would be easier still.

I'm afraid I did a bit of both.

The weather in Toronto was also unexpectedly hot - it was 31 degrees when we arrived, with hardly a cloud in the sky. So, I took to drinking a local staple, Tim Hortons Ice Cappuccino.

Somewhat sneakily, Tim Hortons' own nutrition guide only gives you the calories for 10oz (medium) beverages. The only data I could find their exact beverage sizes was from a self-professed employee's blog comment. Cross referencing the two; if an ice cappuccino is 250 calories - made with cream, unless you specifically ask for it to be made with milk - and thus a large, 14oz ice cap is 350 calories.

That's more than my intended meal allowance in one shot.

In addition, I'd often order some solid food to go with my coffee, in the form of a cream cheese bagel - which their FAQ specifically recommends for a low fat diet. My first such order met with a bewildering paradox of choice - did I want plain; onion; flax, poppy or sesame seed; 12 grain; cinnamon raisin; blueberry; sun dried tomato; or the so-called everything bagel, presumably intended to allow indecisive virgins such as myself to opt out of a potentially line stalling decision. The cream cheese also came in four varieties; plain, light, herb and garlic and strawberry (!). Total calories for an everything with herb and garlic: 421 calories, for a total of 771 calories for what was intended to be a light snack.

In future, I'll think twice before criticising Americans for having an obesity problem.