So, I'm sitting here on my bed a million miles from home (Mexico) and thinking that I really really want a giant bowl of ice cream. Seriously, I don't know when ice cream has ever sounded so good. I don't know if the stress of being here or the impending journey home or what but oh what I wouldn't do for a caramel sundae. :P
Anyways, being in a very unsafe part of town is actually helping me right now. There is no way on earth that I would venture outside by myself at night just for ice cream. And I'm not about to go downstairs and raid the host family's fridge. Now, what I'm really afraid of is how I'm going to do at home when I can walk around by myself or have my own fridge and food choices again. Will I really be able to stop myself if another ice cream attack comes on? I would like to think so, but many failed diet attempts have told me otherwise...

I know this is a strange question, but have any of you traveled for a long amount of time and had trouble adjusting back to "American" food/portions?

Don't worry about later. You can deal with how you're feeling later on when it happens, but right now you're obviously feeling that ice cream craving from all that stress, and that's okay too. Is there anything you can do to relieve the stress? I know talking about it online helps a bunch, but what about chatting with your host family about it too?

I can't really say much for adjusting to American food/portions since I've yet to leave the US, but I imagine I'll dealio with that at some point of my life. (Ahh the perks of wanting to be a traveling ESL teacher.)

Anyway, I'm wishing you the best of luck that your stress settles and the ice cream becomes mute! <3 <3

You can try to do something you like to relieve the stress.

I lived in Morocco for six months and while I was there I lost about 40 pounds. I think it was just being in a totally different environment where everyone was very accepting, but almost no one is fat. When I got back it was hard to adjust and I ended up gaining a lot of the weight back. A lot of it is the portion sizes, but more so I think the bombardment of food everywhere around you. You can get food here anywhere, anytime. It's on tv, the radio, what you read, signs on the street, the mall... Also in Morocco I walked everywhere, and here I walk nowhere. But I think the real issue is that when I got back to the US everyone here knew me as fat; it's who I've always been. When your abroad nobody knows you and you can be who you want to. It's almost like I expected myself to gain the weight back when I returned. Hopefully my experience will help you out some way as you plan for your return home. Be well!

Stress, is the culprit. Drink some water instead. Stress causes you to crave sugar because of the hormone cortisol. Don't you dare touch that icecream. That icecream will instead of having 7g of fat become 25g of fat because not only will the fat be converted to fat, the carbs, and the protein will too because of a thing called "gluconeogenesis" where if you are stressed your body converts EVERYTHING you eat to fat. So take it from me, sit there on that bed, get a notebook out, and write how you feel with a glass of water in your hands.

Jendiet, sometimes you SCARE me!!!

eeheh... with that story of everything becoming fat because of the stress... OMG! Now I'm stressed of becoming stressed, LOL!
anyway very interesting, thank you for posting, you always have these scientific facts... very new to me!

yeah, I love science and nutrition--I hope I scared you away from using icecream or anything else as a crutch. A journal is a good idea for real though.

I eat when I 'm stressed too...not worth it. drinking water, should give you the same gratification, and you will get full too.

Thanks you guys. Just writing it here and the blog are actually really helpful. I'm surprised by how much. It's so unfair though. Why can't stress just be stress? :P

I know sweety, that is why Doctors worry about you being stressed. Too much stress is very dangerous. They are just learning the stress=weight gain connection. In biology class when we learned about gluconeogenesis, I was like that is why people gain weight under stress---particularly fat.