The Complications with Moderation

If there’s one thing I’ve learned this week, it’s that moderation is key to life.

After six days in Montreal, four meals of poutine and too much French beer, it’s definitely possible to have too much fun.

Poutine, once my favourite meal, now makes me sick. If I eat it anymore I will definitely vomit.

But at the same time, the idea of returning home to the fake poutine I’ve become accustomed to turns me off. Too much poutine.

Beer, once my favourite drink, will never taste the same. After visiting a microbrewery and tasting the most flavourful beer of my life, how will I return to drinking Lucky under the Maryland Bridge?

I vow to not eat poutine or drink beer for at least a week once I get home. It just won’t be able to compare. The excess that comes with being in a city of almost 4 million people is overwhelming, and a prairie girl such as myself can’t help but over indulge.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the simplicity of Winnipeg. It’s an easy city to live.

It’s just that everyone lives in moderation. It’s easier to coast through life and never take a risk.

This results in an extremely boring city where everyone knows everything about everyone else. The possibility of change is limited through your preconceived reputation whereas the anonymity of a larger city is appealing to those willing to overindulge.

But of course, overindulging has to be done in moderation. Benders can’t last without harming yourself.

I feel the French know how to live… to live in moderation yet not stagnation.

They eat ridiculously fattening foods and drink a lot, but in small portions.

In Winnipeg, I know which bar to go to every night of the week for a good time, but when I asked people here about a good bar on a Monday, they didn’t know what to tell me.

I failed at moderation in Montreal and it ruined my love affair with poutine and alcohol (for a while, anyway). So I’m going to go home tomorrow to detoxify for the week and attempt to practice moderation before the stagnation of Winnipeg forces me to drink beer and eat poutine Saturday night.