Starting CRON Abroad

Hi everyone!
So I am new to CRON. Just read about it for the first time a week ago and decided to give it a try. I love the idea! So far I have been doing decentley. Let me start with a little background.

I am an American teenager living abroad in India with my family (certainly adds a big level of difficulty to CRON as MANY foods aren't available here). I will be heading back to the states next year for college. I've been into healthy eating and excersising since the start of high school pretty much. Also have a history of disordered eating but I will go into more depth later.

I am allergic to milk-protein which means I can't eat ANY dairy products. That cuts out milk, yogurt, cheese, etc. That makes CRON hard too. But certainly not impossible. Although I do drink at least a cup of unsweetend soymilk a day, and I am a little worried about some of the research I have heard regarding the healh effects of soy-- let me know what you all think on this.

We have a cook (standard for expats in India) which is good and bad. He prepares lots of fresh veggies, fruit and cruidte when i ask but I also can't control the ingredients and amount of oil in meals that well. My parents do South beach off and on so he mostly prepares recipes from those books for dinners but i swear he adds extra oil. At least its all healthy olive. Also the ingredients in india aren't as optimal as in the states. For example you can't buy chicken breasts, or low fat meat. So all meat has more fat in it than I would like.

Its been hard for me to get ON every day (especially w/o taking a multivitamin) but I am letting 90% of my vitamins and minerals due for now. I can't find most of the fancy things like brewer's yeast and stuff. Im going to make a trip to the market soon to see what I can dig up but I dont have high hopes. At least we can get nice fresh fruit and veggies, soy products (as tons of ppl in india are vegtarians), basics like mustard, vinegrette, etc.

I have been fluctuating a lot on calories. Starting too low I think and then overeating the next day. it was werid I was actually doing fine until I started reading blogs about other peopple overeating on CRON and then i was like damm why aren't I having that problem too haha and i overate. Well whatever, its getting better. I think getting ON each day will help with my disordered eating.

Weight wise I was always quite slim up until this summer. I am 5'6" and weighed about 120-125. But I had actually stopped getting my period at this point and my hormones were out of whack so I had to go on BC pills which made me gain weight. Then this summer my eating disorder got out of control and by the middle of this year I was 146. I would guess at my heaviest this year I was 150 but I hid from all scales. Since new years I have been slowly getting back in control, eating healthier and am down to 140 (although i added lots of excersise so i would guess 2-3 pounds are muscle) and I look super toned. My BF loves it, hehe. My goal is around 130.

I am a loyal reader of April's blog and just diving into others. I LOVE the sound of CRON so far and it is something that I really want to put effort into. Its hard to keep a log of exactly what I eat everyday but determination is fueling me.

So hi everyone! I look forward to getting to know you all and starting my journey on CRON!