Before our trip to Italy, I lost 12 pounds.
It feels good when the numbers on the scale go down, and I worked hard to get to that point, but there was no way I was going to maintain my regimen while vacationing in Italy. Nor did I want to.
For almost two weeks in Italy, I ate and drank without
worrying about the scale. I lived in the moment. For
breakfast I usually reached for the homemade sweets, specifically apricot crostata,
or a brioche the size of Mt. Vesuvius. Sometimes I would have both. With
a cappuccino. For lunch I had pizza or a panino, and dinners were 2-hour
affairs that included appetizers, pasta, main course, dessert, coffee, and
limoncello. We had wine with every meal, and there were a couple of times when my
sister-in-law and I shared a bottle of red just between the two of us.
When we were exploring Syracuse, my sister and I decided to
try a coppo—a paper cone filled with fried seafood or vegetables. It is
the ultimate street food. I ordered the coppo verdura, and when they delivered
it, I thought: “There is no way I can eat all this.” Fifteen minutes later, I
was upending the paper cone to get to every last crumb of deliciousness. (By
the way, I also had a Sicilian aranciata with the coppo, and I NEVER
drink soda in the States.)
For almost two weeks I ate proteins, fruits, and vegetables, but I also ate carbs, sweets, and dairy. I drank
Fanta (Italian Fanta is NOT American Fanta—if you know, you know). I enjoyed an Aperol Spritz before dinner, wine with dinner, and a limoncello after dinner.
But then … the reckoning. When I stepped on the scale the morning
after we returned from Italy, do you know how much weight I had gained?
One pound.
And in the grand scale of things (see what I did there?) one
pound is neither here nor there. That was basically water retention after
traveling all day.
How to account for this? Well, there are several reasons:
1-
In Italy, we ate locally grown foods with the
freshest ingredients. Everything from my breakfast crostata to the delicious
appetizers to the gnocchi at dinner were made that day. Most foods are
preservative-free, which is why bread, for example, is only good that day and
eggs do not need refrigeration.
2-
While the U.S. focuses on eating fewer calories
(a typical “diet” strategy) or restricting certain types of foods (fats and
carbs), Europeans focus more on the QUALITY of the food.
3-
Italian pasta is made from non-GMO wheat. In the
United States, genetically modified wheat is the norm, which increases its gluten
content. It is also interesting to note that 90% of corn, sugar, and soy grown
in North America is genetically engineered.
4-
Europe does not allow the use of suspected
carcinogens. For example, Potassium Bromate (added to flour to make dough rise
higher) and Azodicarbonamide (or ADA, a whitening agent for flour) are common
here, but not allowed for human consumption in Europe or Canada. (Incidentally,
ADA is also used to make bread stay soft and spongy longer and is used to
inject bubbles into certain plastics such as yoga mats and flip flops).
5-
Pasta cooked al dente has a lower glycemic index.
6-
Portion size. Restaurant serving sizes are 1/3
to 1/2 of what is served in the United States. Sure, when you order pizza in
Italy you get one all to yourself, but that’s ALL you eat (no breadsticks) and
the dough is paper thin and non-greasy.
7-
Snacking between meals is not the norm, and
meals are spaced far apart. After breakfast we would not have lunch until 1 or
2 pm, then nothing again until dinnertime (usually around 8 pm). Of course, when
in Italy we had to indulge in some gelato at some point, but the scoops are
TINY.
8-
Meals are eaten leisurely. I was not
exaggerating when I mentioned that sit-down dinners were 2-hour affairs. Food
is eaten slowly, with ample time between courses. And don’t underestimate the
power of a digestivo. Limoncello anyone?
9-
Finally, one of the main things that kept us in
shape was walking. We walked and walked and walked, easily averaging 15,000 to 20,000
steps daily. And it wasn’t Level Walking … it was Hill Walking and Stairs Walking.
(There was also Getting Lost Walking, which makes for some great stories AND
tired feet.)
My one-pound weight gain was NOT an anomaly. The same
thing happened with my sister. I also spoke with a fellow traveler who had her yearly
physical two days after returning home and she experienced the same … hardly any weight
gain while eating our way through Naples and Sicily.
So, what does this all mean? It’s a lesson I learn every
time I travel to Italy, and it all boils down to simplicity: focus on foods
that are local, fresh, and in season; eat a variety of foods; space meals with no snacking between; take
the time to enjoy a meal; choose quality over quantity; avoid processed foods; and unless
you have a severe allergy, do not eliminate an entire food group.
Finally, walk (a lot!) as part of your normal daily routine (gym workouts are a bonus).
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