Italy Vacation! page

[Ransom]

Please vote twice - once on options 1-3 and once on options 4-6!

In less than one month my wife and I will be going to Italy for two weeks. Needless to say, I'm very excited. However, I am torn as to how to approach eating whilst in Italy. The way I see it, there are a few ways to approach it. The poll is to get an idea of what the community thinks is the best approach. Obvoiusly, in the end, I will do what I want and not look back but some input is always appreciated. Before you vote, keep in mind that the portions are probably much smaller than in the US and I will be walking constantly.

The way I see it, there are three ways to do this. The first is to say, hey, I'm in Italy and I'm going to experience everything - food and otherwise - and I can recover (read lose weight ) on my return. The second is to stick to only one non-primal meal a day and make the other one to two as primal as possible (kind of what I'm leaning towards). The third is to stick to my guns and make every meal as primal as I can. This approach makes me worry that I won't get to experience a pretty awesome vacation to it's fullest.

The fourth and fifth and sixth items are seperate from the first three items of the poll, and that is to IF or not to IF. I usually do a 16/8 window and skip breakfast. However, as I will be walking a lot and fasting is not a requirement to be Primal, I'm wondering if it's worth it to abandon my IF protocol of the 16/8 and rather not fast at all or base it soley on hunger (only eat the meals I'm hungry for).

Thanks for your thoughts!

[DFH]

I was in Italy in 2009 and it wasn't too hard to eat right.

You can stop at a roadside cafe and find grilled salmon with veggies.

I passed on the pasta. Italian pizza has very thin crust, so you won't get that much bread. Food quality was overall very good.

Just beware of road stops in the morning. The grills I stopped at werent open until lunch and just had lots of sweet rolls to go with espresso.

Like the rest of Europe, hotels typically have a very good breakfast laid out.

[DaisyEater]

If gluten wasn't horrible for me, I'd definitely eat pasta in Italy. Food is a big part of culture. Experience it. You don't have to eat a plate full of non-primal stuff. You can still taste and enjoy without going nuts. I don't tend to think of calories when I'm on vacation and I've never tended to gain weight when I travel. I'm moving pretty much every waking hour so I think it works out.

[geostump]

Italians use pasta as a side dish instead of the main course like we're used to. They do eat lots of meat and veggies and yes from what my husband told me the breakfasts were amazing. I say enjoy it while you can!

[iniQuity]

Honestly brother, the second I hop on a plane for a location I’ve never been in and may never go to again I’m not going to limit myself and I’m going to experience the culture, food and all, as much as I can.

I’m sure you’ll know how to be sensible. I probably wouldn’t be eating mountains of pasta (because I worked at an Italian restaurant and Italians are NOT all about pasta, we had tons of primal dishes available) but I’d probably have some just to tell my friends how shitty American pasta is (or something…)

I went back to my country of birth (Peru) last year and didn’t worry about fasting at all as breakfast is a tradition and my family wanted to feed me (they thought I was skinny!) and it was egg sandwiches and crap and they wanted me to eat two not one and I was like “I’m not doing this back in the states and this tastes awesome, chow down!!” so you better believe I’d be eating breakfast in Italy every single day.

Make smart choices but don’t sweat it, you sound like you’re on top of this already and will return and… keep on living! There’s no failures, set backs or do-overs, this is life and it’s a continuum, there’s very little you can do in Italy that can’t be outdone diet wise, just don’t get no crazy tattoos.

[ShannonCC]

In my opinion it depends on how it affects you when you go non-primal. If eating grains makes you less energetic then I'd stick to primal so you can enjoy your vacation to the fullest

If eating grains doesn't affect your energy level or mood then I'd not worry about it and eat whatever. For me though, I have so much more energy now that I'm eating primal, it wouldn't be worth it to me to give that up and then spend most of my vacation napping in the hotel room, lol!

Have fun! I'm envious

[bwhit]

I hear that Italy is generally very enlightened about gluten intolerance/celiac, especially compared to the US. That surprised me a bit, since Italy is famous for pasta and bread. I would not worry about it too much, but I also wouldn't want to feel like garbage the whole trip. So I'm somewhere in the middle ground camp.

[lucyh]

Italy isn't all about pasta, they do lots of wonderful dishes with meats and vegetables, and think about all the wonderful meats and cheeses in antipasti! And you are going to have to have gelato, probably multiple times a day, there's really no way around that Seriously, though, I thought the food in Italy was such good quality, I don't think you could eat badly, and unless you have gluten sensitivities, I would enjoy a little of the pasta too.

[gojirama]

I would totally live it up. Stay 100% two weeks before and after if it makes you feel better.

[d2mini]

I'd say just use common sense and enjoy yourself.
Coming from American food, you will notice a HUGE difference in the food in Italy.
It's no wonder everyone is thin and it has no reason to do with them "walking more".
The food is so fresh and pure, you're going to love it. I think the bulk of my diet when i visited was Proscuitto, Gelato and Red Wine by the bottle!