Keep dieting abroad, advice?

laurablah94

Hello, I am leaving in two weeks for an exchange project for my Uni, going to Germany for 7 months.
I recently started dieting properly again -lost 5 kg last June/July, and put them all back in the following months.
I really want to keep dieting, exercising, and staying healthy while I'm there, but I'll have to eat in the Uni's cafeteria because the lunches there will be cheap and I don't have much money to spend. Germany's already rather expensive, especially when compared to Italy, which is where I'm from. Furthermore, I'll probably go out very often, because I'll need to make friends, since at the beginning I won't know anyone. I am already planning on walking every day to and from Uni, of course -my residence will be close enough, so that will provide me with at least 30 minutes every day. My student residence also has a sports centre built in it, which is hopefully free! Does anyone have tips about how to manage while being out a lot, eating in a dining hall etc?
I also won't have a scale available, at least for what I know now No idea how I'll weigh my food unless I bring my own scale with me.
To weigh myself, I assume the sports centre has a scale, as they usually do.
What do you think?

stachesquatch

I always worry that I'll have trouble when I travel abroad, but I've found that there is familiar food everywhere I go. Especially if you're at a cafeteria. Almost every culture will offer a protein in the form of chicken, fish, beef, pork, in a grilled, boiled, baked form. Every culture will offer a starch like a rice, potatoes, or bread. Start with that, then look around at the unfamiliar. Learn what they have and look up the nutritional information. It'll be just like learning what the nutritional facts were back home. Once you settle in a bit and are comfortable with the familiar foods, slowly branch out. Try the local stuff. Ask questions. Ask lots of questions. Ask everyone! Don't be shy about bringing a food scale to a cafeteria if it is at all possible. If you're super unsure about something local, save it for a cheat day, try it, and see what happens.

General rules for eating out are to prelog first if you can. If you can't prelog, then log while looking at the menu. If I find more than one entry for an item on a menu, I'll select the entry closest with the average calorie count of all the entries in mfp. Ask the staff at the dining establishment for more information. You can also always ask for less than what is offered on a menu. Start with basic foods, stuff you're familiar with and branch out as you get more comfortable with the menus.

I find the biggest problem with traveling abroad is that if you're a friendly jovial person, looking to learn people's stories, suddenly everyone wants to cook you their home cooked everything. And they expect you to eat It all. It can be insulting to say no, so I'll try it, record it as best I can, then tell the how marvelous and filling it is and that I'll just explode if I eat any more... Then interrogate them over the recipe and preparation methods for it.