Moving from Canada to Italy

mildammm

Hi guys,

I have lost 40lbs since mid-February at a good pace. I started at 196lbs at 5'9", now I am 156lbs, which is not my overall goal but my summer goal. I exercise, I eat reasonably well, I've got a handle on my caloric intake with myfitnesspal and have a very supportive group of friends.

Here's the kicker, I am moving to Italy for the remainder of the year.

No more supportive friends, no more clearly labelled food and restaurants with known caloric values for food. Hello old friends who may not be as understanding, hello pasta, pizza and copious amounts of red wine. Thankfully, it is maintenance time. I want to track calories because I know maintaining for me is going to be the hard part. I consider myself good at this mfp "game" but now I am going to be completely thrown for a loop.

So a question to those who live in this part of the world and count calories, do you have any suggestions as to what I should eat? I'm not a great cook, so assembling random assortments of food sounds like the best idea right now (for example, a breakfast of a weighed amount of some yummy cheese and a boiled egg with a fruit). Any ideas for cheaper protein sources?

I know I can't avoid going out to eat and eating on the go, so are there specific foods I should choose to not have a carb overload? How do I estimate good portions for typical foods like pasta? I don't really eat it all that often now, I honestly don't really care for it so I haven't had much experience estimating the calories. Should I be doing trial runs with my scale while I'm still here?

FerretBuellerr

I'm don't this will answer your question or help at all, but...

When I was younger (weighed the same as I do now, similar energy levels throughout the day) I moved to France for 3 months on an exchange. I dropped 20 pounds in those months without actually trying! I ate all the typical French cuisine - lots of bread, cheese, meat, etc., and my energy levels were still the same as before. I thought I was eating more there (at least in the evenings) compared to when I was in Canada.

In my experiences, I find that European's (in general) eat a lot more home-cooked rather than store bought/fast food meals, which are healthier - at least I attributed this to my weight loss. And of course when I came back to Canada, the weight came right back on faster than it came off.

My point is, if you cook your meals, continue to do such, and if you don't, maybe take time to learn to! It still blows my mind to this day that I ate like a pig and lost weight. I wish I could give you more specific advice, but I was 16 at the time I lived there and didn't do any cooking and only shopped for groceries a few times, so I don't remember what the labels there are like or how much oils were used in their cooking.