Can anybody relate to being a real "Italian"??!!

RitaC21
RitaC21 Posts: 29 Member
in Motivation and Support
Can anybody out there "really" relate whats its like to be Italian? All I can see is that people have such great willpower eating fresh fruits, salads and all this healthy food and I'm thinking to myself "oh mamma mia.." I don't know if I can do this! I love my pasta and pizza and cakes and cookies and a bit of bread.(not all at once of course although there are some days where I might be tempted!!) Our family lifestyle involves eating pasta almost every night. I'm trying my best to eat in moderation but its soooo hard...we make good food...we love to eat this good food!! It is our tradition to make sure everyone is fed well.. you hear that old Italian saying "mangia mangia" which means eat eat!! Eating means showing love and boy do I LOVE it...whats a person to do? I appreciate reading everyone's success stories but I somehow can't envision myself doing the same kind of stuff..are there any Italians out there who can relate? What do you do to lose weight?

Replies

  • altarimage
    altarimage Posts: 95 Member
    I can totally relate! My dad is Italian, and my grandmother moved in with us about a year ago. Which meant she was cooking the traditional stuff all the time and making sure we ate way more than we needed too. I recently moved out and moved in with my boyfriend, who is a southerner through and through (which doesn't help with the bad foods haha). We've had to make an effort to not make the foods we grew up with all the time. We usually will have one night a week that we will have something super Italian or southern, but the rest of the week we try to make healthier choices and meals. I would start out slow, and incorporate healthy foods into the tradition ones and work you're way up from there. I know my sister likes to make spaghetti with spaghetti squash instead of noodles from time to time. Or make eggplant parm instead of chicken parm and use low fat cheese. My parents also have my grandma make all the meat items (meatballs, stuffed peppers, etc) with turkey instead of beef. Hope that helps :)
  • jazee11
    jazee11 Posts: 321
    I'm am a real italian. Many of my family members are thin and others struggle. I don't think being italian has much to do with your waistline.
  • pg3ibew
    pg3ibew Posts: 1,026 Member
    100 % Italian here. My wife is also. Very hard to cook with all that olive oil(tons of calories). But you have to adjust and change. When eating at family's houses, you just have to eat reasonable.
  • Mel1509
    Mel1509 Posts: 166 Member
    My husband is italian, I've worked in italian resturants while going through college and its tough. We just made sauce, usually we'd cook meat in it leave the oils, not this time - you really just have to watch all those little things. We eat all the italian yummy food, just had lasagna :) Its all portions for us, we use to over eat like crazy now we have smaller portions. Yes, we eat healthy, if I know I am going to be having a huge italian meal or get together with his family I make certain the rest of my meals are VERY healthy!
  • ToughTulip
    ToughTulip Posts: 1,118 Member
    I still eat all of my italian food, just less of it ;D
  • saraann4
    saraann4 Posts: 1,296 Member
    My dad is Italian and my grandmother is from Sicily. It's not so bad anymore because my grandmother has Alzheimer's pretty bad. For Christmas, she would make lasagna, veal, spaghetti, chicken parm, meatballs, insert every Italian dish basically. It was always like eat more, more more! I can't imagine eating pasta everyday. I'm sure I'd love it, but whoa buddy. My mom is kinda the same way as my grandmother though. Whenever she makes a pot of sauce and I am making a plate...she's always like you're growing, you need more. It's like "Hey ma, I'm 25...I'm pretty much done!" and she's not even Italian. So, I can sorta relate. :)
  • ukulele2010
    ukulele2010 Posts: 126 Member
    You can eat whatever you want, basically. If you want to loose weight then go into caloric deficit -- eat fewer calories than you burn. If I want to eat a lot (sometimes I do...) then I exercise more. There isn't anything I can not eat, but there are some things that are calorie dense so I am aware of those so I do not over-consume compared to calories burned...

    edit: typo...
  • Moxie42
    Moxie42 Posts: 1,400 Member
    I still have things like pasta and pizza sometimes but I have a much smaller amount and pair it with a nice-sized salad. I also go for high-fiber whole wheat pastas. Substitution is key too- using olive oil instead of butter (and using less than you normally would); using PAM to prevent food from sticking to the pan instead of oil; turkey or chicken sausage instead of pork/beef. Try looking up recipes in the Recipe forum. There are some great ideas there for healthy versions of foods like pizza. Good luck! :)
  • SBlost
    SBlost Posts: 90
    my dad's side is italian and its all pasta, bread with lots of butter and sausage!!! :)
    I just try to eat less of everything and eat really slow, that way the family thinks I had seconds, they all eat until the food is gone or they cant move. I also try to go for a walk after I eat instead of just sitting.
    I use whole wheat pasta now and I add tons of veggies to it instead of sauce and I use chicken or ground turkey instead of beef or sausage. It is nothing like the true italian dishes but I make sur eon holidays I enjoy the ture dishes but not too much.

    Good luck sayin no to the carbs!!
  • MarisMom5312
    MarisMom5312 Posts: 6
    Pasta with EVERY meal! Breads too! Who in the world ever came up with whole weat??? Thats not pasta
  • llcomfort
    llcomfort Posts: 4
    Dreamfields pasta and home made sauce that way you know what is in it.

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