Pasta, Pizza, and Nutella!

I've gotten a number of comments (and warnings!) from friends in the last week about my/our consumption of pasta and pizza. I've gotten everything from "how can you go a day without pizza (in Italy)" to "stop eating all that pasta or you are going to get fat!".

Let me just offer a few words of response.

All in moderation! Yes, we are eating lots of both. In fact, I know we've had at least one of the two every day we've been here. And, in many cases we've had both. Frankly it is hard to avoid them. First, they are both reasonably priced and very tasty. Second, if you try not to eat pizza and pasta you aren't left with much else. Even the paninis are made with pizza crust as their bread. But the key is the proportions. If you order either item - whether it be for lunch or dinner - instead of getting an overwhelming pile of food as you would at home, you are served a very reasonable portion of food. So even if you clean your plate, you didn't actually consume all that much. Just the perfect portion to satisfy you until the next meal. Finally, every where you look in Italy you see fresh food. There are daily fresh food markets in many of the open spaces in the City. (Yesterday we bought carrots and apples at the daily market near our home, and then some pasta and local olive oil at another market). Even the "take away" food (which is just pizza or paninis to go) is fresh and nothing like fast food at home.

We're walking it off! Even if we are eating tons of carbs, we are doing a lot of walking. I'd estimate we are walking 5 - 10 miles a day. And that doesn't include pushing a double stroller up hills or over cobblestones. That's got to burn even more calories, right? Sure, our speeds are not that fast, but we are going a good distance. Either way, our walks are keeping us moving so at least even if we aren't going to lose weight, we won't add more.

So if we are eating in moderation and doing so much walking, we don't have anything to worry about then right? Wrong! Nutella. Oh, tasty Nutella...

Sure, you can get Nutella in the states - and you should... But there is something about Nutella in a hot Italian crepe, or on a warm baguette in the morning that makes it hard to refuse. The kids could tell you that. (See this morning's evidence!) So we are trying to apply the same rules we are applying to the pasta and pizza to the nutella. But it is so hard!