How Italian Girls Stay Fit///Take Notes
A while ago, I asked a dear friend of mine, Maria Anastasio, to write a guest post for my blog. She lives in Amalfi IT where Terrence and I honeymooned. (Which is the most beautiful place on Earth, IMO) She graciously took on the challenge of writing this piece, and I couldn't be happier with the result. Allora....
When my beautiful, extremely fit, super healthy friend Alex ask me about writing a few lines about how Italian women stay fit-- my first reaction was...PANIC! Oh My Gosh, I DO NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THAT, I thought.
So, the day after I did something I hadn't done in months because I was too afraid... I stepped onto a SCALE. (More on this later)
Let me say first that I am so lucky to live in a paradise on earth that is the Amalfi Coast. If you do not know which place I am talking about...well, you should come and visit, now! ;) It is amazing, but sometimes I need to escape for a while and I am lucky enough to have a seasonal job that allows me to do that. (I work as hotel receptionist, and this is how I met this incredibly beautiful couple who are Alex and Terrence).
So, last winter, I spent some months in London working as a waitress in a very busy coffee shop right in the center. I had to wake up at 5 am (YES, I said 5 am) 4 or 5 times a week, and had to work for 11- 12 hours each day (Yes, I said 11, 12 hours). Now, working as waitress, having a very frantic life, you would imagine that you would be burning more calories than sitting in front of a computer and having a quite relaxed life, as I have here in Italy. BUT...after 3 months in London, I had put on weight. A LOT. TOO MUCH.
And that bring us back to the scale-thing. HOW did I lose weight being back in Italy in front of a computer? (because I had, 5 kilos more or less)
This is the best part, BY DOING NOTHING on purpose to lose weight! Okay, honestly, I AM NOT the fittest, healthiest person in the world, I still should lose weight, I do eat chocolate (too much) and drink wine, and beers (let me say in my defense, I AM vegetarian at least lol)
But I lose weight because, without realising it, almost everybody here has a very HEALTHY DIET! Mediterranen Diet IS healthy itself. Pasta and bread, if you do not abuse it (overeat), provide you the right amount of carbs you need. Then we use great ingredients. Just an example: if a want a tomatoes salad, all I have to do is go into my garden, take some tomatoes, some basil, come back and dress it with olive oil that my father himself made. And I can go on with this examples for long, because the majority of us have a garden and grow vegetables and fruit (Don't even get me started on lemons which are the most cultivated fruit in the area--ever heard of Limoncello?) . If you don't have your own garden, for sure there is a cousin, an aunt, an uncle, a friend who does and who is happy to share it with you. Also in many restaurants, sometimes vegetables or other food came directly from the owner's garden.
SO, you are what you eat. If you eat very healthy food, 90% you will naturally stay in health without big effort.
The other secret: STEPS.(stairs) In and around the Amalfi Coast area (ask Alex!) there are thousands of steps! We are so used to that we never realize how many we do every days! I counted the steps for getting home: almost 100! I would never have thought so! It seems incredible to me, that I am realising that after 23 years! Another example? My favourite beach. More than 300 steps to go there but definitely worth it! And, you usually go on the beach to swim and sunbathe, That means at the end: 600 steps to go and come back, lots of swim, sunbath and relax! Not too hard of a workout, huh?
Being aware of what you naturally do without exerting much effort, can really make you more motivated. I started think, if you are lucky to have a good diet with the healthiest ingredients ever and doing some sport without realising it, what if you are MEANT to stay fit? So, I am really glad Alex had me write this article, because I had never even thought about it!
Ciao, ciao, ciao
Baci, Bacioni, Bacissimi- xx
