How Travelers Avoid Weight Gain

Enjoying the wonderful food on a trip to Southern Europe doesn’t have to mean bringing home several pounds of “excess baggage” of the wrong sort.

Travel is broadening – but sometimes in the wrong way. All that pasta and paella, eating in restaurants, a la dolce vita lifestyle with long meal hours, sweets we never eat at home, café stops to rest tired feet ... it’s easy to come home with more of you than left. But you don’t have to. Here are a few tips to help fight the traveler’s battle of the bulge.

• Don’t order every course. Just because a menu has a pasta course and a meat course doesn’t mean you have to eat both. Order one or the other.
• In Italy, order contorni (vegetables) with the main course. They are delicious, healthy and help fill you up so you won’t be temped by desserts.
• You don’t need to order a full meal at lunch. Have lunch in a café or bakery, where they offer sandwiches, instead of a restaurant where the only choice is a dinner entree.
• In Spain, order an ensalada mixta (mixed salad) for lunch; In Italy ask for a Caprece, a salad of fresh tomatoes and mozzarella. Either makes a satisfying lunch.
• Be careful of little snacks. In Spain, choose your tapas carefully, opting for shrimp, olives, nuts and lean cured meats (which are delicious) and avoiding croquettes, fatty meats and deep fried options.
• Order grilled local fish; it will be fresh and delicious, lower in calories and served without calorie-laden sauces. If the name is not familiar, ask the waiter to describe it (they are good at doing this in sign-language) or better yet show it to you.
• Don’t begin with bread; if you are ravenous, ask for a salad before the entrée arrives.
• Savor the abundant fresh fruits Southern Europe offers. Restaurants everywhere offer seasonal berries and fruits as a dessert, and you can buy fresh fruits in markets.