New country, different cultures different foods
When you move within your country there may be some adjustments with food and supplements.
What about when you move to a new country?
As I’m discovering in Spain the food in supermarkets is different and getting vitamin supplements is a challenge but finding my protein powder has proven almost impossible.
Not to mention finding similar foods that I normally find in Australia. Some fruits are not common in Spain and the Greek yogurt that I like is very different. Plus I like mixing protein into my yogurt.
There will always be challenges in trying to eat similar foods.
So what to do?
First things first is that we are always trying to meet certain nutritional goals; calories, protein, fats and carbohydrates.
Not having protein powder means that we need to eat more food based protein.
We may like to eat certain fruits but it’s a case of adjusting to different seasonal fruits and yet still meet nutritional needs.
The other difference in Spain is that there is a lot more restaurants and a culture of eating out more often at restaurants and especially outdoors.
The foods are tempting and they are almost right outside your door. All sorts of different restaurants offering well priced and delicious foods.
Unlike Australia where you had to drive to your nearest restaurant, in Spain you can walk everywhere and within 5 to 10 minutes you can be sitting down ordering; Paella or tapas and many other great foods.
This is where it’s important to be mindful of quantities. Enjoy some different foods but eat smaller amounts. Share a dessert and share main meals.
You can share a salad as well.
Always walk away feeling comfortable instead of uncomfortably full. If you have had enough then don’t continue to eat more.
We always buy a few different dishes and share. By doing this you can put as much as you need of different foods on your plate. A bit of pasta, some salad, some Paella, some pizza.
Whatever you choose.
You don’t always have to eat a whole meal.
As mentioned earlier, most of the restaurants, shops, gyms, etc are within walking distance and when I say walking distance I mean up to 2km away.
This is important because then you can walk to the gym, then walk to the shops for foods, then at night maybe go for dinner (not every night).
In one day you may walk 15,000 to 25,000 steps. So a few extra calories won’t be too much of a problem.
Adjusting to new environments means planning your food and planning your exercise. This means both planned exercise and incidental exercise.
If you want to watch your waistline then just eat less foods.
Nutrition isn’t complicated as much as many so called experts will tell you but it does take planning and forward thinking and the ability to say no or enough
Ps. Serrano Jamón is the bomb.
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