Travelling Nutrition

So I just wrote a post about going to Italy,

Now one thing I have been thinking about for this trip is diet. Let's face it Italian food is carb-heavy but as it is a holiday I plan on bending the rules a little. My plan is to try and have only one carb-heavy meal a day and making the other two as paleo friendly as possible.

With my carb meal I will try and get things (most likely things like pizza, pasta, risotto) with some meat in them and olive oil. But with this meal is there a best time slot to put it (breakfast, lunch, dinner) to minimize the insulin response?

The biggest thing I'm want to ask people's advice of is an overall insulin control program. Obviously the best thing I can do is not eat the carbs but I'm giving myself a little slack. So here's a list of things I'm thinking to help control insulin:

-Eat the protein first

-Take Fish Oil before the meal (dosage?)

-Take some Cinammon before a meal

-I'm thinking about something like taking R-isomer Alpha Lipolic Acid

Anyway, hope u guys can help. Cheers,

Ed

ed x said:

-I'm thinking about something like taking R-isomer Alpha Lipolic Acid

Anyway, hope u guys can help. Cheers,

Ed

This might be good, beside the other supplements.

Meh, holisdays which are already food full, put Italy in the mix, just forget about it man, just eat smaller portions. I usually don't like going out of my diet, but in holidays and other special occasions I have little other options. The only options are choose a good quantity and the if you can most of the food you eat may it be "real food".

Your plan sounds pretty good. Try to get extra servings of veggies anytime that you can.

I'd go with at least 2-3 grams of fish oil. Another thing you can do to reduce the insulin response a bit is to drink water with some lemon juice during the meal.

Good luck!!

Depending on what type of carbs you have, in terms of GI/GL. If you have something that will cause a higher insulin spike, eat them at breakfast, and/or after a workout (if you do any on holiday) to stop the catabolic state (breakdown of protein/muscle etc...) If you eat them say, just before bed, or in the evenings when most people do less activity, your body doesn't have much use for the excess amounts of carbs/insulin spike and can do nothing else but store them as fat! If you eat your carbs with some protein, and some fats, that should lower the effect of a high GI/GL food, which would cause less of an insulin spike.

So, higher GI/GL foods around times for activity/mornings due to catabolic state from sleeping. And lower GI/GL foods any other time. Gimme a shout if you ain't got a clue what I'm talking about in regards to foods being a certain GI/GL (Glycemic Index / Glycemic Load).

I bet there will be some good little grocers etc that you could buy some fresh fruit and veg from if you didn't want to eat too much pasta, pizza and so on! Fill yourself up on that, and then buy a steak or something? I'm sure they must do a wider variety of food that doesn't all consist of "carbs"?! God knows...Ok enough blabber from me

Hope this has helped a bit!

Peace and Love,

Mike

P.S Have a great time when your away mate, and most importantly, enjoy yourself! If you can't stick to your diet, then I wouldn't let it effect you too much, just do what you can, and when you get back, jump straight back into your diet routine you are used to!

Honestly I've lived in Italy for 3 months and ate very little Pasta and Pizza. Most of Italy has wonderful fresh fish and meats.

The thing is most place serve more traditional meals:

Appetizer

Salad

Pasta

Meat

Desert

Nightcap (something like Limoncello or Sanbrio (sp?))

but you won't be eating that every day and if you don't want to you can avoid the Pasta step altogether. I'd say there are other things that will tempt you much worse than the stereotypical American view of an Italian meal. Things to be careful of: Foccaccia, Gelato, and Cafes (coffee/macchiato/cappucino/hot chocolate)

Well I didn't get pulled up for my supplements once , I was pretty worried about it in Hong Kong es[ecially when I was waiting in line for security checks and I saw the guards with MP5's walk past :shock:

One thing I've found with taking ALA is if I don't eat anything within about 5-10 minutes I get a somewhat burning sensation in my stomach, is that a common occurrence (if food isn't eaten)? The culinary experiences were great, which I'll detail in my blog. We met up with some friends of my auntie and uncle's, Australians, in Venice and they told us about a friend of there's who had taken protein powder on a plane trip. He had wrapped it in foil! Hmmmm......white powder wrapped in foil what does that bring to mind? He was in an english speaking country I believe (possibly not) and tried explaining it to them by telling them "it's protein powder, see, look it's delicious" and dipping his finger into it and eating it! Hmmmm!

Regards,

Ed