How Zen lost 30 lbs in 5 Months Naturally

I lost a little over 30 pounds in 5 months, and after I mentioned it on social media a while back, a listener wrote and asked “How did you do it?” 

So we thought we would dedicate a podcast to it, since all the changes we made were pretty extreme. 

I did a complete diet change, and Matt joined me with it. We are both stronger and healthier, one year in. In this podcast, I explain what we did before, and what we are doing now. 

We also include several recipes, since the idea of starving or eating horrible food was a nonstarter for both of us. 

For those of you wanting to start out the new year on a new tack, we hope this helps! 

Want to know more about us and our travel services? Find us at:

www.LittleRoadsEurope.com

www.facebook.com/LittleRoadsEurope

We craft small-town driving itineraries for travelers to Italy, Ireland and Scotland.

And our "alter-egos" as musicians:

www.OrsiniVirtuosi.it

Transcript

How Zen Lost 30 lbs in 5 Months

Note: This is not a complete transcript, but rather the show notes we write in advance to prepare for the episode. 

LINK TO RECIPES DISCUSSED IN PODCAST

INTRO: 

Welcome to Little Roads Unfiltered: Italy and Beyond

(Z) Today we’re taking a question from a listener as part of our Ask Us Anything feature, and we’re talking about my new eating habits and weight loss in the wake of a really bad blood test… 

Among other things, you’ll hear about…

- the breakfast we eat that keeps us full all day

- the exercises that I do in our tiny house

- and some of the really great recipes that have become staples in our diets.

[music up then down to 20%]

This is Matt Walker          …and I’m Zeneba Bowers - 

We’re recording while sitting on the terrace of our tiny home in Italy - so you’ll get a sense of the sounds of life in our little town. We want this to be more like a casual conversion with us - complete with church bells, cats meowing, motor scooters and whatever else 

[M] - so join us as we talk about Zen’s terrible blood test results, and how she turned things around while still being able to enjoy our lives… 
… here on Little Roads Unfiltered: Italy and Beyond.”

[Music up then fade out]

For those of you who don’t know us: We are professional musicians and also travel writers and consultants, living and working here in Italy for the past 6 years. 

If you want to learn more about us and our lives, you can find us on our website LittleRoadsEurope..com, on our socials, and now here on our new podcast, which we’re going to do unedited, as if you’re sitting here chatting with us - 

…and by the way, we did our own intro music - Matt arranged it, and we recorded it here in our house! Since we’re musicians working here in Italy, ecc ecc ecc

[Z] So let’s get to talking about my weight loss, and how and why I did it. In this second season of our podcast we began a segment called “Ask Us Anything”. A listener asked me how I lost 30 pounds, after I posted about it on social media. Well, that is a longer answer than a couple of sentences, so we decided to make this entire podcast a response to that question. So here goes! 

Italy Diet pre- and post-pandemic

When we first moved, our focus was on getting our immigration paperwork right

Getting house together, so we ate a lot of pizza and pasta

Had fun shopping: flavored yogurts, basically gelato for breakfast 

“Oh this is healthy. It’s locally made”

Doing OK though, because we were walking. And shopping daily for fruit and veg

Then pandemic hit - disaster movie scenario

28 days later? We had no idea if we were getting out. Could only shop 1 day a week

Made excuses for bad eating, and since we were locked up we weren’t legally allowed to go walk

Definitely “eating our feelings”

After first lockdown, things were still scary. No steady work for 18 months

(and there were more lockdowns, shorter and less strict but still stressful)

Stress of that certainly contributed to eating and drinking more - when pandemic had passed, we still continued bad habits

Last December, got a blood test, and results were terrible. Skull crossbones, came with a will & testament

Decided to change on a dime. Doctor yelled at me, said I couldn’t do it on my own, needed a nutritionist 

Started total new diet after doing research. Gotta have good food, so I made a list of ingredients and then crafted delicious meals around those

So what I cut out was red meat, cream, butter, nearly all cheese, sugar, alcohol, wheat flour (pizza, pasta). That was for the first three months, with the goal of the next blood test

Shopping was hilarious

Research trips: Modena trip 2 weeks, every day out, impossible

Egg whites, turkey, skinless chicken, tofu, lentils, all veg and fruit. Fat free greek yogurt. 

Lembas bread (recipe in show notes). Keeps you full all day, with tahini sauce, egg white 

Small snack in afternoon, half cup minestrone, carrot and handful peanuts, a little greek yogurt and oats 

Dinner: salads, quinoa, miso dressing 

— “ADVERTISEMENT” BREAK —

That reminds me that we need to stop for a word from our sponsor - - - -  just kidding, we don’t have any sponsors - instead, today’s show is brought to you by: A Good Idea. 

And today’s Good Idea is: 

Miso is a good for you ingredient that has myriad uses. It’s got high salt content, so you have to moderate, but it makes a fab salad dressing. In fact, we give you the recipe in the show notes!

That’s it!   … So anyway, where were we?

OTHER FOODS/DISHES:

Egg white, avocado 

Turkey meatballs, asian style 

Minestrone 

fish, veg puree underneath 

Fava soup, chick pea soup, good oil 

Spicy tomato sauce (also from before times)

Dessert: greek yogurt, honey, oats

10,000 steps, couldn’t keep it up 

After good blood test, added back in: alcohol, more cheeses

Changed to walking every morning, plus 4-5 times a week exercise program

Now kind of plateau, but much stronger. 

Research trips - more restaurant visits (daily) as part of gig

At home 

OUTRO: 

I think that’s a good place to wrap it up here - we hope you enjoyed joining us for our restaurant chat !

Don’t forget about our “Ask us anything” - you can write in and …

We’ll be talking about a wide variety of topics here on this podcast, from travel tips to slice-of-life stories - we’ll be posting a new episode each Tuesday. 

So catch us next time - we’ll see you down the Little Roads… CIAO!