La Dolce Vita

In this episode of Simple Shifts: Conversations to Fuel Your Body, Mind and Soul, Martha and Peter explore the concept of ‘La Dolce Vita’ and how the Italian lifestyle can inform healthier eating habits. They discuss their experiences in Italy, highlighting the Italian relationship with food, cultural dining practices, and the importance of savoring quality over quantity. The conversation also includes practical tips for incorporating these Italian principles into everyday life, emphasizing mindfulness and enjoyment in eating.

Key Takeaways

The Italian lifestyle promotes a positive relationship with food.
Food in Italy is focused on freshness and taste rather than strict dietary rules.
Dining in Italy is a social experience, often involving multiple courses.
Italians have specific rules about when and what to eat.
Savoring high-quality food can lead to greater satisfaction with smaller portions.
Eating slowly and mindfully can enhance the dining experience.
Incorporating more movement into daily life is a key aspect of the Italian lifestyle.
Creating personal rules around eating can help manage weight without feeling deprived.
Traveling can inspire healthier eating habits at home.
Every meal is an opportunity to learn about personal eating habits.

Video Transcript

Martha McKinnon (00:00)
Hi, welcome to Simple Shifts: Conversations to Fuel the Body, Mind and Soul. I’m Martha McKinnon from the blog Simple Nourished Living and with me is my brother and my partner at Simple Nourished Living, Peter Morrison.

Peter Morrison (00:14)
Hi.

Martha McKinnon (00:15)
Hi. So today we’re going to explore La Dolce Vita and what Weight Watchers can learn from the Italian lifestyle in La Dolce Vita. So I’m really excited to talk about the sweet life.

Peter Morrison (00:29)
Does that mean the sweet life?

Martha McKinnon (00:32)
Yeah. So we went to Italy last year and I thought this could be a fun conversation. But before we dive in, what are you happy about? What’s exciting in your world?

Peter Morrison (00:42)
I can move about freely without pain.

Martha McKinnon (00:51)
Oooh! Tell me more.

Peter Morrison (00:53)
How’s that for a teaser?

Martha McKinnon (00:57)
Hmm. Yikes. What did you do? What happened?

Peter Morrison (00:59)
Friday had a great day, played pickleball, we took our walk. It was in the evening getting ready for dinner. I’m in the shower. I feel like somebody punched me in the gut.

I’m like, what is going on? So got out of the shower, threw on some clothes, was able to like crawl to the bed and like lay down, but I’m just like in agony. Could not stand, could not sit, couldn’t barely do anything. So after about 10 minutes, I made my way out to the living room and tried to get comfortable and said, you know, I can’t eat tonight. I’m like, I don’t know what’s going on.

So I laid there on the floor for a little bit. Wasn’t getting any better. I thought, well, I did play pickleball. I’m like, well, maybe I’m dehydrated or something. So I was able to eat a banana. Didn’t really help. Drank some water, got back to bed. I’m made it about two hours, but it just was not getting better. It was getting not necessarily worse, but was just like the worst pain of my life. So ultimately decided we need to go see somebody. So we ended up at the ER. And after about an hour waiting there, ultimately it turns out I had kidney stones.

Martha McKinnon (02:23)
Oh my Goodness.

Peter Morrison (02:24)
Yes. So they gave me an IV because they did say I was a little dehydrated. They gave me, I asked for some light pain medication, I didn’t want anything too crazy heavy. So they did the test, did a scan, did some blood work. So then they sent me back out, which was okay because the pain was relieved at that point.

So send me back out to the waiting room in the ER waiting for the lab results and whatnot.

And then the pain medication started wearing off again. I’m just like, I’m doubled over again in the chair and I’m like, this is not good. Like I can’t handle it. And I mean, I consider myself to have a pretty high pain threshold or tolerance, but this was the worst pain I’ve ever felt. So there was an RN at the desk and she’s like, well, let me look up what they gave you and it took a while, but then they were ready to release me too, because there was nothing they could do at that point.

The size was small enough. They said it will pass on its own. They did give me a pill, which was stronger – pain medication, and then sent us home with instructions. We got home. By this time it’s like 1:30AM in the morning. I was able to get to sleep, had a good night’s sleep, got up and had to pee of course and you know looked in the toilet and sure enough there’s like one or two like little grains of sand so thank goodness. I did some research and some people have this for weeks before they pass luckily and then the whole next day I’m I was very cautious because I didn’t know if it was gonna come back or was that it, is there more coming?

But apparently, you know, I’ve been, it’s been a couple of days now, but knock on wood. Everything seems to be good. But I didn’t know if my appendix burst. I didn’t know if some organ was ruptured. I mean, I just. And that the people jokingly in the hospital were calling it like the closest thing a man would ever feel to childbirth.

Martha McKinnon (04:42)
I’ve heard that many times, yes, I’ve heard that before. It makes you realize.

Peter Morrison (04:48)
And unfortunately, I guess once you’ve had one, sort of like, there’s a good chance you may have more. But it’s like, yikes. So the next day I’m cooking dinner, I’m dancing around with the music. It felt so good to not be in pain. So yeah.

Martha McKinnon (05:10)
Yeah. Yeah, something we take for granted until we experience severe pain. For sure. Well, I’m glad you’re better. I’m glad you’re on the other side of it. That is something to celebrate. And the fact that most of the time we are pain free is something to celebrate.

Peter Morrison (05:26)
And I’m like, the size of these things, they’re tiny. I mean, teeny, teeny tiny. I’m like, how could that cause so much pain? I think from the little research I did, from the time it left my kidney, there’s a little tube it has to go through to get to your bladder. I think that for me, that’s where all the pain was. Given the size and everything, once it was in the bladder and got flushed out, I wasn’t aware of any feeling or any sensation, but yeah.

Martha McKinnon (05:57)
So when they talk about passing kidney stones, they’re not kidding, right? Yeah.

Peter Morrison (06:01)
No, and it came on so suddenly. I don’t know if it was the warm water from the shower or whatnot, but it just came on and I just had no idea.

Martha McKinnon (06:13)
But like you’re saying, it must have gotten into that ureter. It must have gotten into that tube from your kidney down into your bladder and started to cause owie’s. Well, I’m glad you’re through that.

Peter Morrison (06:26)
Yeah, so… Me too.

Martha McKinnon (06:29)
I had no idea that you’d been through all that.

Peter Morrison (06:31)
Surprise!

Martha McKinnon (06:33)
Surprise! Well, how do we segue now…

Peter Morrison (06:35)
The joys of aging.

Martha McKinnon (06:38)
I don’t know. I think younger people get kidney stones too.

Peter (06:41)
Yeah, some research I did is most common in men in like 30 to 40 years old, believe it or not. So which I’m far past that. But anywho, that’s my good and new.

Martha McKinnon (06:56)
So you made it. Well, that’s something to celebrate. That’s good news. That’s something to celebrate. I have nothing nearly as exciting, but it does kind of segue us into our topic of La Dolce Vida today. I’m giving myself, I love to read, but for some reason, I haven’t for some time allowed myself to read fiction. I’ve just been so much reading nonfiction and I get focused on a topic and then I go down a rabbit hole and I’m doing sort of more, I guess serious nonfiction reading.

And so this summer I’ve decided I went to the library here and I just decided to play. And so I’m in my second book and this book is called Stars in an Italian Sky by Jill Santopolo. And it’s set between Genoa, Italy and New York. And it goes back and forth between just after the war and present time. And it was a fun, delightful read.

But again, it was a lot of in Italy, it took me back to Italy, it took me back to the vacation that we took. And because one of our stops was Genoa and I thought this is a perfect time to explore everything we talked about when we were in Italy and some of those feelings of Italy and how I feel as though we can take some of those experiences and the lifestyle and their approach to food and life and relationship and point out how it’s beneficial to, because I feel like I go on vacation, I feel like I give myself more latitude, I lighten up on my rules, I live a more relaxed lifestyle. And I often come back without having gained weight even though I feel like I’m being much more indulgent and it’s like, well, what’s that like and why does the Italian lifestyle kind of support that? So are you open for a conversation around that?

Peter Morrison (08:50)
Yeah, that sounds good. I hope to be able to remember some things.

Martha McKinnon (08:54)
So what comes to my mind immediately when I think about and I reminisce about that trip to Italy and you know we flew into Milan, we went to Genoa, we went to Perugia, we went to Florence, we went to Cinque Terre. And then on from there Rod and I continued the trip and we were in Parma and we were in Venice and we were in Trieste and it was just wonderful.

So we got lots of Italian experience. But one of the things that comes to my mind immediately is just like there’s a different, I think, relationship. The Italians have a different relationship with food, I think, than we do in America. It’s like I think sometimes in America we get sort of vigilant and we sort of think of food as good and bad and all these rules and, you know, Paleo this, vegetarian this, and I just feel like it’s a much more like sort of happy relationship with food that they just think of food in terms of not whether it’s good or bad, but they have, you know, how fresh is it and where did it come from and how does it taste.

Peter Morrison (10:01)
Mm-hmm.

Martha McKinnon (10:06)
And, you know, how can we turn this into something delightful? So that’s one big difference I think that, and I think having that positive relationship and looking for, you know, how can I take, how can I have the, you know, freshest food and it’s just one thing that I noticed.

And we went on a beautiful food tour, a food and wine tour in Florence, and I mean, being in that market with all of that beautiful food, with people just so proud of the quality, you know, of their, of everything, of the fruits, of the vegetables, of the fish, you know, just walking through the smells, the tastes, it’s just… I don’t know, it just gets you excited.

Peter Morrison (10:52)
Mm-hmm.

Martha McKinnon (10:54)
I think when you’re just really engaging all your senses like that, you’re not just, you know, coming home and like opening a box and sticking it in the microwave (affiliate link). It’s just so much more, you know, sensual. You’re just smelling, tasting, touching, the feeling, the… It’s just so much more vibrant.

Peter Morrison (11:10)
Right, right.

Martha McKinnon (11:11)
So that was one thing that I noticed. And then I think about there are rules. You know, the Italians have, and I think in a lot of European countries, there are rules around food. There are times of day when you eat and there are times of day when you don’t. And there are foods that you eat at certain times and you don’t. And I think that we’re more like, all you can eat 24-7. You know, there’s never a time when a restaurant’s not down where if you’re in Italy, it’s like, we’re open for lunch from this hour to this hour. And we’re open from dinner from this hour to this hour.

And I made a huge faux pas, if you remember when we were in… I kind of knew I was doing it, but we were in a really nice restaurant in Rio Maggiore, and I ordered cappuccino after dinner, and the waiter just had to like…

Peter Morrison (11:55)
This is probably what, 9 p.m. at night maybe.

Martha McKinnon (11:58)
Yeah, and I mean, I kind of knew I was doing it, but I had no idea the reaction and the waiter just had to make fun of me, you know, because there, you know, you don’t drink a cappuccino – you would never drink anything with milk after like 11 o’clock. You know, there’s, there’s time, there’s rules. And so he had to point out, he said good morning to me when he brought it or, you know, he kind of teased me about doing that because at that hour you would only have espresso.

You so and there’s so and there are lots of rules, you know, you don’t put cheese on your fish and they just have a lot of I think rules that probably, you know, help in guiding them eat in a sort of healthy balanced way.

Peter Morrison (12:42)
Yeah, it makes me think too that we also ran into that issue with the spritzers we were drinking.

Martha McKinnon (12:50)
Right, yes.

Peter Morrison (12:52)
We were sitting at this cute little outside sidewalk cafe. It was a warm day and we were looking over the menu and I think we all ordered, they had several different spritzers on the menu and one of us ordered one with, I forget with Campari maybe?

Martha McKinnon (13:11)
So I think the Aperol spritz is everywhere now. It’s a really popular drink. also, I think, Limoncello spritz is an option. And I think Campari spritz is an option. And one in our party asked for the Aperol and the Campari to be combined, a little bit of each. And the waiter was taking it back like a cast. Like, no, that won’t taste good. We can’t possibly.

But then, you know, we said, but we have had it that way and we do like it a little bit of each. Okay, if you want. And I think, like I said, because we are as human beings, we are designed for the see-food diet. We are designed to eat when we see food, this whole concept of feast or famine, I think cultures have had to decide and set up these rules to help guide you through your life in a healthy balanced way so that you’re not eating 24-7 and that you do put limits in a healthy, fun way that works for people across the board. So there are definitely more rules around food in terms of your timing of when you’re going to eat and what you’re going to eat.

Breakfast over there you know traditionally it’s just much lighter than we have here. You know it’s usually just maybe a little toast, or a little croissant which they call cornetto. I mean a lot of people take their breakfast in these little cafes and bars where you just you just have your espresso standing with a little you know biscotti or little donut.

It’s not, you’re not going to see typically the huge breakfast like we often the eggs and the know the heavy breakfast that we tend to indulge in here. So that’s another difference. And again there’s going be hours for your lunch. Dinner is going to tend to be later than we’re used to here. Oftentimes the restaurants don’t even open till after you know we have as Americans are getting ready to to go to bed. So that’s another interesting difference.

I also noticed like that they tend to eat more like in courses. You know, it’s not like everything at once. They’re tense, especially during the lunch meal or the dinner meal, you’re going to tend to have, you know, your little appetizer and then your little pasta and, and then move into, you know, a main course with some type of protein and vegetable and dessert. So the meal is spread out over a lot more time. Portions are much smaller, you know, much than we experience here.

Peter Morrison (15:58)
Mm-hmm.

Martha McKinnon (16:00)
It’s causing me to flip back years ago before this trip, I went to Italy to take part in a yoga retreat and we stayed at this lovely little, villa would be too grand a word, but it was just a beautiful, a beautiful sort of bed and breakfast with a separate, this was an Umbria in the hills, with a lovely room with big windows for the yoga portion of it.

And every night we took the meals together in another separate room and food was served family style and I didn’t know there were going to be so many courses. And so, you know, the first night when the big bowl of pasta comes, I thought that was it, you know? And so I ate, I ate way too much. I ate way more pasta because then there was coming the vegetables and the fish and on and on. So.

So the spreading it out, you get lots of variety, get a much more balanced meal. And because you’re eating more slowly and spreading it out, you tend to eat, you slow down and eat less. And it’s much more social, you know, eating with, you know, with, it’s not like just eating alone in front of the television. That would just be not very Italian at all. You’re gonna be eating with family around the table, lots of conversation, wine and just a much more relaxed sort of happy experience which goes back again to the La Dolce Vita concept.

Peter Morrison (17:28)
I hope to find some, I need to go back through the pictures because I want to add some pictures in that apply to some of what we’re talking about. But on the food tour, we did a walking food tour in Venice where the market you mentioned earlier.

Martha McKinnon (17:47)
Yeah, in Florence, yeah. Yep.

Peter Morrison (17:50)
I think that might’ve been the first stop in Florence, right? And we also stopped, he took us to a little cookie shop. It wasn’t a cookie shop.

Martha McKinnon (18:00)
Like the biscotti, the cantucci.

Peter Morrison (18:03)
Cantucci, right. I was so impressed and really, really enjoyed those. They were small, they were not really overly sweet, but just so, they were just perfect.

Martha McKinnon (18:18)
Yeah, that’s the other thing. Even sweets tend to be less sweet in Italy. You know, the cookies, the biscotti, there are many of those desserts, panna cotta, fruit, the cakes, they’re not cloying the way that so many, you know, you’re not going to have layers of icing and they’re just going to be much, the food tends to be simpler. Definitely.

But again, so much attention to quality and to flavor. And I think when you really start to play with this, and I’ve done this in the past as I’ve, through the years, played with different ways to handle my weight management. Becoming a little bit of a food snob intentionally just to be more discriminating in terms of what you’re eating can be another way to limit how much you’re eating.

And what I’ve tended to notice is that if you indulge in something that’s really, really delicious, you need less of it. Or it just stays with you and it just keeps you satisfied. And I don’t know if it’s just because you’re, I think we are the sort of the mind body connection. And I think tasting really delicious food and savoring it has a different effect on your whole body than just kind of chowing down on something that’s really not very good.

Peter Morrison (19:48)
Mm-hmm.

Martha McKinnon (19:50)
And so really savoring delicious food is another way to incorporate this whole concept of La Dolce Vita into our weight management.

Peter Morrison (19:59)
Well, that makes me think of sort of near where we stayed in Florence. We had this really nice lunch at this little outside, again, everything seemed to be outside on a sidewalk cafe. But I don’t even remember exactly what we had, but it was like tomatoes and cheese and bread. And it was several, I think we did small plates and just shared items, but everything was so good.

But a few shops down there was like this huge line and come to find out it was like this sand that this Instagram famous sandwich shop where everybody was took a, you know, this huge giant sandwiches and they would take their pictures and Instagram. And it was like this, this tourist trend. Cause we asked our food guide about that and he said, don’t go, it’s something that locals would never do. It’s just something that the tour buses pull up to and people want to see. So I thought that was really interesting.

Martha McKinnon (21:01)
Yeah, so very interesting. It’s like, no, no, no. Real Italians would never fall for this ginormous sandwich. But it’s working well for the tourists. So that’s very interesting. And it was fun to take that food tour and get off the beaten path, to be taken to the real local traditional establishment. Some of them who’ve been in the family, like that little cookie cantucci shop for generations.

Peter Morrison (21:35)
What was your favorite meal? Do you a favorite meal?

Martha McKinnon (21:40)
My gosh, there were so many delicious meals, so much delicious food. The one that really stands out in my memory, I think it was in, was it in Perugia? We were, we went sort of upstairs and it was just a very small restaurant with a very limited menu, but everything was just such, so lovingly prepared with such, you know, attention to detail.

Peter (22:02)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Martha Mckinnon (22:10)
That was the one that stands out in my memory and a very simple meal.

Peter Morrison (22:15)
Same for me. And it wasn’t really crazy expensive either. It was super high quality and it was very reasonable priced. And I think another one that stands out for different reasons was our first night in Genoa.

Martha McKinnon (22:30)
Mm-hmm.

Peter Morrison (22:31)
A little sidewalk alley, because it was like the old part of the city where no cars were allowed.
The husband was the waiter/server and his wife was in the kitchen and she did all the food, all the cooking and some of her old family recipes. And that was just, it was just so much fun.

Martha McKinnon (22:53)
It was so much fun and so delicious. And again, that’s what you find is there’s just so many little small family establishments, many fewer like big chains, corporate type of places, you just don’t see that as much, just as much, many more independent, small family businesses. And of course, gelato always becomes a big deal too.

Peter Morrison (23:22)
Mm-hmm.

Martha McKinnon (23:24)
I love the gelato and I love the fact that there’s so many again delicious flavors and you’re served such a small portion that you do slow down with a tiny little spoon that you do slow down and really take your time to taste and to savor. It makes you realize you don’t need an ice cream cone that’s as big as your head.

Peter Morrison (23:41)
So you have any tips for travelers or maybe tips for recreating that at home maybe?

Martha Mckinnon (23:50)
So I think there’s just so many takeaways.

Well, the things that come to mind. well, yeah. Well, and think one tip is, I mean, it’s just, I think it’s a much more active life there. I mean, what we experience is there’s just a lot more walking, a lot more just general exercise and people out, just walking, moving, you know, gardening, just getting more steps in, in ways that don’t feel need to feel intense. But I think just moving more. And I think we can always incorporate that into our life by just finding ways… You know, one simple way that I play with is just to park further away when I am going somewhere. If I’m not, you know, living the pedestrian lifestyle, at least I can park in a far end of the parking lot and just incorporate more steps into my day. So I think just look for easy ways to move.

I think about the whole concept of being more particular and discriminating and just really paying attention to how your food tastes and letting your taste buds really guide you in terms of freshness and taste. And just notice how much more satisfying you are and how much less you really need to feel satisfied when you’re eating food that is really flavorful and tasty. I mean, in my mind, this just causes me to go to Phoenix, where we’re not in Italy, but we’re in Pizzeria Bianco, or one of Bianco’s restaurants where a very limited menu but everything’s done with such high quality.

You know a sandwich there, you know a tuna sandwich or a simple sandwich I’ve found, I can eat that maybe half of it and it’ll keep me satisfied for hours. I don’t know if it’s just this like I said it’s sort of is it because of the quality of the ingredients or is it because it tasted so good that somehow you know your body processes it differently but I’ve noticed that when you just slow down and really savor delicious high quality food that just notice, just notice, notice the difference for yourself in how it makes you satisfied.

And then just think about little rules that you can come up with for yourself that will help guide you not from a place of having to punish yourself, but just that you’re lovingly caring for yourself. And the fact that no, no, no, no, it’s like after this hour, you know, after this hour, I don’t do that anymore, you know.

I don’t put milk in my coffee after a certain hour or I don’t eat eggs until lunchtime. I wait and have an omelet at lunch or a frittata. Just to sort of play with different ways to come up with your own rules that are going to help guide you and take away some of the, you know, I’ve played a lot with the no snacking thing because we’ve become a society that thinks we have to be eating so often and the truth is if we’re going to be eating, if we know we’re going to be eating three meals a day, or we know that our dinner is like an hour away, we’re not going to starve, you know, in an hour.

So I think just playing with, for me, it’s been helpful to say, no, no, no, I’ve, you know, I had enough lunch and I’m getting a little hungry, but I, but if I’m going to really enjoy my dinner, I need to not be eating every time I happen to see something or every time I happen to have just this little I don’t know sensation in my stomach. It’s okay you know hunger I think playing with hunger and letting yourself be a little hungry so you can enjoy your meal is something to play with and again you don’t want to take it to the extreme you don’t want to get so overly hungry that you’re you know you’re going to eat too quickly. But just to play a little bit and again I think those those rules that many European countries have about this is lunchtime, this is dinner time can help with that to say, you know, I’m not going to be eating in between. And again, it’s going to the fewer times you eat, the fewer opportunities you have to overeat, the less overall you’re going to eat. And it’s just another easy way to manage your weight that just kind of feels natural. So that would be another tip.

Peter Morrison (28:02)
Mm-hmm. Or maybe flip that and if you do have a day where maybe you’re hungry and you find yourself snacking a lot, do a girl dinner for, you know, in the evening and don’t feel like you have to have this big dinner or big meal. Maybe just keep it light.

Martha McKinnon (28:18)
Exactly. I did that last night where we did, Rod had been out, I was playing again, trying to, working on recipes for the, for the website and making sort of heartier snacks than I typically would. And so we took, we did indulge in a very hearty snack and it was delicious, but very simple that I’ll share on the website soon. And it was a skewer. It was skewers, little skewers of chicken sausage, chunks of apple and a chunk of cheese. And that’s something I wouldn’t typically eat.

But by then when dinner came, like you said, I mean, I ended up eating much less dinner because I had had this very generous, very hearty snack at a time when I typically wouldn’t. And so again, you’re just always adjusting and paying attention just because just because you typically eat a big dinner, even if you had a big dinner planned. If you’re not hungry, if you have eaten more during the day, if you did snack more than you intended there’s always an opportunity to adjust. Every meal is a new opportunity to just kind of tune in and to pay attention and to learn more about yourself. So yeah, good advice.

Peter Morrison (29:30)
Cool.

Martha McKinnon (29:32)
So that was fun. That was like a little trip down memory lane because while I had remembered my coffee, cappuccino experience, I had forgotten about the spritz, the Aperol Campari experience. So that was fun. So.

Peter Morrison (29:48)
Great, well, if you have any travel tips or tips that you’d like to share with our readers or watchers, I guess, please leave them in the comments below. And if you’d like to share this with anybody you might think would find it helpful, that would be wonderful.

Martha McKinnon (30:07)
Thanks for tuning in and we look forward to being back with you again soon.

Peter Morrison (30:11)
Have a great day everyone.

Martha McKinnon (30:13)
Bye bye.