JJ Virgin4x NYTimes Best Selling Author, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Fitness Hall of Famer

I SPENT 15 Days Eating Amazing Food in Spain and Lost 2 Pounds!

4 Oct 2024 · 1 min

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In this short monologue, health‑coach JJ Virgin recounts her recent 15‑day trip to Spain and reflects on why the locals seemed to stay in good shape. She notes that, unlike many Americans, Spaniards rarely consume large, sugary coffee drinks. Their carbohydrate intake is front‑loaded—eating carbs at breakfast and lunch but avoiding them at dinner, aside from vegetables. Meals are leisurely, often lasting around two hours, and are scheduled late (lunch around 3 pm, dinner at 9‑10 pm). She also points out that walking to and from meals is common, providing additional activity. Despite enjoying rich foods and wine, JJ reports she lost two pounds, attributing the result to these cultural eating patterns and activity habits.

Chapters

Hey, JJ here. I just recently went to Spain, and one of the things that really struck me was that people were in pretty good shape. Let's unpack this and figure out why. So here's the things that I came up with. Number one, except for the Americans, I did not see people walking around eating or drinking those big coffee drinks that are a calorie and sugar bomb. The second thing is they eat their carbs at breakfast, at lunch, but they don't eat carbs at dinner except for vegetables. Next thing, they take their time with meals. We're talking 2 hours. So they eat slow. Now here's the downside to that. Lunch generally was like 3 o'clock, dinner 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock. I couldn't believe it. Thankfully we went for a long walk afterwards. And that's another thing, most of the time you had to walk to the meal and then walk out after the meal as well. It's like, how did I just have the most amazing meals and wine and drop 2 pounds. Spain for the win!