How I Lost 60 Pounds Without Even Trying: Part 4

6. I naturally experienced portion control. The smallness of portions in Europe is adorable to Americans, even though the packaged volume of food is actually similar to how things were sized in the US thirty years ago.

Why are portions so much smaller? Why so few pieces in a package? Well, merchandising is scaled to the size of local homes and cupboards. Europeans simply are not conditioned to having huge amounts of things to store in their typically quite small kitchens. Because they interact with the city every day, they can pick up whatever they need daily, and don't have to hoard it. Sure, folks keep extra drinks in their cellars. But in general, everything from bread to yogurts is sized for an average household of 2 or so. (This is an eco-problem by creating excess packaging, but that's another story.)

Let's say I bought packs of four puddings at the store for an after dinner dessert. There are only four in a pack. Each petite portion contains about seven or eight bites of high-quality pudding.

You eat the pudding, and it is gone. It is strangely satisfying to eat a small amount of something and experience it going from being there to being gone. It's over, and if you really enjoy every bite, you experience satisfaction.

There are limits to what people both need and want, and in this case European manufacturers decide what the limits are. Often, they get it just right: one doesn't need or want any more than what comes in each container. I ended up eating much less than I had in America, and generally enjoying it more. There was an end to it, and the end was in sight.

I never had to literally stretch myself to accommodate super-sized portions. I never had to "just get to the end of it." Consumption is not as strenuous in Europe.

How I Lost 60 Pounds Without even Trying - Fridays part 3

5. I walked around constantly. Of course, civic life in Europe is scaled to the human rather than the car, so everything you need for everyday life is within walking distance. Every time I ever went anywhere, it was by my own leg power. Also, we lived three stories up in a building from 1900, so I also had a significant climb a couple times every day.

I walked my child to school, I walked back home. I walked up the block to the library, I walked into the market square to buy something at Woolworth's, I walked back home. I walked into town to the ATM, I walked over to the coffee shop, I walked to get my groceries, and walked back home, and carried my groceries up the three flights of stairs. I walked out to my car, drove to the train station, parked, walked in, up and down stairs to the correct platform, off the train and walked through town. I walked to concerts and to the movies and back home again, even at night.

The more I walked, the more flexible and strong I became. It became so normal I wouldn't have dreamed of using the car to drive to the grocery store. Because I bought a little bit every day, I seldom needed to make a huge, multi-bag trip. Walking was just a part of life.

Tune in for more ways to learn how one loses 60 pounds without even trying, just by living the European lifestyle, next Friday...