How to Gain 30 Pounds in 3 Months

Don’t worry, I will come back around with a post on how to lose all of that 30 pounds! But for now, I want to take you back to the year of 2011…

I was recently single after 3 years and wanted to do something for myself so I decided to study abroad in Florence, Italy. It was always something I wanted to do and I figured, if I’m single now I might as well! Right?! So in February 2011 I boarded a plane (my very first flight ever) from San Francisco to Paris and then onto Florence. I went with a group of 60 students and knew a couple of them from elementary school, which was yearssss ago, so I really didn’t know anyone.

When I got to Italy I had to figure out stuff on my own, since I had no friends, and no family to guide me or direct me. Of course, I made the best of friends with my roommates later on though. Don’t worry, I am planning to do more posts about studying abroad and my advenures there, but for now, let’s focus on the food. Anyway, Italy…the land of the most amazing food I have ever had. The MOST amazing. Ever. Pizza, pasta, pastries, gelato, wine, champagne, cheeses galore.

And oh boy did I indulge.

A lot.

So I had to shop for groceries, which I learned was pretty expensive, and I couldn’t cook. So we bought pasta because it was so cheap! Like ridiculously cheap. Then when we would go out to dinner, we’d get pizza, because that was the cheapest thing on the menu! And then we would eat pasta and pizza almost every night. Do keep in mind that we were walking EVERYWHERE. Definitely staying active and putting in the miles.

For some reason though, I became a bottomless pit. Like I could not control my eating. Like I would secretly hope that my friends wouldn’t finish their dinner so I could eat the rest. I was eating like I’d been on a deserted island for the last 10 years. It was a little insane. My mom and my aunt came to visit me halfway through the trip and we all kind of noticed my face getting a little more round. I decided that I would cool it on the carbs for the rest of the trip. The next night out I got a salad. And then I said, screw that. I’m in freaking ITALY. Why not eat all this stuff here. I can eat plenty of greens at home. Anytime.

As the trip went on, we (my roommates and I, and everyone in our program really) all started to feel a little more filled out. The jeans that I brought were starting to get a little snug, but we had no scale so there was really no way to know just how thick we were getting. Although the Farmacia down the street from our apartment had a scale outside that we could put in Euro in to use, but we all thought it might be better if we just didn’t know.

Having a bottle of wine with dinner every night probably didn’t help either. Or that walk around the corner to get some gelato. I ate a shit ton of gelato there. Probably close to every damn day. When in Italy though, right?!

After three months, it was time to pack up everything and head back the U.S. I had to wear sweatpants home because my jeans were just too tight. Oops! When I got off the plane and saw my parents it was so nice to be back home! My dad thought I was pregnant and told my mom, “You’re taking her to the doctor first thing Monday morning.” Wow. Thanks Dad? When we got home, the first thing I wanted to do was step on that scale. When I left to study abroad, I was a scrawny 111 lbs. When I jumped on now…I waited for the numbers to appear…and 143 shows up! My parents were watching and all of us pretty much said Holy Shit. I started laughing and was like no way is that possible. I turned around and accused my dad of standing on the scale with me and he denied it so I hopped off and then back on. 144. Awesome.

My roommates called me and we’re like, “Oh my god Allison, I gained 7 lbs!” ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME? Try 30 lbs you skinny bitches! It still blows my mind that I could do that. 30 lbs in 3 months. That’s how it’s done ladies and gentlemen! THAT is how you eat your way through Italy. And not like the cute, “Let’s travel to Italy and eat our way through Tuscany” kind of way. It was more like, it’s gametime.

Before Italy                                                                                     After Italy

Oops.

And for those of you that were hoping to see a 30 day pizza challenge, well that’s why I can’t go through with it because of what my results were during the 90 day Italian challenge! Ha!