That Secret Diet Technique Discovered in Southern France

After nearly three weeks of traveling in our camper mostly in Southern France I returned about 4 pounds lighter than when I left.  You might say that's no miracle weight loss, but don't forget that most of us gain weight on vacation. 

We made our way down from Switzerland to Grenoble and into Provence stopping usually for just one night in many of those cute little French villages. And then down towards Nice and into Italy for a final stop at San Remo and then a tour of the aquarium in Genoa.  We did do a fare share of walking but also a lot of sitting while on the road.

In a small city called Quinson in France we visited the prehistoric museum located there because the area is rich in prehistoric history.  The museum is very impressive both in it's content and it's architecture.  It was designed by the British architect Foster.  It's somewhat built into the side of a hill so as not to impose itself on the beauty and context of the local architecture.  The oval shape leads one on a path through history starting some 400 million years ago.

One thing that is obvious when we look at reproductions of ancient people is that we never see them over weight.  Of course you imagine them doing a lot of running away from wild animals and having a poor diet.  But then if we think about more recent people those of say a couple hundred years ago they too tend to be of moderate weight.  We then tell ourselves that they too worked harder doing manual tasks like farming and didn't sit around watching tv or playing video games.  However we forget for example those long cold winters when there was not much to do but stay inside in order to survive.  Cramped into small homes I doubt anyone got a lot of exercise.

By chance and through a not so happy circumstance we were forced in a way to live like more ancient people on our trip.  Simply put the refrigerator in our camper quit working.  In order to "survive" we were forced to eat only that which did not need refrigeration.  So there were few meats eaten, only that which could be consumed the day purchased, no leftovers stored for later.  We bought just enough for a normal meal.  But mostly we ate fresh vegetable, salads, tomatoes, a bit of bread and so on.  It wasn't like we thought about it so much but that we just ate what we could under the circumstances.

One of the first things I did when I got home was weigh myself because in fact I have been trying to lose a few pounds lately.  I was hoping I hadn't gained too much.  To my surprise I had lost weight rather than gained it while on vacation.

Thinking about this I have realized that it was the lack of cold storage that made the difference.  Without giving it any real thought I had been forced to live like those ancient people.  Of course in our modern world we aren't going to throw away our refrigerator, but perhaps one might unplug it for a week or two and see what happens.  Or at least think about what we put in there.  So that's the secret weight loss program  I discovered in Southern France.