As I had mentioned in the first post to this trip, we had 850 EU each to spend for food and that was our budget. We exceeded that budget quickly in Barcelona and even quicker when we got to Nice.
I was already pretty bummed about missing out on some primo-gluten France delicassies so the first day there I ate a salad and was pissed about it haha But THEN we found a full-on gluten free restaurant that made gluten-free pizza and burgers! I of course ate both of those things.
But after that, I reeled it back in and went back to my staples: homemade eggs for breakfasts, fish, and salads for lunches.
Dinners I made my own because we had exceeded our daily allowances so i was left to my own device haha
So to wrap up my trip I think it’s safe to say that you can totally do a trip like this on the cheap and fairly healthy. You can stay healthy and eat well if you commit from the start. I had a leg up on it by not being able to eat gluten so I really had to search for healthy options even when we were tired and just couldn’t think anymore. It can be really easy to just pick a slice of pizza because it’s cheap and easy but try to stay away from eating a lot of simple carbs. Also, remember to ask for TAP water or table water as most of these tourist places will bring you an 8euro bottle of Evian (yeah, we bought a few of those….).
Buy groceries – even if it’s just eggs, olives, cheese, fruit, nuts. Those items will be an easy grab when you’re hungry and not wanting to sit down to eat a big expensive meal because even if you’re eating french fries, it’s still going to be a minimum 10euros.
The biggest take away from my trip was an unexpected one. Most of the places we stayed at didn’t have full length body mirrors. At first I was annoyed, I wanted to see what I was wearing, how I looked ect but eventually, I noticed that I also stopped caring about how ‘fat’ I looked in a certain thing or how bloated I looked or how I looked in general. I didn’t for a single second on this trip think “oh, I shouldn’t be eating this – it’s not healthy”. I ate so healthy most of the time and we walked so much and taking away my ability to stare and judge my body in a mirror – also made it easier to not judge myself. Even on the day I ate a burger AND a pizza, I didn’t care. I know it’s the combination of eating pretty healthy throughout but also removing that ability to stare and judge yourself in a full length mirror made a world of a difference in my self esteem.
