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I’ve just returned from a 3 day work-related seminar. So, how did I do with my Atkins? I’m on OWL and have gone through the carbohydrate ladder, so I know the foods my body can handle.
I knew the seminar would provide a breakfast, mid-morning snack, mid afternoon snack and would provide beverages throughout the day. For lunch and dinner I was on my own. The conference was held at a hotel in the touristy area of a city. Since I’m stingy and didn’t want to pay $30.00 for a meal I could buy for $10.00 in a non-tourist spot, I decided to pack away some foods/snacks/water just in case.
Brook used to say "failing to prepare is preparing to fail". So, I put a cooler in the trunk of my car. In that cooler, I placed some bottles of water, vegetables, 6 eggs, a couple of cans of chicken broth, a couple packets of canned tuna and canned chicken, cheese, nuts and a box of rye crackers. I also had a small plastic cutting board (which also could serve as a plate), a knife (for cutting my vegetables), fork and spoon. I also packed an electric hotpot, so I could boil water or broth in my hotel room. I didn’t have to worry about supplying ice for my cooler, because the temperatures are around freezing so, I just made sure I parked my car in the parking garage, away from sunlight so the car wouldn’t heat up.
The vegetables I packed were whole vegetables, like bell pepper, cucumber, and tomato. Whole vegetables and fruit will keep longer than ones that are already cut up.
I was familiar with the area, so I knew "little Italy" was about a block east of the hotel. I asked the concierge if he knew of any grocery stores in that area---I wanted to know this in case I needed to buy something like veg, meat, etc.
I kept a pre-measured ounce of nuts in my purse in case I needed a quick snack during the day.
The hotel-provided meals were good. The continental breakfast (held at 7:00-8:00AM) had the usual bagels, toast, and pastries, but they also provided an "Atkins menu" of boiled eggs, smoked salmon, slices of turkey and roast beef, cheese and a tray of sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion and capers. The "Low fat menu" had some foods I could eat on my Atkins-OWL level, namely the whole grain oatmeal, the melons, and berries.
The mid-morning snack ( 10:00 AM) all days included more of the breakfast fruit, whole fruits (apples, pears), an apple pie type thing and roasted almonds. The mid afternoon snack (3:00 PM) included vegetables with dip, hummus (a chickpea puree), and the usual carby things like bread, cookies, and potato chips.
For dinner I ate the food I brought with me. On Monday night, I had a red bell pepper stuffed with tuna and mayo with a side cucumber spears and a devilled egg. On Tuesday night, I had dinner at a restaurant—a "surf and turf" with a green salad on the side.
On Monday, I found that I was able to eat "well" for breakfast and the mid-morning snack, so, I didn’t need to eat lunch. Instead, I spend my lunch hours walking around the tourist area, window-shopping and visiting local museums. I made sure I did at least 30 minutes of brisk walking during my lunch hour. The conference ended daily at 5:30 PM. So, after I put my things away in my room, I walked another 30 minutes in the evening. The staircases in the hotel were "for emergency exits only". But the hotel had escalators. Instead of riding up or down on the escalators, I walked them. Yeah, it wasn’t as hard as walking regular stairs but it was better than just standing on them. I didn’t bring free weights with me (because I forgot to pack them), instead I did things that used my own body weight as weights, like push ups and squats.
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What would we do without it?
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