Traveling

I attended a certified personal trainer review course this weekend and had the chance to put some of my own advice to the test.  On Friday I drove down to Jacksonville, FL.  I packed our medium sized cooler with my weeks left over salad mixture, ½ a peeled grapefruit, 1 can of tuna, small Tupperware of carrot sticks, and 2 soyjoy bars.  I got into town early so that I could take a trip to Whole Foods market, something that is a luxury for me.  Since the review course lasted 3 days I grabbed 3 apples, 2 Kashi frozen dinners, 3 cliff bars (they were on sale!) 3 Wallaby yogurts(also on sale!), Chicken salad sandwich & side salad, and then had to come up with something creative for a vegetable.  I knew my hotel room had a kitchenette, but didn’t want to buy a whole head of broccoli or cauliflower and cut it up, and even I can only eat baby carrots for so many days.  Amazingly, Whole foods has a fresh stir-fry mixture of pre cut red,yellow,orange,and green bell peppers and red onions in what I’m guessing to be about 1# packages, it was a little pricey at $4, but lasted me for 2 meals. The amount spent on all these items came to roughly $25-30 for 4 meals.  Had I eaten out for each of those I probably would have spent close to the same, but most likely I would have spent more.

I planned on checking in to my hotel before going over to the YMCA where the course was being held, but google maps gave me really bad directions and by the time I figured out where everything was I didn’t have time.  Thankfully the Y had a refridgerator/freezer that I was able to stash my purchases in. For lunch that day I had my salad, grapefruit, and a soyjoy.  I was going to add tuna to my salad but didn’t have a good place to drain it.  During our dinner break I had enough time to check into my hotel and heat up a Kashi dinner. 

Saturday morning I utilized the hotels complimentary breakfast and packed my lunchbox with my chicken sandwich, side salad, yogurt, bell pepper mixture, and ½ a cliff bar.  (I ate the other ½ before my workout that morning and did the same on Sunday.  Most hotels these days have workout room or pool, remember to utilize them.) The nice part about bringing my own lunch was that I didn't feel gross, stuffed, or greasy from a fast food lunch.  Since I still had to sit through 4 more hours of review, this was a definite plus.  That night I took myself out for dinner and got a hot roast beef sandwich from an organic cafe in the fancy pedestrian mall near my hotel.

Sunday morning I again had breakfast from the hotel, and confiscated some wheat-berry bread, pb, and jelly to make a sandwich that I saved as a snack on my drive home that night; along with the rest of the sliced up bell peppers.  For lunch I brought my second kashi frozen dinner, apple, and yogurt. Thankfully the Y also had a microwave that they let me use.

My point with all this is that yes, as I admitted to Ryan last night, it is easier to just eat out when traveling for business and even for pleasure.  However, when you can actually stay awake for your afternoon meeting because you didn't eat a greasy burger and extra large coke, it's worth it.  Also, had I gone out for lunch both days I never would have made a new friend.  Meet Lou and read about his amazing transformation on his website.