Joysey to Boise and Back Again

First off, I apologize.  This should have been written yesterday, so if you checked in last night it would appear that I stood you up.  It was a 48-hour marathon of planes. meetings, dinner and planes.  Let me be narcissistic enough to fill you in on my last few days...food-wise, anyway.


I left for the airport on Wednesday and arrived early enough so that Tab could miss rush hour traffic and I could stop and sit to get last minute work emails out of the way during pre-flight sustenance.  It was this stop that I set in motion a pattern of less than optimal choices for the following days.  I ordered a Caesar salad w/grilled chicken, dressing on the side and no croutons.  No problem there... that was until I ate half the roll that came with it.  I also ordered a Bud Lite, shunning the proclamation I made on Monday to lay off alcohol for the week.  On the plane, a glass of wine in lieu of ordering up snacks that they sell you in Costco-sized variety boxes.  For $8.95 you could serve tapas to a Barcelonan family of four.  It was that wine I was sipping when I tapped out the Food Thursday column.  Check it out.  I thought it was pretty good.  I didn't have anything to eat or drink throughout the rest of the trek, which got me to bed in my Idaho hotel at around 2AM local time.


Breakfast at the Hampton Inn is always decent.  I made okay choices for the most part.  My only digression was that I perhaps had too much of the good choices.  I ate an omelet of around 1 egg, enough ham and cheese to maybe cover a Ritz cracker, oatmeal with a thimble full of maple syrup and some fruit salad.  Lastly, decaf with skim.  On the way out I grabbed a banana for later preparedness.  What I passed on was the potatoes, smoked sausage and bagels.  A small pat on the back for that.


Lunch was brought in to our meeting and to my delight, it was good stuff.  I basically had a naked fajita composed of grilled chicken, peppers and onions, rice and black beans, topped with 2 Tbs of salsa.  Naked, meaning no tortilla.  Late in the meeting I started to feel fatigued and while everyone else was enjoying cookies, that banana gave me the boost I needed to get me through to dinner.  Pat on the back number two for my foresight.


Dinner started me going off the rails.  I sat at the bar, waiting for my colleagues and decided to order a martini, my first since January.  When asked whether I wanted regular or bleu cheese olives, I slipped into my former self, unable to refuse one of my favorites.  The bleu cheese martini was practically Nirvana.  I wished it sucked, so that the next time it would be harder to refuse.  Dinner consisted of various appetizers, a fennel and orange salad and broiled fish, all of which was way too much food.  I picked over the appetizers tasting a little of each without going whole hog.  Given the queso, chips and fried calamari, I could have done worse, I suppose.  One glass of Cabernet also accompanied dinner.  I was then off to have a drink with another remote coworker, who (whom?  I forget this stuff) I owe so much.  I there had two gin and tonics.  This place distills their own gin and it is excellent.  Four drinks in four hours is not on the TDT195 program.  I went to bed that night slightly light-headed and slightly ashamed.  I had hoped to walk, but time and the 103 degree Boise heat kept motivation at bay.


Up at 3:15AM!  F#*@!  Breakfast wasn't an option due to the early hour and, on the plane to San Francisco, choices where dismal in light of my missteps the night before.  Breakfast was tomato juice and that was all I had until I got home and made myself a sandwhich of chicken, ham, ultra-thin sliced provolone, avocado, tomato and chipotle light mayo on a whole-grain roll.  Not eating is no better in my opinion than going in the other direction, but I suppose the 500 calories or so I ingested on Friday balanced out the empty calories of drinks from Thursday.  No exercise again as I collapsed on the couch after eating, taking a nap to recharge my batteries.  A little time with the wife and pups and then it was nice to get to bed early for a change.


I wasn't happy with this trip's performance in my newly adopted lifestyle.  I was ill prepared and often chose poorly when given options.  Today I am off to a wedding.  I will stay away from drinking, this I can assure you.


We will see how this Monday treats me on the scale.  I walked plenty with my luggage in the three airports I was in .  Every gate and car rental were at the farthest possible point from where I started.  I think the exercise Gods were punishing me.


Cya Sunday,
M


What I ate and how I exercised:
Did I bore you so that you skipped right to this part?  LOOK UP!  Sheesh...