This past week I traveled to a conference. Fabulous, right? Travel? Awesome? No. Try maintaining a Paleo diet while traveling or going to a function. Note: I'm not complaining, I'm simply noting the lack of "alternatives."
Start at the airport. McDonald's. Dunkin' Donuts. Popeye's Chicken. Starbucks. Oh, remember, we're eating breakfast. "Do you have anything that's gluten free?" Weird looks. Nobody did. So I was glad I had eaten before I left and had brought Paleo-friendly snacks for the airport(s) and plane(s).
Arrive in Florida. Ask the folks at the front desk for food suggestions (because the conference doesn't start until tomorrow). I'm starving. It's dinner time. I hadn't had a "meal" all day. "Oh, and I can't eat bread or pasta." Concierge furrows his brow. Exactly. "Go down the street and over the bridge. There's a health food type restaurant called Dig. They'll have something you can eat and it's good." Okey dokey. Well, Dig's holding a fundraiser for some wildlife something or other. It's packed and there's no food to be found. Moving on. So I found a pizza place that serves...salad. *Sigh* I got a buffalo chicken salad. Meh. With no travel plastic fork or knife. Who does that? Anyway.
Breakfast the day the conference starts (at 3 p.m.). I wasn't paying $16 for an omlett at the hotel, so I walked. And walked. Breakfast sandwiches. Nope. More breakfast sandwiches. Pastries. Bagels. Seriously?! So I went to Starbucks and got a turkey bacon and egg sandwich and didn't eat the English muffin. Wheee (said sarcastically).
At lunch time I went downstairs in the hotel to find something before the conference started because who knows what they'd serve. I ran into one of the conference planners, Kate, that I knew and she bought me lunch. Score! Salad. Boo.
Conference snacks - cookies. No fruit to be found. So I asked Kate for some loose fruit, you know some apples and bananas to put on the table. Hopefully I'm not the only one who would enjoy them? In the middle of the first presentation Tom, another conference planner, brings me a large bowl of cut up melon and fruit and a fork. Um...well, I...OK. No apples. No bananas. Kate was frustrated for me.
For dinner we all went out together to an awesome restaurant on the beach. They actually had something I could eat on the pre-planned menu, so I was psyched. I ate all of that damn fish. They actually had created "pasta" out of zucchini using a julienne peeler which I had so wanted to try. It was yummy. Definitely asking for one of those for Mother's Day.
Conference breakfast - guess. Bagels, breads, muffins, oh my! Kate and I arrived at breakfast at the same time and she watched me eyeball the table. "You can't eat any of this," she sighed. And we couldn't find a human to get me even a hard boiled egg. So I cheated. First time in a month, I had a bagel. Eeeee! But it was yummy (shhhh). On to lunch - cold cut sandwiches and potato salad. I'll have some cold cuts...and some fruit.
Now I am in no way bitching. Don't get me wrong. But I was talking to Kate before we left and she said, "I never realized how much unhealthy stuff we offer at these things. I need to work on that." Indeed. And invite me back next time so I can check your progress!
Showing posts with label Fast Food Nation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fast Food Nation. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Things Not to Do While Eating Paleo
We've been eating the "Paleo plan" or "diet" or whatever you choose to call it (it's not a diet, it's a way of thinking about food, but I won't get on my soapbox) for almost a month. I know that somewhere out there ("beneath the pale moonlight...") there's someone wondering about Paleo and what to avoid while doing it. Well, here's what I've learned so far.
Avoid missing meals
If you've ever had the "low blood sugar blahs" then this is 500x worse. At least at our house it's like someone's Bringing Cranky Back in full swing. Your frontal lobe of your brain which controls good decision making, tact, and what facial expressions to make just doesn't work well on no food. So carry snacks and listen to your body (as opposed to a clock that says it's lunch time).
Don't forget prep time
Take into account prep time for meals. Many of us came to eat Paleo from The Fast Food Nation. "We are hungry and want it now!" Well, it doesn't work that way when you're using real and fresh ingredients my friend. There is nothing (except maybe veggies) frozen here. So plan on prepping and cooking for at least 30 minutes if not more. Again, keep snacks for while you wait. We like beef jerky and celery with almond butter (instead of peanut butter). Also, if you want you can chop up often used foods (like onions and garlic) ahead of time to cut some of the prep time. We keep them in the fridge in storage bags and just take out what we need.
Don't expect it to be cheap
Starting a Paleo pantry can be expensive especially if you come from The Fast Food Nation. There are spices, types of flour (see the next section), and meat to be purchased. Lots of meat. And vegetables. Lots of vegetables. And a food processor would be super helpful (we just got ours today and it roooocks!).
Don't expect to find recipe ingredients at your local market
Unless you live in Awesome Land (and I don't even know where that is), you may not find all that you're looking for at one store. For example, I found almond butter, coconut flour, and almond flour at H.E.B. The almond flour was $12.99 for a 1 lb bag. No joke. I found 1 lb bags of almond meal (just fine thank you) at Trader Joe's for...wait for it...$3.99 each. I had to go to Whole Foods for cashew butter. Still haven't found clarified butter (ghee) anywhere. I only found flaxseed meal at Trader Joe's. So it's kind of a crap shoot as to where you'll find what you need (and then what you'll pay for it). So there's more planning involved. You can't just run to Wal-mart to get your shiznit.
Don't forget lunch
Daddy and I both work outside of the house and are at work for lunch time. It can be hard to put together something for lunch. Again, it takes pre-planning (damn that pre-planning). Leftovers from the night before are an obvious one, but eating Paleo typically makes one not feel full for as long as other foods do, so we end up eating the leftovers later most nights. A lot of times I just cruise the fridge and throw a bunch of stuff in a cold bag and go. But you have to make sure when you're shopping that there's portable things that don't require large amounts of cooking at work. Tricky tricky. In a pinch there's always a salad at a fast food place, but I've even had experiences where I open a salad and I'm thinking, "There's stupid tortilla chips on my salad!" Try picking those out during a lunch meeting. Super professional (with the cape on and all).
I'm sure there's more and I'll post them when I think of (or experience) them. What have your experiences been?
Avoid missing meals
If you've ever had the "low blood sugar blahs" then this is 500x worse. At least at our house it's like someone's Bringing Cranky Back in full swing. Your frontal lobe of your brain which controls good decision making, tact, and what facial expressions to make just doesn't work well on no food. So carry snacks and listen to your body (as opposed to a clock that says it's lunch time).
Don't forget prep time
Take into account prep time for meals. Many of us came to eat Paleo from The Fast Food Nation. "We are hungry and want it now!" Well, it doesn't work that way when you're using real and fresh ingredients my friend. There is nothing (except maybe veggies) frozen here. So plan on prepping and cooking for at least 30 minutes if not more. Again, keep snacks for while you wait. We like beef jerky and celery with almond butter (instead of peanut butter). Also, if you want you can chop up often used foods (like onions and garlic) ahead of time to cut some of the prep time. We keep them in the fridge in storage bags and just take out what we need.
Don't expect it to be cheap
Starting a Paleo pantry can be expensive especially if you come from The Fast Food Nation. There are spices, types of flour (see the next section), and meat to be purchased. Lots of meat. And vegetables. Lots of vegetables. And a food processor would be super helpful (we just got ours today and it roooocks!).
Don't expect to find recipe ingredients at your local market
Unless you live in Awesome Land (and I don't even know where that is), you may not find all that you're looking for at one store. For example, I found almond butter, coconut flour, and almond flour at H.E.B. The almond flour was $12.99 for a 1 lb bag. No joke. I found 1 lb bags of almond meal (just fine thank you) at Trader Joe's for...wait for it...$3.99 each. I had to go to Whole Foods for cashew butter. Still haven't found clarified butter (ghee) anywhere. I only found flaxseed meal at Trader Joe's. So it's kind of a crap shoot as to where you'll find what you need (and then what you'll pay for it). So there's more planning involved. You can't just run to Wal-mart to get your shiznit.
Don't forget lunch
Daddy and I both work outside of the house and are at work for lunch time. It can be hard to put together something for lunch. Again, it takes pre-planning (damn that pre-planning). Leftovers from the night before are an obvious one, but eating Paleo typically makes one not feel full for as long as other foods do, so we end up eating the leftovers later most nights. A lot of times I just cruise the fridge and throw a bunch of stuff in a cold bag and go. But you have to make sure when you're shopping that there's portable things that don't require large amounts of cooking at work. Tricky tricky. In a pinch there's always a salad at a fast food place, but I've even had experiences where I open a salad and I'm thinking, "There's stupid tortilla chips on my salad!" Try picking those out during a lunch meeting. Super professional (with the cape on and all).
I'm sure there's more and I'll post them when I think of (or experience) them. What have your experiences been?
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