Old School
Yes, so I’ve neglected Reading Cookbooks for days… no weeks… fine, a month… but, I’ve done some thinking about the “creative direction” of this blog. First of all, I bagged the whole vegan thing, for a variety of reasons, but mostly because I couldn’t experiment and talk about it without certain people (specifically my mom) making a huge deal about what they were going to feed me come the holidays. Seriously. Don’t ask.
So that was fun while it lasted.
But now it’s back to the reality of WeightWatchers, which I seem unable to follow for more than a week. I have decided to challenge myself to update this blog with my daily eating habits, new meal ideas, product finds, recipes, and my progress (numbers!) as much as possible, in the hopes that it will spur me to be a bit more motivated. We’ll see.
We begin this journey today with a big weight loss obstacle… the business trip.
I’m sitting in O’Hare Airport faced with three days of eating in a strange city, in a hotel room, in a convention center — a recipe for disaster.
So let’s get started, shall we?
The back story: I’m going to Baltimore for a marketing convention. This makes a few things a lot easier. First, I won’t know anyone, which means, as long as I keep to myself and don’t do any of that silly networking, I can easily bypass 1) happy hours and 2) group dinners. This makes eating on the WeightWatchers plan a million times easier — no appetizers, no alcohol, and no desserts. From there, it’s planning, planning, and more planning. Here are the business trip strategies I will try to live my next three days by:
- Workout - WeightWatchers’ point system has a simple rule: If you exercise, you get more points. Meaning… you can eat more. In reality you are supposed to limit yourself to four activity points a day. Running is the simplest way to earn these points, and lord knows I’ll need them on a business trip. Just 28 minutes jogging on the treadmill each day will do the trick.
- Research, research, research - Since I’m eating alone, I’ve already mapped out the restaurants within a few blocks of my hotel. Two words that will make dinner a snap: Takeout sushi!
- Breakfast - I brought mine with me. A couple of low point Go Lean bars will help me sidestep massive morning meals, and help me start my day off without blowing it before noon.
- Gum - Simple, I know. This is an old school strategy that used help curb cravings for sweets. The minute I want ice cream delivered to my hotel room, I know it’s time for a piece of gum.
For the record, I am allotted 23 points a day (27 if I manage to get a short run in). I’ll check in later today a day one report.
