business trip update

Here's the summary of the business trip portion of my trip.  It was an unqualified success, actually both foodwise and business-wise.  On the night I was supposed to eat out with my colleague, the party grew to 5 people including myself and the suggestion was to go to a nearby brew pub.  It was the end of a long day and most people just want to go somewhere nearby to eat, and then go to their hotel to collapse (or go out drinking).   This is the classic situation I get into at these meetings.  But this time I had my salad with me.  It worked beautifully.  We went to the pub.  As expected, there was nothing on the menu I could have as a vegan or a "nutritarian" (as Dr. Fuhrman calls us).  I could have ordered one of the salads with most of the ingredients removed.  But since we had a big group and the server was going to get a good tip from us anyway, I decided it was okay to order nothing.  If it had just been two of us, I would have ordered a salad with most of the ingredients removed.  But instead I told the server I had food allergies and brought my own food and could I just get a plate.  She said, sure, no problem.  Then my colleagues asked me about it and I said, actually I'm just vegan.  And then we had the usual jokes about my being from the star system Vega and people told me how they eat grass-fed beef and free-range chicken and then the conversation moved on.   So it was no big deal at all.  And I realize it was a copout to say I have food allergies, but this was effective and easy.  I'll practice other explanations in the future. 

So everything worked great on the business trip.  Breakfast, lunch and dinners were good and I had plenty to eat.   It seems it's not that hard to find a hotel that has a fridge, and then you just have to find a grocery store, bring a bowl and some utensils and you are set.

jan. 6 trip update

My business trip food experiment is going great.   So far I've only gone to a few casual restaurants and they haven't complained about me bringing my own food in.  I've been meeting students for lunch and telling them to get something take-out and we'll eat at the beach.   I'm probably going to a nice restaurant for dinner tonight and I will bring my food, but will order a plain salad so the server doesn't complain.  Then I'll just dump my food on it.  The meal plans are pretty much how I posted here.  I edited that post as I tweaked them.  

At first my roommate kept saying, "wow, this must take so much discipline and planning on your part," after she saw my utensils and groceries in the room.  I said, yeah, but now I can relax at the meeting and not worry about what restaurant we're going to and if I'm going to get anything to eat.  Plus, I pointed out that she did a lot of planning beforehand to make sure she could go to her Bikram yoga class.  She found a studio ahead of time, mapped it out, and rented a car in part because it was too far to walk.  So I was joking that it must take a lot of discipline to do that.  I was trying to argue that it's not really discipline if that's what you want to do.  

Yesterday, we got up at 5:15 to go to yoga and then were at the meeting all day talking to people and going to talks, and the last thing we wanted to do last night was go out to dinner.  And then we realized---oh my gosh, we don't have to go out to dinner, we can eat in the hotel room!  So I fixed us my dinner salad (greens, apple, orange slices, ground sunflower seeds & d'angou pear vinegar) and roommate liked it.  So the funny thing is, she's planning to have it again tonight.  And tomorrow she's planning to have the lunch in [edited later:  the next day she and her student ate in the hotel room and so did me and my student--too funny!].   We went grocery shopping this morning and loaded up on supplies.  So it's been great.  I've benefited from her yoga obsession and she's benefited from my food obsession.  

Today I ran into a friend who said he can't find any good food around here (in the restaurants).  I recall that from my days even before I became vegan.  These touristy spots tend to have expensive, mediocre, and very unhealthy food.

Jan 4 trip log

Day 2 of my business trip.  (edited over the next few days)

Today's meals were as planned.   My roommate came up with a good idea for dinners and I came up with another good plan for lunch.  We're near a beach and I'm going to suggest to whomever I eat lunch with that we get take out and go to the beach, where there are a lot of benches and casual restaurants.  [edited:  we did this every day.  one day we went to a restaurant at the beach but they were totally okay with my bringing my lunch.]   For dinners, if I go to a nice restaurant, I'll order a salad with nothing on it and then I'll pour my salad with apples and oranges and vinegar & ground sunflower on top.  I'll pay the $15+tax+tip to keep the server from telling me I can't bring my food in.  Tonight we went to a very casual restaurant and I ordered one of my companion's side dishes which she ate.  I ate my salad.   No one said anything.  Interestingly it was a restaurant that made my favorite southern foods.  My companion had red beans & rice, collard greens, and candy yams.  Full of salt.  I have to admit I have good memories of all this good food, especially southern fried chicken.  But I don't really desire it anymore when I think about it, and I make great red beans & rice, collard greens, and sweet potatoes so I was not missing anything.  And my salad was great!   I feel very energetic eating all these salads.

I felt the salt from the can of beans I had on my lunch salad.  My fingers swelled up.  I got organic because they had less sodium than even the "low-sodium" brand.  Obviously there were no no-salt cans.   I didn't rinse them.  The can says there's about 450 mg of sodium in a whole can (I ate a whole can every day).  Fuhrman says we should consume less than 1000 mg of sodium per day, and this is well under.  But I had it all in one sitting, and I must usually consume much less (natural foods have some sodium).  Several hours later, I feel fine.  [edited:  the rest of the days I rinsed the beans and had no problems, I probably also got use to the little extra salt, but it's not much].

We went grocery shopping again and I got some curry powder and cinnamon and a peeler for my apples.  And, my roommate has DHA supplements so she gave me some.  Now what are the chances of that happening?  

Jan. 3 food

First day of my business trip.  

Breakfast:  arugula-apple-orange salad.  Ate this in Milwaukee airport in a slight rush before boarding a plane.  So I probably didn't chew enough. 

Lunch:  lots of fruit as I was not able to fix a salad yet but managed to stop at the farmer's market:  2 bananas and my daily portion of nuts (0.75 oz walnuts, 0.75 oz brazil nuts).  then a little later, 2 small apples, 2 small oranges, a carrot, some grapes.  Probably overate a bit

Dinner: lettuce topped with strawberries, blueberries and raspberries.  Probably pretty low calorie but with all the fruit I ate earlier I wasn't that hungry, so it was just right.  I got some beans at the store so I'm all set for tomorrow but didn't feel hungry enough to have them at dinner.

I don't think I'll be posting my meals for the next few days as they should be what I posted here.  Plus I will be busy.  Oh, one thing that surprised me:  I'm in California.  I thought the produce I bought at the farmer's market was going to be great, since it's local.  It's not great, and my roommate informed me that's probably because a lot of it isn't local either this time of year, e.g., the strawberries, oranges and apples.  All were mediocre, even the carrots which I would have thought could be local.   It makes me really appreciate my co-op.  Their produce is expensive but it is really really good even when not local. It's totally worth it!  And carrots from Wisconsin are way better than the ones from California.  Who knew?   And to think I have a 5 lb bag at home in my fridge.  I meant to bring some but forgot.  

business trip

Note:  this post was edited over the next few days as I figured things out.

I started an 8 day trip today, the first part business, then seeing my family at the end of the week.  This post addresses the business portion of my trip:   I decided this time I'm not going to eat restaurant food!   However, much of our socializing takes place at restaurants so I will go to them, I just won't eat their food!  (Any suggestions on what I should tell the server?)  I brought a couple of bowls and utensils and nuts and seeds (daily portions of the nuts doled out), and some flavored vinegar, so really not much.  And enough food to get me to my destination today.  Then I got a refrigerator in my hotel room (had to ask 3 times and the last time I said I had food allergies, which is sort of true--my body doesn't like unhealthy food).  There was a farmer's market a few blocks from my hotel today, and a grocery store just a bit further.  So I went to both and got all stocked up.   Call me crazy, but I love fruits and vegetables and nuts and seeds and beans.  Why bother with the unhealthy stuff?  I saw a lot of unhealthy people today eating a lot of unhealthy food.   Maybe I am crazy but I'm a lot happier doing this than suffering through trying to find a restaurant that will serve me a healthy and well-balanced meal (a $15 salad with nothing on it but some lettuce is healthy but not filling or well-balanced).  

Anyway, here's my plan for my meals.    

Breakfast:  sliced banana, berries, chopped walnut over salad greens.   Right now I have strawberries, blueberries and raspberries.  yum!

Lunch:  beans & fruit over salad greens.  I finally perfected this on day 3.  Put the salad greens in a bowl.  Add a can of beans (rinse first and drain).  top with apple and banana slices (I used an entire apple and banana--this is my big meal of the day!).  Add cinnamon and curry powder and some Dr. Fuhrman's D'Angou Pear vinegar and stir it around.  I did this on day 3 with black beans and it was yummy!  Day one just had an apple and pinto beans.  Day 2 had an apple, chickpeas and the spices.  Day 3 added the banana and vinegar and that was really good.   

Dinner:   salad with apple and orange and D'Angou Pear vinegar mixed with ground sunflower seeds.  Only I don't have any arugula, just lettuce right now.  

Also brazil nuts and a carrot.  I usually ate the brazil nuts at breakfast, and the carrot at dinner.

Supplies I brought: 

- small mortar & pestle for smashing the sunflower seeds.  (this didn't work so well--will just soak the sunflower seeds in the vinegar next time).

- Can opener for the beans.  

- plastic bowl and lid for the salads.  Unfortunately it leaks a bit---will get a better one.

- small plastic bowl for mixing the vinegar & sunflower seeds

- daily portion of nuts, 0.75 oz walnuts, 0.75 oz brazil nuts, 1 Tbsp sunflower seeds.  (not as many nuts and seeds as usual because I doubt I will be as active though I will try to exercise every day---actually I did pretty well with jogging on the beach and yoga).

- Forgot my DHA supplement!  (but it turns out my roommate has some!)

- Remembered my daily Gentle Care and Osteosun

- fork, spoon, sharp knife (I checked my luggage)

- smallish (low volume anyway) plastic cutting board

- Forgot carrots!   and it turns out the Wisconsin carrots are way better than California

- Forgot a peeler for the apples--since I can't always get organic on travel  (bought one at the store)

- Forgot curry powder & cinnamon (bought some at the store)

How did I cart all this?  Well, once I decided to check my luggage, I used a bigger suitcase and had plenty of room.  One of my carry-ons was a bag of fruit from my fridge that would go bad if it stayed home:  bananas, a few apples and oranges.   A bunch of carrots would have easily fit in there!   Also I was able to purchase everything I forgot except the DHA.

Jan. 2 food

Breakfast:  cabbage salad

Lunch:  Leftover black-eyed pea stew, zucchini & peas & corn (had a zucchini in the fridge, trying to get rid of produce before my trip tomorrow).  Dessert:  easy arugula apple salad, which I added orange slides to.  I love this salad and it is sooo easy!  The combination of  the bitter greens, tart and sweet apple and orange, and acidic vinegar--it's just an excellent explosion of taste.   I'm going to make this a lot on my trip next week because it should be easy to make in a hotel room.  I'll talk about my plans in another post if I can get packed in time.   Here's my dessert:   

We had housemate's family over for lunch and she fixed them their traditional meatloaf dinner.  They had ice cream and cake for dessert.  This is an example of how weird I am:  I totally loved my salad way more than I would have liked even vegan cake and ice cream.  Well, okay, I would have been tempted by vegan cake and ice cream, but it wasn't vegan, it was cake from a box and frosting from a can and ice cream from a factory, so it was not tempting at all.  And the salad was really good.   Oh, I probably did eat a bit too much for lunch.  The reason is that I was thinking I have to eat a bunch of salad before leaving town so will need a salad tonight for dinner.  But I guess I shouldn't think that way.  I should let food go to waste?  hmmm, maybe I could make a smoothie--yeah, I can make some green smoothies and put them in the freezer.  So then I don't have to feel I need to eat so much today.

Dinner:  well, I'm trying to get rid of food from the fridge before my trip.  and I wanted some blueberries and know I'll be eating a lot of salads on the trip.  But I have lots of salad at home to eat up.  So I made a green smoothie consisting of a bag of baby greens (5 oz), a frozen bag of blueberries, an apple, an orange, a little bit of pomegranate juice, and, this is where I think I made a mistake, half of a sweet potato.  It was okay, but I think replacing the sweet potato with another orange (both are small) would have been better.  oh well, it was pretty satisfying, in fact I overate--normally I'd only eat half the smoothie at a time but I didn't think it was good enough to freeze the rest so I just ate about 2/3 of it and...poured the rest down the sink.  I then proceeded to make 9 smoothies for housemate, in 3 batches.  Now, to get her to eat spinach, I make hers much sweeter than mine.  I use a sweet berry juice, and I got rid of the last of my dates and maple syrup in her smoothies.  So I did taste-test them and boy were they good.  Perhaps I taste-tested them a bit too much.  So I'd say I overate tonight.  Darn!  okay, I'll get better.

Jan 1 food

Breakfast:  spinach cherry-blueberry smoothie from the freezer

Lunch:  cabbage salad.  Snacked on a carrot and a clementine while making it.  and nibbled on the cabbage and apple.

Dinner:  black eyed pea stew.  It's good luck to eat black eyed peas on New Year's Day!  Dessert: orange.  

I was good today and didn't snack and didn't overeat (I think), and it's 9:40 pm and I don't even feel hungry.   Good start to the New Year!