Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Welcome to the Real World

Wow, I thought I was ready for this trip. Ready and motivated to resist all (or at least most) of the junk food, and 'free food'. Wrong.....

See how happy I am in these first photos of my trip, LOL! Happy and not hungry! But we don't always eat because we're hungry...that fact, I knew. I purposely decided to not prepare the usual amount of homemade food to take with me. Usually I would of packed an ice chest with preportioned salads, and this trip I would have included some frozen soups and checked it through with my luggage...but I didn't do that. I didn't do that because I thought I should experience being away from home, at the mercy of having to choose and purchase food like most everyone else that has to travel, or be away from home. I wanted to experience the 'real world', not Tracy's world!

At the airport I was reminded of how much crappy food is, practically, all that's available. Yes, you can get a salad, or an apple, but compared to all of the other choices...wow! Topping the list is the sweet stuff. Candy, tons of candy. Cookies, snack cakes, crackers and chips, tons of that stuff. Nuts...super high in calories. And then ready made food loaded with salt, and it seems as if everything has cheese on it! And as I looked around me everyone was eating it, especially kids.

I started out the day with a peach, blueberry and ginger salad on the way to the airport....I took 2 small broccoli salads w/chicken with me,(I chose broccoli because it doesn't wilt as fast), one to eat on the plane, and one to eat at the Meet & Greet.....so far so good..... Let's see.....nothing real special to eat at the M & G, but what is it about free food? Damn. Salty and sweet meatballs, although I did go for the blanched green beans first....cheese and crackers, a 'treat' for me....and then I saw Fawn eating M&M's. Hey, if she can eat M&M's, then so can I! Arrgg... I forgot one important fact, Fawn can stop at any point.....that's the part I have trouble with, lol!

So, I abandoned my original strategy of resisting, or at the very least moderation (a word I'm not real familiar with, lol), and traded it in for fasting! (by fasting I mean a very low calorie count) It was all I could do. My 'all or nothing' personality took over.... it was the free 6 inch cookies that really did me in, big trays of them at the Cert lunch break AND at the hotel desk. Dozens and dozens of big, chewy, soft cookies....my favorite.

Thursday... fast/M&M's
Friday... free cookies/ fast
Saturday... fast/ dinner out with bread and dessert
Sunday... fast (soup, and spinach from the St Paul farmers market)

Thursday....no workouts, travel day
Friday...600 swings, yoga with Fawn, walking and shopping w/Amy J., 50 minute walk, downtown St. Paul
Saturday...co-teaching 2 KB classes w/Fawn (speed swings and some snatching, about an hour of KB's total), 4 mile walk w/Fawn, Max V02 snatch workout at Cert, 20 minutes over 200 snatches
Sunday....4 mile walk w/Fawn

So, there you have it! I have a whole new respect for those of you that are constantly out in the 'Real World', whether its socializing, or work related, it takes some serious motivation, or some serious planning.....don't take anything for granted.

8 comments:

Amy Jurrens said...

Don't forget your triumph over the ice cream at The Creamery on Grand Avenue. It takes a VERY strong person to resist that place. Give yourself a pat on the back for that!

Have you used your new whisks yet? You'd be proud of me - I made my dressing from scratch. Check my blog in the next day or so for my recipe.

Hope you had a good trip back!

Tracy Reifkind said...

Amy,

I haven't gotten to that part yet! I was only able to resist because I had binged on the stinkin' cookies already! Next time I'll save my appetite for the Creamery! Try and plan your next trip in Sept., during the Cert, I would love to see you again!

Emily said...

HI Tracy,
Sorry I missed you over the cert weekend! Sounds like you had a rockin' good time though! It was a crazy weekend for me--I did my first triathlon on Sunday, and had a BLAST! I was planning on going to the cert afterwards to catch you, but when I got home, I completely crashed. Looking forward to seeing you in SJ in September! Emily

Unknown said...

It's hard to read with your new background. I ended up copying the text to Word to be able to see it.

Unknown said...

Interesting topic! I do a ton of plane travel for work, so I can relate. Like anything else, when you're forced into certain situations, you just learn to adapt. Granted, there's a ton of junk out there to feed the traveling public, so your choices are to give in or to develop strategies that fit the way you want to eat.

In St Paul, I highly recommend a stop on Marshall Ave just east of Cleveland. There's Izzy's for great ice cream and Legacy Chocolate just a couple doors down.

Tracy Reifkind said...

Emily,

You didn't tell me about a freakin' triathalon! Was it a full triathalon? Where was it?

Anyway, congrats on the finish!

Tracy Reifkind said...

Lisa,

I didn't change my background (to my knowledge, lol), sorry you had trouble.

Tracy Reifkind said...

Teresa,

Next time I'll skip the crappy cookies and go for some real quality, LOL! If I can't get Amy to come back and take me to the Creamery, I'll find my way to Izzy's!