A Few Vacation Details

We had a great time seeing parts of our country relatively close to home.  Once I get the pictures downloaded I'll share any that are interesting.  Today, I want to share a little about my eating during this little jaunt:  The Best, The Best I Could Do, and OOPSIE!

The Best:  One day we found ourselves on the road at lunchtime and hungry.  Departing from our general idea to scope out new places to eat, we stopped at a fast food place.  65MD got a burger & fries combo meal and I ordered a salad.  All that practicing in my head saying "I'll have a salad with grilled chicken, please" really paid off!!  I said it without even thinking.  And, I never really considered a burger & fries.  I confess that momentarily, I was worried that I'd made the wrong decision because sometimes fast food salads are brown and old because they hardly get ordered.  I think they're just on the menu so the management can point out they have those offerings, but anyway...Almost as soon as I had the thought the young lady getting our order together mentioned that she'd just made salads just that morning and she thought this one was particularly good. She was right.  It was a good salad and I did not drown it in dressing either.  I left feeling satisfied and good about my choice.  I might have even been smiling.

The Best I Could Do:  We stayed in a chain hotel that advertised free hot breakfast.  I was dubious from the beginning and told 65MD so.  I told him I'd pack my own breakfast because stale donuts and tang aren't a good breakfast even when there are no concerns about weight and nutrition.  But 65MD had stayed in this chain before in another state.  He assured me there would be plenty of good options for me.  In his experience, he actually went in to a restaurant and ordered from a menu.  I made up my mind to order an omelet for breakfast without toast or potatoes.  That would fit in fine with low carb and still feel special and vacation like.  Unfortunately, 65MD's previous experience was not duplicated.  Fortunately, my fears were not validated either.  We were offered:

• scrambled eggs - probably powdered eggs and I wasn't sure just how much protein was still there so I skipped them
• sausage - which I initially passed but came back to
• donuts, white bread for toast & biscuits which, of course, I skipped
• waffles - the do it yourself type
• assorted hot teas & coffee

The first day I ate 4 pieces of sausage. They were small.  They were also greasy and made me quite sick.  The second day, I ate a waffle.  It was clearly not low carb, but I felt like the best I could do in that situation.  We stayed in different places after that and had better options, but I still never got an omelet.

OOPSIE!!:  We have learned through the years that there are some fabulous state parks in the southeast.  There are wonderful walking trails and all sorts of interesting things to see and learn.  Often they have the best food too.  Our experience has been that we got a lot of good food for a very reasonable price.  When the welcome center recommended one nearby and gave us a 10% off coupon we were only too happy to go.  It was a buffet and did not disappoint.  There was a great, and I do mean great, salad bar.  There was a hot bar with three kinds of meat and more vegetables than I can recall.  It was all quite tasty.  If I'd stuck with the salad bar & protein choices, I still would have had too much food, but I did not.  I cannot recall all of the dessert options.  Often I can dismiss the cake options by telling myself that I can make a better one any time, but this time those cakes looked great.  There were pies, cheesecake & ice cream and I wanted some of all of it.  I was full.  I knew I'd had enough, but it was "free" since it was included in the price of the buffet.  Not only did I get several small samplings of the various offerings, I went back for seconds on dessert!!!  I paid dearly the rest of the night for it, and my stomach is still a little sore.  The only bright spot is, that I really did have small pieces, just a few bites of each at most.  In times past, I'd have just gotten a whole slice of the ones I wanted.  And, a couple weren't as good as I hoped so I only ate one bite.  I'm holding on to that as a sign of growth.

I was glad to call a fast today.  I'm drinking half my body weight in water today to try and literally flush this garbage out of my system.  (I'm almost there!)  I'm back on the low carb bandwagon.  I have my lunches ready for the week ahead, and I'm actually looking forward to eating right again!