Tuesday, January 14, 2014

The Journey Continues --- Part 2

The Journey Continues  ---  Part 2

After spending about a week and a half on the road, I had a dear friend offer to allow me to stay in his home in Ocean City, NJ.  This was a perfect location for me as 3 of the 4 schools with whom I would be working were within an hour drive from Ocean City.

Ocean City is November is not exactly a booming metropolis.  It was very mellow and laid back.  I liked my time there but found that most of the restaurants are seasonal thus limiting my choices significantly for food options.  I did manage to find a great Chinese restaurant that made food from scratch and was willing to make great meals without starches, MSG, or even sugar.  It was a very small restaurant with a total of only 3 tables.  They were predominantly set up for "Take Out".  I ate delicious spicy eggplant, duck, chicken and vegetables, etc.  I think that I ate there 5-7 times while I was in town.  The nice thing was that the food was healthy and good tasting and allowed me to stay within my diet.

As I was away for about two weeks at this point, I began to wonder about how much weight I had gained.  I did not have access to a scale so it was really an unknown.  I felt like I was eating a lot, especially a lot of nuts.  I was eating properly, but I was quite sure that I had gained far more than 5 pounds.  I told myself not to worry about it, but I did.  After all that I had been through to lose this much weight, to just gain a great deal of it back was a disturbing idea for sure.  I told myself that I would not weigh myself until I returned back to California.  With only a week to go, I felt that I could wait until I returned to find out if this was successful.

We'll see.

The Journey Continues Part 1

The Journey Continues  ---  Part 1

I know that I haven't written in a while, and wow do I have some updates for you.

So after I finished the second broth fast, I left for Chicago, Baltimore, Philly, and Ocean City, NJ.  In total, I expected to be gone about 3 weeks.

The first thing that I needed to do was properly transition to a solid diet properly.  Simply, I strictly stuck to nothing at all but nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, and lentils for two full days.  It was stressed to me the importance of this, and this time, I was committed to make this transition as smooth as possible.  The last time it went ok but I would say that it was flawless, but I did not stick so closely to the recommended transition diet.  That first time, I found that there was a little "rumbly in my tumbly" as Winnie-the-Pooh would say (stomach cramps).  This time it went perfectly.  Completely unremarkable.

Then the challenge came of eating well on the road. Dr. Saunders told me that if I ate properly, I could expect to see an increase of about 5 pounds. I really did not want to gain more than 5 pound.  I lost a grand total of 35 and I was ok with a net loss of 30.  That would give me a weight of 150 pounds which is a good weight for my height and bone structure.

In Chicagoland I found plenty of high quality, healthy choices.  I had nice chicken, fish, and beef dishes and plenty of vegetarian options.  I can't believe that I'm going to say this but I find myself drawn to good vegetarian options. That was not something that I expected to say.  I was told that my taste buds would change and apparently they did.

After nearly a week in the beautiful town of Napersville, IL, I flew out to Baltimore to spend time with schools in southern Maryland, and 4 places in New Jersey.  Eating on the road can be quite difficult, but doesn't have to be.  At almost every restaurant there is some choice that fits my new eating plan.  I can eat pretty much anything except starches and sugars.  It's easier than one might think.

One thing I learned was that not all areas have readily accessible healthy food choices.  It's there, it just was a bit harder to find.  But I was determined to eat healthy food.  I always found something.