Facing Roadblocks

I have been adjusting my diet, my mindset, and my habits over the last week. Not easy, but I remain motivated. But motivation is not enough. Life is one big barrier to a successful eating regimen because the majority of people in the USA are eating poorly every day - whether they are rich or poor, skinny or fat, young or old - we are killing ourselves with what we eat.

Some people will not suffer from their poor choices as much as others will. Since I have a family history of heart and vascular death on both sides of my family tree, I am someone who is going to be highly affected by a poor diet. So for people like me, this is a life issue.

I was out of town in Las Vegas for a conference the past 3 1/2 days. Of course you can't be in Vegas and not find a thousand things to tempt you. Remember - saturated fat is a drug. You crave it, you love the taste of it, and for many of us we have turned that satiation into a substitute for feeling good and feeling love. It's a chemical reaction and it can be broken. Doesn't mean you can't feel good with out it and certainly does not mean you won't feel love without it.

So - I maintained my food diary while I was gone. That was a huge help. I was tempted to cheat on what I wrote down - to make myself feel better. Twisted. But I didn't cheat on the diary and I found that making a few comments along the way actually was helpful.

Roadblock One - you are in a hurry, you need something quick. You already have some quick food patterns, so just fall back on them. I went to Starbucks for the morning latte and instead, picked up the Odawalla Smoothie in the case. No milk, just fruit and energy.

Roadblock Two - you are on a five hour flight and your airplane food choices and airport terminal food choices are limited. I had packed a plastic baggie of cereal - Kashi Island Vanilla whole shredded wheat. Kept me away from the snack box and I was not famished from empty calories when I got off the plane.

Roadblock Three - you have the opportunity to try some fantastic restaurants in the city you are visiting. You get in late and want to order room service. Here's what I did.
Room service = salad with dressing on the side, plain baked potato, mixed vegetables, dinner roll. My mistake - they brought butter and sour creme on the side. The butter was really good :( and I caved to my crave. But the salad I saved in the room fridge for a snack the next day while I worked and that was brilliant!!

Lunch/Dinner out = a Portabella mushroom "burger" with lettuce, tomato, and mustard with a side of veggies works for me. I can discretely remove the shaved Romano cheese from the bruschetta. And instead of going to a pasta place, I found a fantastic whole foods gourmet restaurant - Chef Bradley Ogden inside Ceaser's Hotel - where heirloom tomato salad and quinoa topped with veggies was fantastic!!! The French restaurant was a little tougher - but my dinner pal and I split a beautiful salad and I had only one bite of the delicious cheese. I had the best veggie platter in the world - of course butter makes it better - but infinitely better than anything else I could have chosen on the menu.

The bottom line, folks, is that this regimen is not easy and the world will sabotage you in a heartbeat. But my motto became - pass up on the obvious stuff and anything I could easily keep off my plate. If there were hidden problems, like veggies cooked in butter, I would accept it. In this way I kept trying and I passed on everything I would have normally eaten (save that one bite of fantastic fromage...). I passed on milk in the coffee (except once). I passed on all chocolate. I had seafood taco instead of cheese quesadilla at the Mexican place, but homemade fried chips and seafood are still a roadblock. Dr. Esselstyn would not be pleased with me because I did not keep 100% to the regimen. His reasoning that "a little taste" will hurt you is because a little heroin is as bad as a lot of heroin - it induces the same craving. Saturated fat is saturated fat and eating a little or the hidden amounts maintains the craving.

I got that when I got home from my trip and all I could think about was falling back on old habits. Wouldn't a pizza be good? Or a burrito with cheese? I'll cheat just a little with a cheese sandwich. I ended up eating a Wawa veggie hoagie on whole wheat bun - no cheese, no mayo - just lots of veggies. It was heaven - because I made a good choice and it was very, very tasty with peppers, pickles, spicy mustard, etc. And I also got a green tea and a Naked Juice Smoothie (no milk) for tomorrow's breakfast.

So go to Vegas and have fun. Eat well, just not wrong. Save your life and have a tasty time doing it! Onward.