Business Travel = Yikes!

This past week I had to travel to St. Louis for a team meeting for work.  I left home very early morning on Tuesday and didn't get home until late Thursday.  I thought it would be simple to eat relatively healthy while I was away.  I didn't have any ideals of following 'the rules' 100% but I thought at least I could get close.  I bought a Britta water bottle so that I could easily fill it wherever and have fresh water to drink.  I also packed two basic trail mixes with nuts and berries.  Otherwise I thought I'd be good.

Tuesday morning I had a green smoothie while I got ready.  At the airport I had an iced latte with whole milk and no flavoring or sweetener - yuck but I needed that jolt of caffeine!  Lunch was at First Watch - which I knew from when we lived in the area.  I ordered a salad called "the Poacher" that was described as:

"Baby spinach, bacon, avocado tomato and housemade ciabatta croutons tossed in our balsamic vinaigrette.  Topped with a poached egg."

Perfect right?  I just said 'no croutons' and thought I'd be set.  When it arrived it came with this tomato & bacon mixture that was pretty sweet in almost like a type of bbq mixture.  No huge deal but I wish I'd have known.

Dinner was rough.  We had a team event so our boss had figured out a limited menu.  She had a bunch of appetizers that came out first - all fried or bread based so I avoided them.  I figured I'd just get whatever vegetarian option there was or a salad for dinner.   When I looked at the menu there were several options - my eyes zeroed in immediately on one that highlighted "portabello".  I was trying to be social so I didn't look long - just decided that is what I'd order and went from there.  Sadly I should have looked closer.  It was a cream based pasta dish where you could barely tell there were vegetables in it.  I had the side salad and then ate about 1/4 of it because I knew that was it for dinner.  No restaurant at the hotel and I didn't have a rental car.  Despite my boss (and others) giving me a hard time about not eating all the shared desserts I didn't touch them.  Good lord I wanted to!  Two types of creme brule, cheesecake, chocolate cake ... oh my GOD it looked good!  But no!  I was already expecting a food hangover - no need to make it worse.  I figured if I was going to feel like crap in the morning it should be from alcohol so ordered one dirty martini.

Wednesday morning I was PUFFY!  My face and hands - oh my God!  Salt SUCKS!  I was thrilled to find a fresh fruit mix at the breakfast bar. I had about 1/2 cup of scrambled eggs and then loaded the rest of my plate with the fruit.  Hot tea on the side and I was a happy girl.   Lunch went well too - we went to a really cute place in downtown St. Charles, MO where I had a really great spinach salad with mango & strawberries.  Hot tea again & still smiling!    Then dinner ... another team dinner.   It was a great little Irish pub but the healthiest thing on the entire menu was a vegetable burger.  So that's what I had.  No idea what was in it as all I could taste was the spices.  Came on a white bun with coleslaw on the side.  The coleslaw was sweet so I avoided it.  I did give in after a LONG day in heels (how the hell do women wear them every day without being just plain mean?!) and had 2 glasses of Guinness.  I'll also admit I had an onion ring and a stuffed mushroom - fried loveliness but I stopped there.

Thursday morning I was thinking I'd do the same thing for breakfast ... only the scrambled eggs were almost as hard as plastic and there was no fruit.  Sadly the only option was a baking powder biscuit and an apple.  Couldn't help but think of that "dirty dozen" list of foods to only eat organic & apples on there as I ate it.  The biscuit was yummy but of course holy white flour batman!  I also had a glass of orange juice - not great but I figured hey - at least it was juice even though highly processed.  It got me through the morning.  For lunch we went to a restaurant called the Shaved Duck that was featured on Diners Drive-ins and Dives.  It was a great little restaurant - clearly known for bbq.  Oh did I get laughed at when I ordered a salad.  So much for staying under the radar with how I eat.  I wasn't looking to draw attention to myself but I'd already had several comments.  "Oh - what diet are you doing?"  "Are you a vegetarian?"  Crap.   2 of my closest coworkers know what I'm doing but that's it and that's how I wanted it to stay ... well, such is life.  At the airport on the way home I had another spinach salad.  I knew I wouldn't be home until late and Hubby had already let me know he was sick ... so I was pretty sure there was nothing in the house.  

It doesn't sound bad right?  I mean most of what I had was salads.  Here's the kicker though - it's all the stuff you DON'T see ... the salt & sugar in the salad dressing ... the who knows what in that veggie burger.  The white flour in the pasta, hamburger bun & biscuit.  Just that and a dirty martini here and a Guinness there.  In no way did I go crazy or even get drunk ... but I felt awful every day.  It's Sunday night as I write this and I still feel like I'm shaking off the effects.

Stress of course comes into it too ... the stress of being "on" from 7AM to 10PM every day.  The stress of not sleeping in my own bed.  Those evil damn heels.  Yes ... I do believe that the devil himself created high heels!  And of course I have a sick hubby so the stress didn't end when I got home.  Oy what a big moody baby!   I've been nuking him (and me!) with juice and homemade tea and healthy food all weekend.  I also steam cleaned the crap out of the basement family room and sprayed Lysol pretty much eveywhere. I am praying I don't get sick too!  I'm sure my immune system is weak b/c of travel.   We'll see soon enough!