I've been on the road the week traveling between the US and Canada. Normally, I eat five meals per day. Eating about every 2-3 hours. Each meal has a protein carb blend. This past week my schedule either had me on a plane or in customer meetings.
My carry on bag included some healthy snacks that I brought from home but not enough to cover what I was going to ultimately require. I ran out of those snacks pretty quickly given the number of hours I was on planes.....leaving me nothing to eat every 2-3 hours once I got to my destinations. I learned in short order what happens when you have breakfast before the sun comes up and your next meal isn't until 1pm or later. My appetite has been trained to eat something every 2-3 hours.
So there I sit in these meetings hearing my stomach growl, indicating it's time for my next meal. I had nothing on hand so I drank water to try and curb the hunger pains. As the hours passed, I grew hungrier and hungrier. This is a very dangerous position to be in. Do you know why? Well, I'm about to tell you.
By the time the meeting came to an end, I was famished. I was at the point of not return. I would eat anything...I didn't care what it was, I just wanted FOOD. Our customer suggested we go to one of his favorite restaurants. I asked why it was his favorite and he said because it was fast. We didn't have a lot of time to grab food before our next meeting started, so going somewhere with fast service was a good idea.
We arrive at a Chinese restaurant and it's entirely a buffet style restaurant. I'm very excited about this because I am starving and ready to dig in!!! There weren't many healthy choices and by this point I didn't care. I grabbed a small plate and began filling it with single spoonfuls of each item I liked. I had 4 items in total. I inhaled them in a matter of seconds. I couldn't even control my pace. My appetite was not yet satisfied. At this point, I grabbed two fried spring rolls, more white rice and some chocolate powdered morsels for desert. I could see that I was so far gone that I needed to stop what was happening. I didn't allow myself to go back for any more food. While I didn't eat a lot, what I had eaten was loaded with calories. My small innocent plate had at least 800+ calories of food on it. My meals are typically around 250-350 per meal. This was a lot of cals for me in one serving!
We were off to our next meeting and another 5 hours go by before we are able to eat again. When we headed out for dinner, we chose a high end Indian food restaurant. I found myself hungrier than i was at the last meal. I was starving to a point where I was shaking. We ordered a few different kinds of Indian bread...which I indulged. We ordered a butter chicken bowl that was filled to the rim with a delicious red curry paste sauce. My hand was shaking as I put some rice and butter chicken on my plate. I ate all of that and tried the Indian vegetarian cheese plate that came with a mint sauce and grilled veggies. Suddenly my stomach is going nuts as if it had never had food in it and I kept plating up more of this flavorful food. I ate until I couldn't eat anymore and was uncomfortable. My stomach was distended, my skirt was snug around my waist and I felt the food coma take over. I lost all control of my good eating habits.
I haven't eaten that much food in one sitting in so long that I can't recall the last time I abused my body like that. My week continued this way and now it's Friday and I sit here at the airport in route to head back home, thinking about how many people out there in the world only eat 3 meals a day. Its no wonder people over eat. They are eating too much food in one sitting. Your body can only use so much of those calories. The rest get stored as FAT. I like most of the people who only eat 3x a day, ate most of my calories at nite and went straight to bed after eating. Talk about a downward spiral! I found myself in an unhealthy situation.
My flat toned abs have disappeared. My waist has a layer of fat that moved in, as a result of my poor eating. I feel thick and gross!
I can not stress enough how important it is to prevent this scenario or poor eating eating habits from taking over your body!!!! I usually pack protein powder and protein bars with me when I travel so I can stick to my 5 meals a day plan. I'm not sure why I didn't plan as well as I should for this trip. What I can tell you is this was extremely eye opening. I now know I have to bring a box of quest protein bars, apples and my whey protein shakes with me on my next trip.
It is so much better for your body to eat every few hours. It keeps your intake at a reasonable serving, your calories down (as long as you eat clean), it revs your metabolism, cuts down on fat storage and your energy is better.
Plan ahead for your meals at home and snacks for travel...including vacation travel. Don't let yourself end up in the same eating disaster I found myself in this past week.
Until next time...eat smaller meals more often and include lean protein and a healthy carb.
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