On Sunday I was still eating food from home because I couldn't make it to the grocery store until my tour was over. I recall I wasn't hungry for brekky because I ate too many brazil nuts the night before! oops. so I just had a banana for brekky. I made oatmeal to take for lunch. It turns out this works well. I'll explain in a bit. I also had an apple. Everyone else had sandwiches supplied by the organizers. For dinner I had one of Dr. Fuhrman's soups, the morrocan chickpea. Let's see, did I have a salad? I don't think so. I think just the soup and some fruit and carrots and celery. I ate in my room. I was tired from all the walking, about 5 miles. It turns out my motel is a bit of a hike from the conference, but it's actually really nice to get outside and walk.
Okay, yesterday I made a salad for brekky:
This was the best meal of the day: a 5 oz box of baby lettuce greens topped with half containers of strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries; 2 spoons of sunflower seeds, and Dr. Fuhrman's blood orange vinegar. Fantastic meal. I heard today the berries just came in season in CA a week ago and they were good.
Then I was going to be out the rest of the day so I packed my lunch and dinner, as compact as possible because it's a 1.7 mile walk to the conference:
I made oatmeal with cut up apple, goji berries, and sunflower seeds. These are steel cut oats and I soaked them overnight. Then I microwaved for 2.5 minutes, and let it sit for about 30 minutes. Then added the cutup apple (with skin, it was organic), goji berries and seeds, and microwaved it again for 2 minutes. I had about 3-4 times as much water as oats in the end. Oatmeal is a good travel meal because it's compact to travel with, then even after cooking it's calorie dense so relatively compact. I put the warm oatmeal in a tupperware bowl and put that in a cheap insulated bag I got for free years ago and it was still warm at lunch!
For lunch I had the oatmeal, orange and some carrots and celery. I was out with a group who went to P.F. Chang's. I know I seem crazy but I can't get food I like in restaurants--too much salt and grease and sugar and refined grains. The salt is the worse for me. By the way, no one in my group batted an eye about my bringing my own food. I don't know what they thought and I don't care.
For dinner I had the fuhrman soup and the apple. The soup was the "Supreme Greens." I was with friends who went to a Thai restaurant. They ordered a dessert that looked interesting so I had a bite. It was sticky rice with mango and sweet coconut milk. I knew it was going to be sugary and that part was fine, not too sweet, but the sticky rice was also really salty. It would have been good without the salt. It had roasted sesame seeds in it which were good.
Today's brekky was a repeat from yesterday but it also had half an avocado which made it even better. oh, and spinach/cabbage mix instead of baby green mix. an entire 5 oz box again. super good:
Lunch was oatmeal again. same ingredients as yesterday, but I also managed to cook in with it another 5 oz box of spinach/cabbage mix. it was good. I ate this out with another colleague. We went to a deli.
Then I discovered another grocery store that was better than the one I went to on Sunday. Oh my god, so much good produce. oh..my..the peaches and nectarines are fabulous, and I got another avocado:
also some grapes and cherries, locally grown. they are fabulous too. so I made a change of menu plans. Forget the oatmeal! It's gonna be fruit, nuts, greens, and beans (from the soup) for the rest of the trip. The fruit is too good. I also was realizing I probably don't eat enough nuts and seeds, given my weight and level of exercise. So I decided to eat more, which is why I bought the almonds. So this is what I had for dinner, cherries, grapes and raw almonds:
along with a can of the Vitabeanavegamin soup. I don't think that name is very appealing but the soup was very good.
A note about the soup: When I packed my suitcase I had second thoughts about packing 5 cans of soup. It made the suitcase heavy. I thought, I could just buy cans of beans at the grocery store. Well, it turns out the soups are very good and make for convenient meals, so I think it's worth it. My suitcase weighed 51.5 lbs but I didn't get charged for it, whew. It will weight less on the way home.
A note on my food vs restaurant: to tell the truth I think mine tastes better. In my view, you can't beat fresh local produce. the soups are good too.
Some day, when society realizes the benefits of eating healthy and we don't object to bankrupting the medical and health industries, which we would do if everyone ate healthy, you will be able to get food like I'm eating in restaurants. Until then, I'll just have to be an oddball. I always have been in other ways, so this is just a new one.