March 4, 2011

Hello from Amsterdam!

That’s right, it’s jetsetting time again, and I’m here on a quick layover on my way to Brussels. Zythos Beer Festival, here I come!

The flight from Washington to Amsterdam was mostly uneventful, with the exception of meal service. I had requested a gluten-free meal – I have a colleague who swears by gluten-free meals for the health value, since they tend to cut out all the “dry carbs” (i.e., potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, etc) that plague most cheap/mass produced food. Unfortunately, my meal preference didn’t go into the system in time, so there was no special meal on board for me. I was all prepared to say “no problem,” when the flight attendant said she would take care of it.

She went through the various regular meal options to see what would work and offered that I could mix and match the components of the different meals to create something that I could eat! I ended up with the chicken meal, of which I skipped the noodles, had a salad on the side, and then was offered a dish of cut fruit from the crew. When I heard that last part, I felt terrible, since my diet is definitely self-imposed rather than out of medical necessity. However, at that point it was too late for me to refuse, so putting my guilt aside, I was so touched! I’m definitely going to be writing a letter to KLM to commend that crew on providing excellent service, and I got the purser’s name in order to call her out by name.

However, I thought a lot about my diet while I was on the plane. This week, I had a stupid scare with the scale that really made me sit up and take notice. After the wine and cheese Oscar party I attended on Sunday night, I was so bloated (from eating what was in all likelihood around a pound of cheese), and it definitely showed up on the scale. My weight was 1X6, which was 20 pounds up from where I was this time last year! Yikes. To compound that, my favorite black dress pants were super tight, to the point where they felt more like leggings. I wondered if I could even get away with wearing them to work, but given how lightly I packed, I had no choice – instead, I was just self-conscious all day and sucking in like crazy whenever I was standing/walking. But 1×6 was the highest weight I’ve hit in my life, and it was definitely my breaking point/wake up call – time to start eating healthy! I know I pressed the panic button a few weeks ago, but it didn’t entirely work (as judged by my wine and cheese binge); this time, however, it’s really sticking, because since Tuesday, I’ve really been watching what I eat. In good news, the bloating went down considerably, and my weight actually dropped to 1X2 two days later – still not a good weight for me, but at least it made me feel better that a lot of that weight was water retention from all the salty food.

But now it is time to kick into action – I really need to start watching what I eat, and I’m also going to start supplementing Rachel Cosgrove with some straight up cardio. Spring is here, and with it comes running season – I need to get out there and remind myself of why I started doing marathons in the first place. The peace and quiet of a solo run is just so enjoyable!

So with that, it’s off to Brussels. My eating plan for the weekend is to avoid “dry carbs,” with the exception of Sunday morning: if I go for a long run (which is in my plans), I will treat myself to one of those sweet Belgian waffles with chocolate! It’s total junk food, but I can’t come all the way to Brussels and not have one of those. I remember those well from the last time I was in Brussels, but I want to make sure it is a treat as a reward, not just something I glom down all weekend long.

Though let’s be honest about this little “no dry carbs” thing, the “wet carbs” (is that a term?) of beer are probably way more detrimental than any old starches and breads! No matter – that is one thing I am definitely not giving up this weekend, not with a world class beer festival in my plans. Lots of pics and stories hopefully to come 🙂

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3 thoughts on “Hello from Amsterdam!”

  1. Wow, enjoy Amsterdam!!
    I can relate to this post, this exact thing happened to me in Dec. I got a book called the “Thrive diet” – have you heard of it? Anyway, it is a clean eating booking, but what makes it a really good resource it the author (Brendon Brazier sp?) is a professional Ironman. Highly recommend to supplement all of the fabulous stuff you are already doing!

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