Weekly update #4 and #5 – Finding my groove and traveling
All of a sudden things have gotten easier.
The first three weeks of the Perfect Health Project were extremely hard. Most of the pain was emotional. It is kind of embarrassing to admit that I had such a rough time giving up certain foods. I mean… it’s food. Fuel for the body. Not exactly something worth getting all upset about. Yet changing my habits made me grouchy, depressed and angry.
But that was the first three weeks. As of two weeks ago, everything suddenly became a lot easier. I stopped craving sugar, found a rhythm in my eating habits and even started to enjoy a lot of the foods I used to turn my nose up at. Who knew steamed peas and corn mixed together could be so satisfying?
This relief could not have come at a better time as last weekend I caught a plane for Austin, Texas to attend a conference for my business. Five days of figuring out how to eat healthy while on the road and I was more than a little nervous. I thought about packing a bunch of food to have with me or hitting up a grocery store once I arrived but in the end decided against this. One of the goals of this project is to see how much of a “normal” life I can lead while living in perfect health. That means picking up food at the conference and eating out every day.
I figured out, surprisingly, that it is pretty easy. Almost every restaurant has at least one healthy option. Airport food stalls regularly carry things like fruit and Naked juices (which are amazing by the way). The conference I attended had large fruit cups available for breakfast and the Mexican restaurant across the street from the conference center had amazing spinach burritos on their lunch menu. While there were still times that I could not find something readily available to eat, finding something that fit my diet was much easier than I expected.
There is, though, a dark side to trying to eat out while cutting out 95% of what most American’s eat from your diet. You become that customer.
“I’d like the cobb salad. But I don’t want the chicken on it, I’d like grilled salmon. And I don’t want the bacon bits either, so can you just put some extra avocado on there for me? Oh yeah, and I need the vinaigrette dressing instead of the ranch and I’m going to need that on the side.”
The waitresses were loving me…
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As I’ve now finished out five weeks of the Perfect Health Project, I am also starting to see some changes in people around me.
One night in Austin after dinner, my friend sat back, looked at his empty plate that had recently held fried chicken and french fries and then looked at my plate where I was finishing up the above cobb salad, and sighed heavily. His stomach had begun to ache and he was feeling sluggish. He confessed that he wished he had gone with the salad as well as it would have made him feel much “cleaner”. And that is exactly what he did the next night at dinner.
I have also seen several people in my life start eating better. My wife has decided to cut out sugar (her kryptonite) and refined wheat from her diet. Joseph, a guy I work with, has also decided to eat more balanced with more whole foods as opposed to the processed kind he eats on a regular basis. And my kids are asking for fruits and vegetables as snacks after lunch and dinner instead of animal crackers or pretzels. It is exciting to see this little project I have taken on impacting the people around me. Hopefully I keep inspiring people to give this stuff a try!
