Week 4 Keto on the Go

Posting From the Road

Oh, the places you’ll go (go ahead,call me Dr. Seuss😁). This week I went places, when my husband and I took a last minute business trip.

We got to experience the Keto lifestyle, while flying halfway across the country, driving in two, new to us, states, and not having the ability to cook for ourselves. We packed up some tasty low-carb snacks and even found some amazing airport food, that provided guilt-free eating.

Traveling is a trigger for me. Usually I would love nothing more than to grab a Diet Pepsi, some salty/sugary carb-laden snacks, and sink into the bliss of a carb-coma.

Yes, I may just patent that term, because it’s very accurate for me. The feeling of not worrying about what I’m putting in my mouth, and reveling in the high I get from sugar, in whatever form it’s in.

This time was different. I was actually excited about the opportunity to learn from this situation. I rarely travel and when I do, it’s usually within a couple of hours of home, and I bring a bunch of “safe” food with me.

The Good: I stayed faithful to my new lifestyle while traveling. My emotions were on edge at times, but I didn’t let myself throw in the towel, when faced with temptation and mistakes.

The Bad: When my son, Micah, was 2 his favorite story was about the Jelly Belly Man. Now, I may not be the Jelly Belly Man, but I am most definitely the Jelly Belly Mom. Oh, the shame of it all😩.

I, not so affectionately, called our flights “The Sardine Flights.”  On both flights, we were packed in like sardines, and believe me, social distancing was non-existent. This Jelly Belly Mom was very glad that I’d lost a couple pounds before this trip, and yet discouraged that my jelly belly was still, oh, so very jelly.

The Ugly: Man cannot live on jerky and pork rinds alone….nor woman for that matter. It’s been a week of snacking and not many actual meals. We’ve been driving from place to place for about 12 hours (almost) every day. We kept saying we were going to stop for lunch, but ended up eating moon cheese, jerky, nuts, and pork rinds instead. Friday night we found a pizza restaurant that had a cauliflower crust. We were both super excited (okay, maybe it was just me)! The nutrition information seemed to say it only had 11.5 net carbs, so we ordered our favorite travel food. After my 3rd small slice, I decided to look up the nutrition information again, because this fabulous pizza seemed too good to be true – and believe me it was! My heart sank as I read an article stating the crust was 11.5 net carbs PER SLICE! Oh, the horror! I had just scarfed down 4 heavenly slices, and realized I’d just ruined myself for the next several days. When I read the nutrition information it did say 11.5 net carbs, but in my travel exhausted, food starved brain, I missed the per slice part.  I was so mad at myself for making such a foolish mistake. Not only did I go way over carbs, but I was still hungry, and now craving the rest of the pizza.

The good news is, I didn’t let that plunge me into a binge on junk. In the past I would have binged, because I’d already gone over carbs, so what the heck . (Ra, Ra, Amber! Great Job!!🎉🥳)

Traveling this strenuously, and living the Keto life, is not as easy as I’d hoped. I snacked on approved foods, because snacks kept me from going completely crazy, while not eating regular meals.
My Intermittent fasting was virtually non-existent, and when I did succeed, it was by sheer willpower.

In the future I need to make sure to take time and eat two regular meals while traveling; since it triggers my desire to snack on everything not good for me, and makes my desire for burgers, fries, burritos, and pizza go through the roof.

This was a very good learning experience, but a painful one.