Skip to main content

Alaska: Big Coastlines, Big Waistlines

Here's a tip for any of you thinking about visiting The Last Frontier:

Do not underestimate driving times.  There is no such thing as a fifteen-minute drive from town to town.  That distance is measured in hours.

Some of you good folks out there have the intestinal fortitude to go a good four or five hours without a stop of any kind.  Not true for yours truly.  I have a small bladder and a penchant for Diet Coke.  Also, I was traveling with five kids.  It stands to reason that we were going to stop quite a bit.

Mistake #1: Consuming either Diet Coke or coffee most of the time I was in AK.  It's been proven that caffeine stimulates appetite...so I would drink, then I would want to eat.  Bad.

Mistake #2: Relying on gas station food more often than I should have.  Because I was imbibing ridiculous amounts of caffeine, I was eating...I've already said that.  But...what I was eating?  Crap.  Junk.  High-carb stuff.  I was making bad choices, for sure.  I do remember a stop in Healy where I purchased a string cheese stick, a hard boiled egg, and beef jerky - that might have been the healthiest I ate during all the driving.

When it came to regularly scheduled meals, I did fine.  Sort of.  Probably too much fat and protein, truth be known.  But better than refined and processed, right?  Maybe.

Anyway, now I'm home.  Both my husband and I stepped on the bathroom scale after an eleven-day hiatus...and it is definitely time to get back on track!  For whatever reason, I did not partake in my usual morning cup of coffee, nor did I consume any Diet Coke until well into the afternoon.  But guess what?  From eight o'clock a.m., when I ate my oatmeal, to noonish when I ate lunch with the kids, I felt no hunger whatsoever...no raving desire to consume food.  I must try the experiment again tomorrow.

So, the prodigal daughter returns to her kitchen.  I'm probably going to start back up reading my Julia Child; however, I've got a new project brewing (besides the no-storebought bread challenge), and it involves the Glycemic Index.

Happy week all!

Comments

  1. Bupu2June 18, 2011 at 2:55 AM

    This is really good. I also tried it with Portabellas instead of chicken on the grill. Yum. Thanks for this idea.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bupu2June 18, 2011 at 3:05 AM

    Ok. Just got this tablet thingy with a touch screen. Things don't always go where I think they will. Former comment refers to the avocado post of course. As to this AK post, I was wondering if the caffien avoidance was still diminishing your appetite? (I do a lot of caffien in a day.)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Which I Suspect I Have Latent Tendencies...Much Like The Hulk, Or Similar

I find in most normally functioning families, the members have a distinguishing role or legacy or skill of some kind. Like, he's the smart one.  Or, he's the religious one.  Or...she's the glue that helps the fam together.  Or, she's the savvy one, so she's the Power of Attorney. In my family, that system went something like this: My dad was The Dad.  Cantankerous, crotchety, and especially tight with daughters' curfew times.  Also, not a fan of driving in Big Cities. My mom was the long-suffering, patient, reserved one. My brother was the baby, the one who got away with murder, the namesake, and also, Frosty Hoarder. Me?  My legacy?  The Ruiner of Remote Controls.  No lie.  Although I've repressed the memories, my parents claim I destroyed at least two remotes in my tenure as Child Under The Roof.  Remote #1: milk spillage; Remote #2: applesauce spillage. So, now you see why my younger brother was the favorite. Anyway, t...
1 comment
Read more

From Government Regulations to Chicken

So, I really wanted tonight's post to be whippy and biting and highly intelligent...and I've even got the perfect topic - government wine regulations: Europe vs. the US (subtitle: European Governments Seem to Trust Their Citizens A Whole Lot More The US, Otherwise Why Don't French, et al., Wine Labels Have the Surgeon General's "Pregnant Women Should Not Drink This/This Beverage Impairs Your Brain" Warning). But, I realized that to begin a post like that, I should probably know the answer to the question, yes?  Why do American wine labels include the warning, when, I don't know, isn't just common sense?  A quick search of this very query lands me at Wikipedia, which is good enough for a rude overview, but nothing that indicates why it's a law in the first place. Hence, more reading is required.  I hope to get to it soon.  It's almost August, two-thirds of this year is nearly gone, and sometimes I feel as I am moving very, very quickly along...
6 comments
Read more

New Year's Solutions

I've never been a fan of resolutions at this time of year.  Usually, a resolution is what a person makes to "solve" an old recurring problem ( this year, I really am going to quit smoking, eat better, or stop reading Nicholas Sparks novels, etc. ). And usually, a resolution is vague.  As in, I'm going to get healthy!  But, I have no real plan of action of how to do it!! Despite my cynicism about making NY Resolutions, I do feel the need every end-of-year to come to make some kind of decisions about the year ahead - plans, goals, visions, etc.  2013 has been the year of indecision and immobility.  For me, anyway.  2014 will very likely be the year of movement...it's been looming on the horizon now for some time. I'm not much of a planner...I never really have been.  I've just sort of let things fall into my lap...and well, things have worked out okay for me, most of the time.  Professionally speaking, that is.  But now, I've been having ...
1 comment
Read more