28-day Challenge: Day 26

Hi strangers.  Sorry for the delay in posting--I was in Minneapolis for work all week and did not have the chance to sit down and write.  Even if I had, I was not cooking up gourmet plant-strong meals in my hotel room so I would not have had anything too interesting to say, anyway! :)

Some of you may be wondering how well I stuck to the diet while traveling.  Traveling is usually the biggest barrier to healthy eating, at least in my experience.  When I am in a new place and I do not have the option to cook for myself, there really is not any other choice than to eat out for almost every meal.  And often the options are limited to what you can easily access around the hotel, which is certainly no guarantee for healthy choices, let alone plant-strong menu items!

So, this time I planned ahead.  I stocked up on portable healthy foods which could get me through four breakfasts, four lunches, and some snacks in between.  Check it out:

 I have satsumas, apples, almond butter, raw almonds, medjool dates, Rip's Big Bowl, Lara Bars, and homemade oil-free oatmeal dark chocolate chip cookies (from the E2 book, made with applesauce.  Thanks, Stacey!!).  This was plenty to get me through and I brought the leftovers home.  Thankfully, this helped me avoid eating fast food during our lunch break at the conference.

Now, I will not pretend that everything I ate while away was completely healthy, but I did stick to the plant-strong diet as best as I could.  On Tuesday night I went with a friend to a friend's potluck bonfire where we ate chickpea salad, veggies and hummus, tofu and veggie spring rolls, and chips and salsa, plus a few beers.  Check these out!  These are not from Minnesota, (I'm sure you can guess where they are from when you see the photo) but I got such a kick out of the labels that I just have to share:

 Polygamy Porter and Provo Girl Pilsner!  Ha!

Anyway....so Wednesday we ate out at a Thai restaurant for dinner where we chowed down on coconut red curry with veggies and tofu, pad thai (I ate around the egg....best I could do), and stir fried spinach and tofu with black bean sauce.  It was pretty good, but they did not have brown rice.  Who doesn't serve brown rice these days?!  Even Thai restaurants in NOLA have that option...harumph.

Thursday night we went to a Mexican restaurant and I had chips and guacamole.  I just can't say no to tortilla chips, so do not judge me.  It's my one vice!  My entree was a watermelon, cucumber, heirloom tomato, and arugula salad which was delicious.  I am lucky it was so good, because it was apparently the only thing on the menu that could be modified to be vegan....

Then on Friday I gave in to temptation and skipped my pre-planned lunch and went out to a Middle Eastern restaurant for hummus, baba ganouj, falafel, Lebanese salad, and veggie curry.  Ok, so this clearly was not oil/fat-free, but relatively healthy and delicious all the same!

I must say, while I was not looking forward to spending a week in Minneapolis, I was pleasantly surprised.  It was a very clean and green city.  There are recycle bins on every corner, some even with an "organic waste" bin for composting, rent-a-bike stations everywhere, and free hybrid/clean air buses that run through downtown.  The weather was in the 50s on the first day then dropped to the 30s for the last part of the trip...it even snowed on Thursday!  I cannot believe I am saying this in public but....I enjoyed the cold.  Yes, there, I said it!  This girl from the South still has a soft spot for the colder weather.  I miss the seasons, the changing of the leaves, and the cute cold-weather outfits.  There are just only so many outfits I can put together with shorts and tank tops down here.  But with sweaters and layers, the possibilities are endless!  Ha.  Anyway, those feelings were fleeting once I fast forwarded my memory to what it is like January through April.  AKA=miserable.  So yeah, it was nice to visit but I'll take the warmth of the South any day.