Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Appetizer Action

I'm traveling this week, as you know. That means different time zones, a screwed up schedule, long days, missed workouts, difficult access to good food and late, large, alcohol-infused dinners.

Not the best thing for the waistline.

But I have strategies to overcome the obstacles!

I've told you before about the food I pack. Snacks for the plane and the mid-day munchies: raisins, nuts, Cheerios, shredded wheat and a few M&Ms. Apples and 90-calorie Fiber One bars for breakfast. Gum to keep my mouth busy during long flights and longer afternoons. Dove chocolate for, well, any occasion.

Those things help me get through the day okay. And I'm lucky in that this enormous casino hotel has a 24-hour fancy food mart with fresh fruit, salads, raw veg bar, Cherry Coke Zero and even sushi for a reasonably healthy lunch, though it costs me a literal arm and leg.

That just leaves dinner to negotiate.

My new go-to solution for enormous portions and calorie-laden monster meals is this:

Appetizers. And sides.

One day I had a plain, ol' ordinary side salad with a side of fresh cut potato chips. Last night I got to split some steamed edamame with the table (I ate the most by far), then ate half of a seared tuna app and a side cucumber/tomato salad. Tonight, at a fan-freaking-tastic Cuban restaurant, we again split something for the table ... empanadas. And then I noshed on a bowl of black bean soup and a cup of ceviche.

Best of all, it can be cheap to eat like this. Not always, but sometimes the sides are nominal.

It saves me in two ways. 1) I have a compulsion to eat everything on my plate. When you're traveling, you can't really ask for a to-go box to take half of whatever it is home. So I find that it's just best to not have the whole plate of anything in front of me. 2) The typical side of potatoes or rice or pasta is all not-necessary carbs. By ordering little bits at time I can just avoid them.

And, yes, I know the potato chips mentioned above are carbs. But I love fresh potato chips.

So zip it.

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