Day 19

I returned yesterday from my business trip in Boise and am finally getting the chance to do an update. The trip went well and keeping on plan was actually much easier than anticipated.

On Sunday, I had three cheeseburger patties before I left so was fine until dinner that night. The boss took a bunch of us to the Applebee's that was across the street from the hotel. Since he was paying, I didn't want to get anything too expensive (a decent sized steak was over $20), so I ordered one of their 10 oz "Brewtus" bacon sirloin burgers sans bun and fries. I did end up adding some sauteed mushrooms (mushrooms are 2 grams - 1 of those fiber - per cup raw, so it wasn't much). The burger turned out to be very good and was plenty filling.

I was hungry the next morning and had a "meat lovers" omelette at the hotel restaurant. It was a cheese omelette with bacon, sausage and ham. It was good, and very filling, but really salty. That tided me over until dinner, which was good because the lunch provided to us was a taco bar. The last time I had taco/nacho meat, I was severely glutened, so I had no problem not eating anything. Dinner was again paid for by the boss at the steakhouse in the hotel. I had two 8 oz bunless bacon cheeseburgers (a ribeye was over $26 and wasn't very big). I used the gluten excuse to not get fries or a bun and the waiter hounded me through dinner over alternatives ("how about sauteed green beans?"). It also was good but the two burgers was really too much.

On Tuesday, I wasn't hungry for breakfast so slept in a little. I had planned on pemmican for lunch while the others ate but it sounded like I needed to be there. Fortunately, they were having sandwiches, so I got some cheese, ham and turkey before it had been contaminated by gluten. It wasn't much , so I had some pemmican when I got back to my room and was still hungry for dinner. The boss again took some of us to Applebee's. There was only four of us this time, so I got a little grief about my bunless and potato-less Brewtus burger (especially after I put butter and mustard on it - very tasty by the way).

I wasn't hungry the next morning but I knew we would be in an important meeting all morning and didn't want my stomach to start growling. I had to go off menu to order three eggs and a side of bacon because all of the rest of the stuff was carbed out with potatoes and toast and I didn't see any reason to pay for that stuff. I didn't want an omelette since I wasn't very hungry so it was just enough, especially after they accidentally doubled my side order of bacon.

After the meeting, we took off in my coworker's Cessna and flew home. We had to fly around some weather and the trip ended up taking four hours instead of the expected two and a half. We got back about 2 PM our time (after losing an hour) and I was getting pretty hungry by then. I had some of my pemmican and two colby jack cheese sticks. Dinner was a T-Bone and a piece of cheese.

With all of the cheese and bacon I have had over the last few days, I have been getting way more salt than I usually do. I was feeling a little bloated, so I thought I would be up a pound or two this morning due to water retention. Instead I was at 189.0 pounds. This is down .8 pounds since Saturday, for a total loss of 10.8 pounds. I think I may still lose a little more once the salt flushes out of my system.

All in all, it was very easy to stay on plan despite eating exclusively in restaurants for almost four days. The best part was not getting glutened and losing almost a pound is a bonus, too. Still, the food was way saltier than I am now used to and I am definitely looking forward to some home cooking

I have been dragging around all day today because today is the day I give up diet soda. I have had tea, so I am not cutting out all caffeine. It is still a lot less than I was having. I am mostly trying to avoid the insulin spike driven by the sweet taste of the diet pop. I was originally going to ween down but I took today off and have a four day weekend. I thought it best to just get it over with. I am dragging but don't have much of a headache - yet.