Posts Tagged ‘Travel’

Road Sahoor Success

Posted: July 24, 2012 in Food
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Sahoor on the road was what I was really worried about. I’ve had issues with this before so I wanted to make sure I was prepared this time. Luckily I was shown a great place by a friend in the area and it had everything I needed. I had a found an alternate place, a 24/7 deli with a decent salad bar, around the corner from my hotel just in case I woke up too late or the other spot was closed. Luckily choice number 1, a 24/7 French restaurant, was open for business when I got there at 4 am. Here is what I got (yay Sahoor pic):

Ahem, err..notice something wrong? It’s like Two Face from Batman, a good side and an evil side. Let’s start with the good. That is a 3 egg omlette with spinach and smoked salmon. Not sure what type of oil it was cooked in but it was delicous. I also had numerous glasses of water. Pretty sure the waiter thought I had issues drinking 9 glasses of water at 4 in the morning.

So the evil side. As you can see it came with fries. Fight the temptation and don’t touch them! Ask for a substitute when you can, a lot of places can be accomodating. If they aren’t, well then pack it up and give it to a homeless person on the street. Once it’s out of the picture, replace it with something like this:

That my friends was off the dessert menu and it was the largest plate of fruit I have ever seen. I ate about half of it and packed up the rest for Iftar tonight. This should be enough to hold me up through the day.

I hope to be home by Iftar time tonight so I should be able to pull a Paleo meal together in my kitchen. Oh and I just saw the workout at my gym, it’s “Cindy”. This will be interesting…

Ramadan on the Road

Posted: July 23, 2012 in Challenge, Food
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Today was the first day I had to eat out this Ramadan. The plan was to carefully research and find a Paleo friendly place. However, life happened and there was limited time to find the perfect place. My fate was left in the hands of Yelp and it landed me in a Irish pub with more baseball memorabilia then the MLB Hall of Fame. It was too late to turn back so I had to make do with what was available. Turned out to be ok. I was able to watch the Nationals game (Go NATS!) while I scoured the menu for something somewhat Paleo friendly. For those of you who have eaten at Irish pubs, you know that finding something healthy is nearly impossible. When you are faced with a situation like that, you have two viable options. Almost every restaurant will have some sort of salad selection. Pick one that is heavy on the greens and contains some sort of protein in it (avoid 6 lbs of ranch dressing). After all of the walking today, I was spent and a salad just wasn’t going to cut it for me. So the next option is to head on over to the gluten-free portion of the menu. Gluten is a type of protein that is added into grains and wheat to add texture, flavor, and thickness. It’s also difficult for the body to process, so for a healthy diet it’s something that should be avoided. Most restaurants will have gluten-free options these days so be sure to ask for it.

I ended up getting a shrimp dish that was served with roasted red peppers, tomatoes, a healthy serving of broccoli served on top of linguine. It had some oregano and other spices in it and it looked like it was made with olive oil. I later had some mixed fruit to satisfy the sweet tooth.
No pictures of food tonight, the food came out right as Iftar hit and I wasted no time attacking it.

The Workout

You and I both know, traveling is one of the best excuses to skip a workout. Not for a dedicated CrossFitter though! As a CrossFitter, when you travel to a different city, there is almost always a CrossFit gym that you can drop in at. They will almost always take you in as if you are a regular and it’s fun to see how other gyms operate. However, a couple of things hindered that option for me today. One is that my schedule simply didn’t match up with the workout sessions of the local gym. Second, as a drop in, I’m not so sure how a coach would feel with me making up my own WOD as a guest if they had an intense met-con programmed. So this leaves me with two options. I could either do another body weight workout in my room, or… the dreaded hotel gym..

Ignore the grandma on the elliptical and avoid eye contact with the guy doing 600 bicep curls and you will be just fine:

“Hotel Woes Chipper” for time
15 dumb bell thrusters 70#
10 push ups
15 dumb bell push presses
10 squats
15 med ball thrusters
10 sit ups
15 dumb bell cleans

With this day in the books, time for the hard part. Waking up for Sahoor and finding a place to eat at 4 am…

Tale of a Traveling Fast-er

Posted: July 23, 2012 in Food
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Today I have to make a short business trip to NYC. When a Muslim is traveling, especially through different time zones, they are not required to fast that day. You would skip that day and then make it up after the end of Ramadan. Now this rule was established when long distance traveling was done via a camel in the blistering sun, where it took all day to go 30 miles. I, however, am sitting in an air conditioned Amtrak Acela train and will be in NYC in about 2 hours. I think I’ll be ok. The challenge is going to be finding Paleo friendly food, especially for Sahoor tomorrow morning. The other challenge will be to find a suitable place to workout. I’ll rely on my friends in the city and trusty www.yelp.com for assistance on that.

I knew I would have to walk extra today so I adjusted my Sahoor meal accordingly:

  • 2 eggs plus 4 egg whites, scrambled with tomatoes and onions. Added some hot sauce and chili powder on it for flavor
  • Whey protein shake
  • A glass of cranberry juice
  • Cup of Teavana White Tea with half a spoon of Rock Sugar
  • 64 ounces of water

(I’ll upload pictures of Sahoor meals when I am little more used to being up that early and am not eating with one eye closed)

I ran out of gaucamole last night or I would have added that to my meal as well. I didn’t make any more since I knew I would be traveling and I didn’t want it to go bad. As you can see my tolerance for liquids has increased in the morning. I will continue to increase that if my body allows it.

Tonight’s goal will be to avoid all of that delicous NY pizza and other great (not so great for you) food the city has to offer. If  this wasn’t only day 4, I would make today a cheat day.I’ll explain more what that means after we have some solid Paleo days under our belt.