You could see in my previous blog that I had a field interview with a fellow doctor-YouTuber, Dr.Devos a.k.a. The Lifting Dermatologist, in Belgium and that was just a small bit of my journey – I was travelling for almost a month and when I was talking to my friends about my travel plans, they told me that I have to make my own travel blog. Also, when I was planning this journey, I realized that it would be very difficult to stick to my diet and not to gain weight, so I decided to make blog both on my travels and my attempts not to fall off the wagon in terms of nutrition. In part, I wanted to stay accountable by blogging my progress.
My journey was quite extensive – I was going to visit several places in North America, then to go to Europe for a conference and then to tour around for 10 days or so. One of my friends characterized this trip as an epic journey and I had to agree. Today, I'm presenting the first part of this blog – the North-American part of the journey and I will follow-up with two more blogs – one on my travels overseas and one on my travel diet rules that I used to preserve my gains (or weight losses I should say).
Day 1:
On Friday, March 29th, 2019 I packed my suitcase, checked my baseline weight and set my diet goal which was simply not to ruin my progress or, in other words, not to gain weight. I jumped into my car and drove South – I was going to attend the NSCA CSCS course in New York area (Long Island) the very next day. Day 1 went uneventful if we don't count some driving errors and being stuck in New York traffic for a couple of hours. I still enjoyed the drive and the views of Manhattan at night. I arrived to my hotel around 10:30-11:00 – just in time to check in and to realize that the hotel kitchen is closed and I have very limited options in terms of nutrition. This is a common issue with traveling – sometimes you're stuck, you're hungry, tired and it's an easy scenario to eat something you shouldn't. I was proud of myself as I went to McDonalds and ordered a salad there. It turned out that some of the employees didn't even know that McDonalds has salads on the menu. I wish I had filmed the preparation process – I could see a group of employees trying to figure it out. It took them 25 minutes to make a salad, not a great result for an iconic fast food chain, eh? Nevertheless, diet-wise it was a clear win for me in terms of nutrition!
Days 2 and 3:
Days 2 and 3 were completely dedicated to the NSCA CSCS course – I'll have a special blog on that. I mostly enjoyed it and it looks like my temporary classmates appreciated my level of knowledge, at least on the first day of the course when we went over sports science and nutrition. One of them told me that he thought that I was “some sort of a guest professor”. Well… I am a professor and I was glad to hear that it shows. On the second day I made a short video from the classroom – it was quite poor in quality, but I still wanted to include it into my blog. Diet-wise on day 2 I finally got to the hotel kitchen and had a nice steak with asparagus there. In the end of day 3, right after the course, I set off to Boston – I have a very old friend and former co-worker of mine there. I haven't seen him for 15 years or so and I was really looking forward to seeing him and his new (at least to me) wife. I even made a short car video just to see how it works and to try something new.
When I arrived to Boston, they told me that they thought of getting me a lobster but opted for some homemade food – borscht. To be honest, borscht is something that I can have at my own home and it didn't really resonate well with my diet plan anyhow, so we went on a mission to get a lobster – since we were so close to the ocean, I simply had to have one there. It took us a while as, apparently, lots of places in Boston area close at 9-10 pm (no kidding, they do!), but since we were so determined, fortune smiled upon us and we managed to convince a store manager of a supermarket to re-open the seafood section and got ourselves 3 nice lobsters. They were small, but delicious. I also had just a little bit of borscht to pay respect to my friend's wife cooking and I made a short video at their place too – also of poor quality, but it has some sentimental value.
Day 4:
On day 4 I went back home and I simply had to try a lobster roll as it was heavily advertised on every single stop on the road. I'm proud of myself as I had it, but instead of an actual roll I had lobster salad – it wasn't as enjoyable and authentic, but I still was true to my diet. Remarkably, when I was driving back I found myself passing by the city of Framingham, the place of origin of the Framingham Heart Trial and I had a funny moment with a diet coke jar of American size – it was so big that it didn't fit any cupholders in my car. I arrived home late at night, but somehow I managed to have a date and even tried to make a video from the restaurant, it was of very poor quality – too noisy and dark, but at least you can see that I had a steak with asparagus and I was still true to my diet
Days 5 and 6:
I had a chance to check my weight at home on day 5 and I was pleasantly surprized as my weight went down a notch – I was 4-5 pounds lighter than I was when started, likely just due to dehydration and some travel stress. Also, I managed to squeeze a workout into my busy itinerary. On day 6 I went to Ottawa – I had to make a couple of presentation on work for Canadian Armed Forces. I made a short video on my way there. After my trip to the United States the distance didn't seem to be too long – I made it there by the evening and had a nice healthy meal.
Day 7:
On day 7 I had to wake up early – I had several meetings. I was taken to the CAF HQ, made my presentations and met with the team of clinicians of researchers there. Truly enjoyed the experience and then I had a late lunch with my colleagues. We had it in a nice Indian restaurant and the food there was great, but it wasn't exactly what I would normally have. The only solution for me then was to control my portions – I just had a little bit of various dishes without overindulging and went straight home. Again, I somehow managed to go on a second date and I just had some bites and a drink as it was very late at night and none of us was really hungry.
Day 8:
On day 8, I had my last weight check before going to Europe. The weight was fine, it fluctuated a bit, but I was still 4 pounds lighter than I was on day 1. I was quite inspired by that, but I knew that it was just the end of the first week of traveling and I had a much longer and much more challenging trip ahead of me. So I regrouped, packed my suitcase and went to the airport to go to Warsaw, Poland – my first destination overseas.
I'll stop at this point as the first part of my travel blog ends here and I will post the second part of my adventures in my next blog. If you haven't subscribed yet, it's time to do it now so that you won't miss anything. Also, subscribe to my YouTube channel where I will post my journey vlog and as always, you are more than welcome to make comments, suggestions and to ask questions.
Sincerely Yours,
Dr.Sam