I did pretty well on my New York trip, diet-wise. I would guess that I walked about 2-3 miles each day, and my food choices were pretty decent. I really only had one splurge-y meal, dinner on Wednesday night. The rest of my food choices were pretty much dictated by availability and budget. As I said on my other blog, I stuck to a strict cash-only budget, including on all food options. So that means I couldn't really indulge too much in terms of portion size or richness of food. Not a bad plan!
WednesdayBreakfast - I ruled out my usual McGriddles combo breakfast at Union Station (so good but a heart attack in a paper sack) and went for a cinnamon bagel with cream cheese and a bottle of water instead. It's not the best diet food ever, but it was bulky enough that it kept me full and I didn't buy any train snacks the whole way up.
Lunch - I was really hungry by the time I finally got lunch at about 1 pm. I ate at the little cafe in the International Center of Photography, which had all kinds of gourmet options. I went for the roast beef and horseradish sandwich on a dark brown bread (pumpernickel?) baguette with a glass of ginger iced tea. I wanted chips, but was watching the budget so I didn't get any. Phew.
Dinner - This was at a little Italian place on Restaurant Row. All of these places had 3-4 course prix fixe dinners for the before-theatre crowd, and I couldn't resist sampling such a good bargain. For $24, I got a 3-course dinner with hot tea. You could choose any of the items off their menu, and I went with fairly decent choices diet-wise - not the best, but not the worst either. I had a basil, tomato and mozzarella salad; a filet of sole sauteed in lemon, butter and white wine with veggies and rice sides; and a delicious piece of tiramisu. Somewhat indulgent, but I'd done a lot of walking that afternoon and felt it was worth it!
Snacks - I did get a little Cheerios cereal bar to eat mid-afternoon, before I walked down to the river for the harbor cruise. That was a sugary/carby fix, but it was actually only 3 points. Better than expected.
ThursdayBreakfast - There wasn't any restaurant or room service option in my hotel for breakfast, and I didn't want to spend too much money on this meal. So I grabbed a Power Bar and another one of those Cheerios bars plus a bottle of water to eat while I was walking around Central Park. By pacing myself, those actually did get me through until about 1 o'clock for lunch.
Lunch - I ate at Penn Station while waiting for my train. I was actually okay with this, cuz I'd been looking forward to this meal ever since I got off the train the day before. Walking around Penn Station, I had been reminded that one of the best sandwiches I've ever had in my whole life came from Zaro's Deli, which I'd gotten when coming back from NYC on a business trip in March. So, woohoo! I was so excited to get that sandwich again! It's a curried chicken salad with cranberries and this great honey-mustard spread on pumpernickel. Mmmmm. I had a Coke Zero and a bag of salt & vinegar chips, and I was so happy. :-)
Snacks - I was really hungry by about 5:30 on the train, and I knew I wouldn't be home for a good, normal, diet dinner until after 7. So I did break down and use some of the very last of my cash on the cheapest snack option in the cafe car. Unfortunately, the cheapest item was a gigantic chocolate chip cookie. Which I ate, but didn't love cuz it was so sugary sweet. I downed a whole bottle of water pretty quickly to try and get rid of that sugar. Ick.
And then by Thursday night I was home for dinner and life is now back to normal.... we'll see if I have any change on the scale this week. I hope so!
Hooray! I've rediscovered an old love.... dijon mustard! This stuff is great. The brand I have (Safeway... I'm cheap) has zero calories and zero grams of fat, and LOTS of potential uses. I've used it as a marinade on chicken breasts, as a base for my first home-made vinaigrette, and just plain on sandwiches.
