Friend of Julie: Traveling on Program

While on vacation in Southern California the past two weeks, I had some incredible meals. I want to share a few stories and photos from some of the meals on my trip.

Breakfast from Baja Fresh at LAX airport. Photo by Theresa.

Airport Food

When I was at the at LAX airport, waiting to depart for Hartford, I had lots of time before my plane was boarding to search for the best choice for breakfast. I found a place called Baja Fresh. I made up my own dish, which was inspired from a menu item they referred to as Baja Bowls. My version (shown in the photo above) included spicy tender steak, scramble eggs, freshly made pico de gallo, ripe Roma tomatoes, fresh cilantro, and topped with sour cream. Man, I really know how to order off-menu!

A lesson that I learned and I want to share with the rest of you who plan to travel: look at the packaging of the food you are going to travel with carefully. I bought a pack of pepperoni sticks and a package of beef teriyaki (jerky) to have for lunch between LAX and Dulles, WA. I figured the pepperoni sticks would be all I needed, so before sitting down, I tossed the jerky into my bag that I stored above my seat. You can guess where this story's headed.

After they came through with food, and I said no thanks, I pulled the pepperoni from my purse and discovered the pack was vacuum sealed. There was no way to open the package without scissors or a knife, which the attendants did not have.

Sitting next to the window (without a seat belt extension - I still can't get over that!), I decided I'd just wait until we landed to eat. I tried to busy my mind by watching a movie, but I it was going to be seven hours before we landed. At some point both people in my row got up to use the rest room, so I jumped up and grabbed my jerky. Yes, I could have asked them to move so I could get up, but I wasn't inclined to do that at the time. I may have asked if they hadn't stood up.

Dinner with Friends

The most challenging meal for me was the night I had dinner with old friends, shown in the photo below (yes, that's me with another new dress - thanks to Aime). They key word here is friends. If I can't ask my friends what they're serving for dinner and be frank enough to talk about other alternatives, then I'm not sure how I'll ever survive the rest of my journey. 

I took a deep breathe and I asked my friend Mary to put her daughter on the phone. Nina was cooking dinner, so I asked what she's cooking. I then told her it sounded wonderful, but I don't eat gluten-free noodles, so her lasagna wasn't going to work for me. Was there something else we could arrange? Nina said "no problem, I'll cook you a nice piece of chicken on the grill." It was that simple.

Theresa with Southern California friends George and Mary. Photo by Nina.

What was so incredible was that when Nina and I had a few minutes to ourselves, she thanked me for asking her for another option. She was so gracious. She said she could see how much weight I've lost, even since I saw her two months ago, and she was happy to support my staying on course with the program. That's a good friend! The was delicious chicken too!

BTW, when I called, I had every intention of saying I would bring protein for myself. I wasn't expecting such a generous response. 

Last year when I visited with Mary, she took me to an In and Out Burger where we ordered burgers from their not-so-secret menu. I went to In and Out this trip as well, and, as you can see in this photo, they wrap these burgers with lettuce instead of a bun!

In and Out Burger; lettuce wrapped instead of a bun. Photo by Theresa.

Hot Tub Breakfast

I cooked during my vacation too. Here's a breakfast I made and then ate by the hot tub, after a morning walk to the pool. Years ago I got a number of my friends into frothing milk for their coffee, so when I visit, I don't have to travel with a frother.

Scrambled egg with Parmesan, dill, and chives, with asparagus and tomatoes. Photo by Theresa.

We did a lot of grilling at another friend's, almost every night for a week, which I really enjoyed.  I love eating outside in the yard. Living in a condo, I don't do that. 

Exercise Mojo Explained

This is not related to my travels, but I want to explain a comment I made to an earlier post. I referred to "mojo" in one of my comments about exercise and I want to explain what I meant by "mojo."  I was playing with words. What I meant to say was that last summer (2011) Julie gave my group an exercise suggestion to help us. I referred to Julie's "exercise suggestion" as mojo, meaning to be humorous, but my meaning was lost in translation. Sorry!

In any case, I had a few more thoughts about this that I explored tonight. For whatever reason, I didn't take to Julie's exercise suggestion last summer, but I did start to exercise in October.  I was curious about the time I started to exercise versus when I had last seen Julie. Looking at my calendar, I saw Julie a week before I started exercising on Oct. 25. I know because I logged my couch-to-5K progress and my sessions with Julie. What makes all of this (slightly) interesting is that I was out of town when I started to exercise and later that day I found out that Aime started a couch-to-5K that same morning. We both thought it was a funny coincidence, but looking back now, I realize we went to the Oct. session together. My guess is Julie gave us another exercise suggestion and that time it worked for me, as well as Aime.