I'm back from Melbourne!
I'm back from Melbourne! I got back late Thursday night actually --
and was told to work from home Friday, so it's kind of like a long
weekend. Finding vegan foods was SO MUCH harder than I thought it
would be! I mean, we stayed at a major, posh hotel and it was very
expensive - you would think they could easily toss something together.
The food was included in the expo price, so I approached them before
the morning tea as instructed and told them I needed vegan options.
They assured me there would be fruit at the morning tea, and vegan
options for lunch. They brought me the menu for lunch and asked if
that would work or if I would require something else. The menu had
steamed rice on it, among other things, so I said if you just bring me
some vegetables to put over the rice, that would be fine. Well morning
tea came and no fruit. Lunch came, and no vegetables. OK fine -- I
picked from what was there. I had some of the rice, and on top of it I
put chunks of cold pumpkin that were part of a lovely salad. The salad
also had olives, capers and big chunks of feta cheese, so I just picked
out the pumpkin. It had a lovely flavor, I wish I knew what they put
on it. Anyway, a bread roll with that and I was fine. After nearly
everyone had finished eating, they brought out a plate with some
eggplant, tomatoes and other veggies flooded with oil. I said thanks,
but I've already eaten. I managed with what was there - I had no idea
you were going to bring me something special this late after everyone's
eaten. So that was Wednesday. They asked if I would be there Thursday
as well, and I said yes.
The next morning (Thursday) at the hotel we went down for breakfast and
there was no oatmeal to be found. They did have dry cereal but no soy
milk. All the other options were meat, eggs, cheese, and pastries. So
I went over to McDonalds -- not low fat by any means, but at least I
could have English muffins with hash browns and orange juice.
There was once again no fruit for morning tea, but that's no biggie.
Lunch came, and once again, no veggie options -- even the rice today
had bits of meat in it, and from the color I think there was a chicken
broth in it as well. So this time I picked pasta out of the pasta
salad (which again had feta in it) and some more bread. Once again,
when everyone was finished, they brought out a plate and started
walking over toward me. It was pasta with vegetables and sauce, but
they had put cheese over it. The lady who'd talked to me about the
menu stopped the waitstaff before she got to me and said "there's
cheese on that - I said vegan!" So they took it back and a few minutes
later brought me a small plate with a few steamed bits of broccoli and
squash. That's it. I couldn't believe it -- you couldn't still do
pasta and sauce but without the cheese? This was amazing to me - why
didn't they bring me the veggies yesterday with the rice? LOL So all
in all, it was difficult eating during the expo.
In the evenings, the boss took us out to dinner -- an Italian restaurant Tuesday night, and a Mexican
restaurant Wednesday night. It was easy enough to find good options at
both of those restaurants. I was pleasantly surprised to find
vegetarian options right on the menu at the Mexican place - I chose a
veggie chimichanga which was stuffed with potatoes and spinach, with
rice on the side. (I did have to ask them to leave off the cheese that
it normally came with.)
So while I managed to find things to eat, they were far from low-fat. I did, however, get my walks in!
It was so cool actually -- leaving from the hotel and all the massive
skyscrapers I followed the curve in the road and found myself in an
area with some older, truly lovely buildings on one side, and Fawkner
park on the other. It was just gorgeous! I was out the door at about
5:50, so it was dark -- otherwise I would have walked trough the park.
But still, the view was just gorgeous. I loved all the shops (this was
in South Yarra) and I walked for about 40 minutes just really enjoying
myself. But by then I figured I'd best get back and get in the shower
if I was going to be at the expo on time.
So -- the end result after all this, I was up again this week. I'm at
97.8 kilos (215.61 pounds) but as TOM is upon me any minute, I'm not
overly concerned. I'm back to my routine, eating healthy again, so I'm
sure we'll turn this around ASAP.