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My one slushy drink during the Vegas trip. (Photo Holly Miyasaki)
By Holly Miyasaki
So I’m back at my desk after four glorious days in Las Vegas. How I miss the 36 C temperatures, the shopping and…the food. Sorry there was no weigh in this week. I didn’t get a chance on Thursday and forgot this morning. So we’ll have to wait for next week to see the numbers. Probably won’t be too impressive anyway.
I can’t say it’s easy to maintain good eating and exercise habits when you’re on vacation in Sin City. Firstly, it’s super hot, so you dehydrate so quickly and it’s hard to get all your water in when you’re on holiday. The last thing I wanted to do was lug around a litre of water for hours while walking.
Secondly, Americans and their portions. Huge, unless you’re at a fancy restaurant where you get way less for your money. It’s hard to just stop when you’re eating something good. That’s why you have to push your plate away after you’ve had a serving size, and have the server take it away as soon as possible. A lot of the time I find my plate has slid back in front of me and I’m picking away at it after I’ve pushed it away.
Let’s see, what else did they have in Vegas? Oh yeah–buffets. Those are dangerous. Luckily we only went once and I was sure I stayed away from the carb-loaded buns, breads and pastas; and greasy pizza, and fried foods. But this particular buffet we visited had so many choices: Italian, Latin, Chinese, salad, dessert, raw, fish monger, noodles and more.
But I won’t say the Canada Food Guide wasn’t on my mind while there. The one night I decided to have several drinks I stuck to hard liquor (rum) and diet pop, as advised by my nurse practitioner. She said it’s the best choice if you are opting to have a drink, as slushy mixes and ciders (which I like best) are high in sugar. I decided I wanted one slushy drink on my trip, so I would have to make sacrifices with my other drink options.
My one special drink was a pina colada on the pool deck at The Venetian. It was the most amazing spot and I thought it would be the perfect place to enjoy a tropical drink. Unfortunately it had too much alcohol, and it was a bit early (10 a.m.) so I only had a third of it.
One food guide rule I managed to enforce: I made sure I opted for lots of fruit and vegetables. Breakfast was the easiest as I could have a fruit plate, toast and coffee most mornings.
Lunch and dinner were more difficult though. One lunch found us at a place called Cheeseburger. Does not bode well. We ended up sharing a basket of baby cheeseburgers and fries. The fries were so good–best I’d ever had. Someone once told me potatoes count as vegetables, so if a potato is prepared in French fry style maybe it still counts in the Canada Food Guide. Who am I kidding?
There were a couple other mistakes. Tiramisu and creme brulee. Both were items I discovered and loved when I was there earlier this year and I made a point of revisiting. I know they are made of cream, sugar and fat, but they were worth the calories.
I’ll be honest, when it came to cardio I didn’t once make an effort to find a place I could work hard to get my heart rate up. Most of our days were spent wandering up and down The Strip shopping. By the end of the day I was too tired to do anything else but lay down and sleep. On the plus side, I clocked hours and hours of walking with minor breaks to gawk at hotels, shop or use the slot machines.
So, in the end the trip wasn’t a total bust. I could have made some better choices, but I definitely could have had a worse time trying to follow the Canada Food Guide and exercise regimen.
I’m looking forward to getting back on track in the coming week. My knee stopped hurting on the trip so now I can finally start getting down to some real cardio again. I better set a short term goal for myself. Will check in in a few days and let you know what it is.
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Tags: calories, canada food guide, cardio, exercise, Food, las vegas, the strip, vacation
