I’m starting this on Monday,
I have read the book
Taken time to prepare
Bought the new recipe book
Looked at my diary for the next 8 weeks……. Arrrggh

I’m in a hotel for 9 days with work at the end of October

So what are my options?

Diet Shakes for a week?

Has anyone else overcome this obstacle?…
Any tips or ideas ?

Hotel food isn’t that un BSD.

Eggs in some form … without toast and potatoes … a little bacon or even a western omelette with chopped ham and onion … eggs florentine?

Meat of some kind with vegetables instead of fries/potatoes,rice … salads with dressing on the side
Salad greens or with sliced egg, sliced meat, bit of cheese
Any little grocery nearby where you can get some apples, maybe yogurt and berries
Small package of nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seed

Have a club sandwich and don’t eat the bread
Have a bacon hamburger and don’t eat the bun

Bring your own tea and some artificial sweetener …

Just find substitutes for the simple carbs …. and avoid breakfast cereals laden with sugar

Steak and vegetables, maybe a side of nice sauteed mushrooms
Broiled fish …. or even pan fried fish

You can aim for 800 calories and complex carbs …. and if you are off on those numbers for your hotel stay you can just consider it preparation … even a time or trial and error in picking out healthy foods

If it’s for work you probably want to keep up your energy levels and not be cranky on diet shakes

Hi

By the end of October you should be so well into this plan that you won’t feel the need for carbs as you do today!

There are lots of coping strategies but mainly just stay away from the starchy carbs …. bread, rice, pasta, biscuits and cakes. It’s amazing how you can manage quite well without these after a few weeks.

Good luck on your journey.

I wasn’t on the BSD last year when I spent several weeks in hotels whilst working.

But what I did was have a good breakfast – eggs, mushrooms, beans, tomatoes (add sausage and bacon if you eat them) plus a white coffee (not cappuccino).

Take a bottle of water to work and drink a lot during the day, but no lunch

Then a salad for dinner with either fish or meat, usually possible with a combination of starter plus side salad if none of the mains suit

Ahead of dinner I would go to the hotel gym and do a short workout on the running machine (but intensive as I could make it)- perhaps total of only 15 minutes but running faster than comfortable for, say, 3 minutes and then slowing to a fast walk.

If I had only been swerving refined carbs as well, I would have lost even more weight!

So you could think of your hotel stay as being an opportunity rather than a risk?

Hope helpful 🙂

I’be been away from home several times while on the BSD.

As the others say: breakfast is usually not a problem – ignore cereal, juice, toast etc and eat the cooked breakfast, bacon, egg, mushrooms and tomatoes is what I usually have.

Lunch : I don’t normally eat lunch, but if dinner is going to be much later than I normally eat I have a slice or two of cooked meat with a small amount of salad.

Dinner: make th best choices from what is available. At one hotel it was a 3-course dinner and we were given the menu at breakfast time to make our selection. Dessert was instantly deleted. Then I picked the best BSD friendly main course, crossing out anything I could not eat. Then I picked a starter, again deleting anything I couldnt eat. I usually found that I couldn’t eat everything on the plate anyway.

To start with I was embarrassed at making the changes, and not eating dessert while everyone else was. But then I realised that nobody else was concerned. Many people were altering things on the menu for various reasons so the staff were used to it. And the people at my table were too busy eating to worry about what I was doing.

I agree with Igorasusual – take water with you. And drink lots of water. I don’t think diet shakes are the option – as shalimar said. Partly because you might struggle with energy levels, but also because eating is a social experience and just having shakes could feel quite isolating.

Don’t stress too much about it – its all part of the learning experience. Remember the BSD basics and avoid the carbs. Everything will fall into place.

Enjoy the trip.

Oh these are awesome replies!

Thank you so much… You have really given me confidence that I can do this.. And not put it off using the hotel stay as yet another excuse not to tackle my problem with sugary carb addiction

I did all my shopping today for my first week.. And I think I spent the longest time ever in a supermarket …. Normally I hate shopping.. But today was an education looking for ingredients I’d never heard of before!