Vacation Revelations
I've been off work for week. Ahhh, relaxing...oh wait. I eat to relax, right? Remember, I've made life style changes. Now, what do I do? I decided to give myself the week off from counting calories. It's vacation after all. A break from routine. A chance to kick back and unwind. Eating out more and being away from home, topped with a the stress of a hurricane looming off the coast would normally trigger many of my eating reflexes.
It's been an eye-opening experience. The other morning I stared out at the hotel pool. Rolled towels occupied chase lounges lining the pool deck, and awaited hotel guests coming to sun themselves or take a refreshing dip. A mocking bird landed on the back of one of the chairs and eyed the still waters of the deep end of the pool.
“Would you like coffee or juice?” the waiter asked.
I glanced from the view outside the windowed wall to a handsome young man with dark wavy hair. “Both, please,” my husband and I said in unison.
Piano music filtered through hidden speakers overhead while my mind drifted to my novel. Three-fourths written, I’d brought along a hard copy to read on vacation to get an overview and make changes necessary for plot twists added later in the story. I’d hit a sticking point. A character had to be added or changed to make the logic behind my plot work. It was time to let it rest.
The waiter returned with our coffee and juice and my husband and I headed across the plush carpeting toward the breakfast buffet. Fresh pineapple, strawberries, melon and bananas added a variety of color to the stainless still buffet table. I moved to the hot food and lifted the hood to one of the trays. “What’s that?” I asked my husband. A mystery dish shaped like taco shells but the color of eggs gathered in the bottom of the half-empty tray. I’d never seen anything like it.
He shrugged and we moved onto the next steam table dish. I lifted the hood enough to shed light on tiny cubes of potatoes, followed by trays of bacon and sausage links and biscuits and gravy. I carried my empty plate back to the yellow mystery dish when I noticed a sign on the ledge above the glass sanitation shield.Scrambled eggs “It is scrambled eggs!” I placed a couple of stuck together taco shaped scrambled eggs with cheese onto my plate with a few sausages and headed to the table feeling like a guinea pig. My husband’s plate held the taco eggs plus bacon, biscuits and gravy.
The waiter returned with more juice and coffee. I’d never tasted better orange juice. Fresh, not too tart or too sweet—perfect, one of the benefits of living in Florida. I cut through the taco eggs with my fork and took a bite. Not bad, but not good. The tasteless taco eggs needed salt and pepper or more. Humidity collected salt on the chrome top of the cut-glass saltshaker. I sprinkled the flavorful crystals across the dry, overcooked yellow surface. Nope, it didn’t help. The rubbery sausage topped off the dining experience and sent me back to the buffet for fruit. Why hadn’t I made that choice in the first place?
The revelation: I didn't eat all that tasteless food and went back to make a better choice. The following morning, I made the better choice my first choice. At the end of the week I realized I'd stayed clear of white flour products, fried foods and refined sugars. I didn't even have to think about it. Now that's a life style change.
It's been an eye-opening experience. The other morning I stared out at the hotel pool. Rolled towels occupied chase lounges lining the pool deck, and awaited hotel guests coming to sun themselves or take a refreshing dip. A mocking bird landed on the back of one of the chairs and eyed the still waters of the deep end of the pool.
“Would you like coffee or juice?” the waiter asked.
I glanced from the view outside the windowed wall to a handsome young man with dark wavy hair. “Both, please,” my husband and I said in unison.
Piano music filtered through hidden speakers overhead while my mind drifted to my novel. Three-fourths written, I’d brought along a hard copy to read on vacation to get an overview and make changes necessary for plot twists added later in the story. I’d hit a sticking point. A character had to be added or changed to make the logic behind my plot work. It was time to let it rest.
The waiter returned with our coffee and juice and my husband and I headed across the plush carpeting toward the breakfast buffet. Fresh pineapple, strawberries, melon and bananas added a variety of color to the stainless still buffet table. I moved to the hot food and lifted the hood to one of the trays. “What’s that?” I asked my husband. A mystery dish shaped like taco shells but the color of eggs gathered in the bottom of the half-empty tray. I’d never seen anything like it.
He shrugged and we moved onto the next steam table dish. I lifted the hood enough to shed light on tiny cubes of potatoes, followed by trays of bacon and sausage links and biscuits and gravy. I carried my empty plate back to the yellow mystery dish when I noticed a sign on the ledge above the glass sanitation shield.
The waiter returned with more juice and coffee. I’d never tasted better orange juice. Fresh, not too tart or too sweet—perfect, one of the benefits of living in Florida. I cut through the taco eggs with my fork and took a bite. Not bad, but not good. The tasteless taco eggs needed salt and pepper or more. Humidity collected salt on the chrome top of the cut-glass saltshaker. I sprinkled the flavorful crystals across the dry, overcooked yellow surface. Nope, it didn’t help. The rubbery sausage topped off the dining experience and sent me back to the buffet for fruit. Why hadn’t I made that choice in the first place?
The revelation: I didn't eat all that tasteless food and went back to make a better choice. The following morning, I made the better choice my first choice. At the end of the week I realized I'd stayed clear of white flour products, fried foods and refined sugars. I didn't even have to think about it. Now that's a life style change.
posted by Donna Sundblad at 7:26 PM
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