the good, bad and ugly

I'm home from my Ky trip to USPC (national pony club) education seminar.  They had over 1000 kids for championships and 400+ for the education part.  We had a good turn out and were well recieved with the driving information.  All that was stressful  but good.

I saw lots of folks I see once a year at most and got lots of wonderul compliments.  That is always fun and certainly upped my spirits.  I needed some breeches for riding my pony and even ended up in a childs large, who would have guesses.  And yes, children's are cheaper.

I stayed with a friend who had a farm, old non-airconditioned farm house.  The heat was miseralble and so even when we were done teaching outside, we went home to more heat.  I don't think I have ever sweated so much.  I drank and drank but went through everything I brought the first day.  By the second day of teaching, I know I didn't get in as much as I should have. 

She also wasn't a breakfast person which I should have remembered since she has stayed with me before but I hadn't planned on.  You know, I am far enough out I can eat most anything and if I had time, I could have stopped and gotten a sausage and egg biscuit and not eaten the biscuit.  But no time, staying 30 min away, teaching at 8, long lines for food.  Luckily I had brought cheese sticks so 2 cheese sticks were breakfast each morning.

Lunch was fine because they provided us good options and I could get my protein and a salad. They did have desserts and I did have some but didn't feel horrible about it. Dinner was the same way.  My usual 4pm meal however one day ended up being a frosty because I was so darn hot and it was the coldest thing I could think of.  The other day I was driving home and got a bag of popcorn.  I did have protein bars but they were melted and I couldn't imagine trying to eat them that way.

The other food issue was coffee.  My friend did caffeine which I have done since surgery, just don't do it regularly.  I took my protein and that was fine.  But yesterday afternoon I was getting sleepy on the drive home, by myself for 6 hrs, so I stopped and got a 20 oz coffee.  I guess it was enought to put me over the edge.  I don't remember ever being so wired from coffee before but my usual 9:30 bedtime came and went and I finally went to bed at 11, still feeling pretty awake.

So the moral of the story is even if you think you will be fine food wise, take more than you think you will need.  Take more fluids.  At one of the dinners, they had alcohol and sodas.  They did have tea but wouldn't serve it until dinner which of course did me no good, couldn't drink then.

And the real bottom line is, it is good to be home.

Welcome home Price!

Hope you are cool as a cucumber today, sipping your favorite drink!

Sounds like you made the best out of a situation that could have been alot worse. Glad to hear you made it through. I was worried you may get dehydrated with high temps.

thanks.  I really hate bottled water because of the waste but I will take more next time for sure.

Price - glad you had a good time.  Yes, I've been in situations too where there weren't any food options for me and it was very stressful. 

I remembver the first Click protein drink I had after surgery - WOWSERS!!  It has a LOT of caffeine in it and I thought I could feel my hair growing!!

Yeah, I really didn't expect the caffeine to hit me that hard yesterday.  Being dehydrated probably didn't help.  "feel my hair growing" is an excellant term for what I felt.

 sounds like a fun/stressful/wickidly hot weekend.  i bet you are very glad to be home after all that!  time to recover!  thanks for the tips.  i work with a gal who had RNY over a year ago, who is also very allergic to some foods.  she has a really hard time finding things to eat while on the road.  she still struggles to find something she can keep in the car for those emergency times.  i'm glad i will have more choices, although thats not a guarantee i wont become sensitive.   i'm hoping i will have more choices!

yeah, I thought I was the queen of planning but now will do even better.  Planning is the key.

hey Price!  glad you had a good trip and so happy you arrived home safely!!!  i'm sure the drive home was pretty difficult not just timewise but after being in the heat for so long and i'm sure you had the air on in your vehicle!!  would have been so relaxing....but....can't really relax while driving home, huh?

happy you made it!  stay in the cool for a day or so and get back into your routine!!!

and....happy about the children's size riding pants!!  you go, girl!!

I'm definately going to be pumping fluids today.

Yeah, the cool and stess free of the car was too relaxing.  But the coffee was too wiring.  Maybe there is an inbetween somewhere.

Glad you are home and WTG on the pants. I found with coffees that you pick up along the way are very strong, which is the reason I will mix half caf and half decaf... It really helps...