Defragged

Day 1 while traveling with Medifast brought some surprises. I got up really early the day of my departure at 3:00 a.m. I had some last minute things to pack and some work to take care of before I left. I left home for the Columbus, Ohio airport at 4:30 a.m. which means I had to eat a meal before I left because I live almost 2 hours away. I chose the Medifast Scrambled Eggs which I dearly love and knew I'd miss.

Once at the airport I had about 1-1/2 hours to wait before my flight, so to make it simple, I chose my pre-baked Medifast Chocolate Muffins. Okay so far; it was pretty darn easy.

While on my flight when it was time to eat another meal, I decided against mixing up a shake to avoid attention, so I ate a Medifast Carmel Nut bar.

After we landed in Vegas and we checked into our room at the Luxor Hotel (my husband and I are big fans of Ancient Egypt), we went to Luxor's buffet where I got my first surprise. After paying $18 per person we found that the only meat I could eat for my Lean meal was roasted turkey. And the only cooked vegetable they had was steamed cauliflower and broccoli. It was a big shock but I suspected that the Luxor's buffet was not typical of the hotels in Vegas. I found out the next day that I was wrong in that assumption.

Of course, I didn't bring along my digital food scale so based on what I've learned over the last 3-1/2 months while on Medifast, I guessed at the weight of the lean and green I was eating. My second surprise and complete oversight on my part was that I didn't have any spices or flavorings with me to put on the meat and vegetables. Yes, you guessed it. I ate my lean and green with nothing more than a little bit of salt and pepper for 7 days. I missed my Butter Buds, ICBINB, and Molly McButter so badly.

Medifast Lesson Learned: Always take your own butter substitute, flavorings, condiments and spices with you when traveling while on a diet.

The rest of the day I ate a couple more Medifast Muffins and a version of my Medifast Pizza Crust using Medifast Cream of Chicken Soup, which I baked beforehand into oblong shapes and cut in half to fit into snack-sized Ziploc bags. I called them Chicken Crackers for lack of a better name.

I was up for more than 22 hours that first day and I was hungry, tired and my equilibrium seemed to be a little messed up. To make up for all those calories burned while walking, I ate an extra Medifast meal. It helped with the hunger, dizziness and exhaustion.

Medifast Tip: When I wrapped my Chicken Crackers into individual baggies and then put all of them into a large Ziploc bag, I noticed that I could still smell the crackers even through double bags. So I wrapped them into a larger third Ziploc bag. I'm glad I did or otherwise my clothes might have all smelled like chicken! Thank goodness I had this foresight. That would have been so un-cool to walk into my conference smelling like a chicken; wouldn't you agree?

Medifast Lesson Learned: In all honesty, I didn't drink enough water the first day and I attributed the dizziness partly due to dehydration. I'm the type of person who can easily drink 10-16 glasses of water a day. My body is used to it, so when I only drank 4-6 glasses that first day, I think my body was trying to tell me something. So I learned that I needed more water especially so in Nevada's dry desert climate.

I went to bed around 1:30 a.m. Vegas time after drinking 3 hotel-size glasses of water, and I slept like a rock - no, two rocks, and didn't wake up until 9:00 a.m. the next morning. I suspect I woke up only because my bladder was complaining; otherwise, I felt like I could have easily slept longer.

Despite a couple of surprises and the dizziness, I felt the first day went well.

Related Articles:

> Vacation and Medifast: Is It Possible?
> Hello from Las Vegas
> I'm Back From Vegas
> Traveling with Medifast, Day 1
> Traveling with Medifast, Day 2
> Traveling with Medifast: Day 3
> Traveling with Medifast: Day 4
> Traveling with Medifast: Day 5 and 6
> Traveling with Medifast, Day 7