Squash your snack temptations
There I was, lying in the emergency room of an Egyptian hospital at 9am on a Monday morning. The guy in front of me was Dr. Bolo, the only doctor at that time in the emergency room at El Gouna Hospital, stitching up my leg. Around 30, chubby, friendly, ironically wearing a red t-shirt instead of the usual white jacket. I was thinking to myself: "At least you can't see the blood splatters on his shirt."
18 hours earlier, I was standing in the shallow water of the beautiful Red Sea when the fin of my kite board sliced through the front of my lower leg, right down to the bone. And now, here I was, getting 9 stitches for yet another ugly scar on my leg. F*cking fantastic to end my trip early, only 2 days after arriving here. After Dr. Bolo was finished, I collected my meds at the pharmacy and limped my way to the nearby hotel. Rest time. Although my motivation was at an all-time low I knew I couldn't let this accident take control of me. I was determined to do what was in my power and therefore, I decide to nourish my body to support the healing process as good as possible. This meant: eat alkaline foods to create an alkaline environment in my body.
Have you ever heard the saying "you are what you eat"? Well, we're not necessarily a pig when we eat pork. But meat, dairy products, wheat or sugar or so called acidic foods which can promote inflammation or a leaky gut. No bueno when your body is trying to heal. And by the way, our body is healing most of the time, we just don't notice it because it's such a wonderful machine. And then there are foods that can fight inflammation in our body. Foods like broccoli, kale, spinach, nuts or seeds, even lemons, are alkaline foods that help your body to work well, on all levels. So the last thing I wanted to do in that moment was to get comfort food: anything from pizza to ice cream was not what could help my leg heal quicker. I got to the next supermarket, bought a bag of frozen broccoli (frozen veggies are picked and frozen at their peak so they sometimes have more nutrients than some fresh vegetables), some organic carrots, tahini (I looove tahini), cooked potatoes and water. Back in the hotel room, I used the water boiler to warm up my frozen broccoli, mixed it all together and BOOM, there was my alkaline meal. Broccoli is my favourite superfood because the sprouts contain sulfuraphane, one of the most potent anti-oxidants (aka good-for-you components) in the world.
The next day I got on a flight heading back home, 5 days earlier than planned. Once the plane was in the air, the flight attendants served a first snack: wheat crackers! Damn, I love those things. But I quickly put them in the seat pocket, out of sight. I tried to focus on reading my book but knowing that the oh so delicious crackers were right there in front of me got my saliva flowing. I had to do something. Should I eat them? I just had bad luck, I deserved some delicious food, didn't I?! Nope, that was just my monkey brain talking. I knew I could do better so I turned to my seat neighbour: "Would you like to have mine?". Of course he took it. Problem solved.
2 hours later, lunch was served. I waited for my neighbour to open up his lunchbox to see what was inside: pasta salad and a cake. Or in other words: wheat and sugar. Great, I won't live long enough to see healthy meals on airplanes, I thought. So I held up my unopened lunchbox to return it to the flight attendant only to hear "Sir, we can't take back food we already gave out." My neighbour looked at her with a smile and offered to take it for himself. I was officially the guy who was making an unhealthy guy even unhealthier. But I'm not responsible for his health, so focus back on my body. I grabbed a carrot out of my backpack and snacked on it, convincing myself that it was just as delicious as that cake I just gave back.
4 hours into the flight I was really, really proud of myself. Then came the last "test" from the devils in disguise aka flight attendants: a "biberli", one of the sweetest, unhealthiest treats you can get in Switzerland. Since I didn't want to push my neighbour closer to diabetes I looked at the back of the product to read the ingredients: wheat, sugar, glucose syrup...ok, that was enough for me to put it away. Not even a minute later, my monkey brain came back. "You can have that", it said to me. "You've been so strict, it won't hurt you." The monkey brain doesn't want you to have a plan and follow through. It wants instant reward, all the time. And then, there was only one way out: to squash the temptation that is in front of me. I squashed the biberli, still inside its packaging, with both hands until it basically liquified and not suitable for eating anymore. Yes, you read that correctly: I wasted food. Hate me if you want. But if you think that wasting junk food is food waste then be my guest. But it was either food waste or waste that would have landed in my body.
If you want to eat healthy on a plane that doesn't serve healthy food but have a hard time resisting the temptations being given to you then there are only 2 options: give them away or squash them.
In case we haven't met: nice to meet you! I'm Tommy and my mission is to help people live a healthier life through movement coaching, accountability, and health optimisation hacks. I'm also a creator and marketer: I created and launched a $200K crowdfunding product, several food products into retail, among other things. You can contact me here.