Eating for Energy in New York City

Last week, I went to New York City for Book Expo America and the Book Blogger Convention. I spent Sunday through Friday there and was working long hours almost every single day. I had a blast and came back utterly exhausted. However, one thing that kept me going through the week was eating healthy food. New York City is a Mecca for foodies. You can find every type of cuisine you could possibly imagine there and every street corner has a vendor just waiting to tempt you with their delicious fare. I was determined that I wouldn't splurge on calories and fat while in New York City. I wanted to eat for energy.

I started every single morning with a trip to Pax Wholesome Foods and had oatmeal with brown sugar and either raisins, apples or strawberries. This really hit the spot. I had a small cup of English Breakfast tea with vanilla soy milk to go with it. This was so filling and so energizing that I would be good until 12:30 pm, even without a snack. Which is virtually unheard of in my world. For lunch, I'd have a light meal. Early on in the trip, a few of us went to a nearby Whole Foods. I bought two lunch packs. One with tuna, apples, celery and crackers and another one with quesadillas, salsa, guacamole, plantain chips, mango and pineapple. Those made for great lunches. I kept them cold in the fridge of my hotel room and brought them with me to the show. When I had finished both of them, I would buy salads in the morning at Pax along with my breakfast. This was a great way to avoid the temptation of all the bad food for sale at the convention center. For dinner, I would splurge a little more but not too much more. I tried to cut out as many complex carbohydrates and fat as I could and tried to eat as many vegetables as I could. 

The beauty of my plan was that not only did I avoid bad eating traps by sticking to a routine, I would also get motivated by how successful I was those first couple of days and that would keep me going. The result? I had a lot of good energy. The food I ate fueled me. I didn't have to snack all the time, I didn't need lots of caffeine and I wasn't weighed down by pizza, pastries and coffee. Overall, a success! I will definitely keep this in mind next time I go on a vacation or business trip when I'll be on the go a lot and will need lots of energy.