Eating out and drinking makes you fat. On my road trip, I was doing an amazing amount of exercise. Hiking 20 miles a week. Running. Swimming. Walking at least 10 miles a week towards bars. And I gained 15 pounds of pure fat.
For the past two weeks I was staying with and cooking for my mother, who is on a strict diabetic and low-sodium diet. I simply threw all the bad food away and just bought lean proteins, whole grains, vegetables, legumes and fruits. That was all that was in the house so it was all we could eat.
Because I was doing the cooking, I’m pretty damn sure I know what was in every dish. On the road, it was a crapshoot.
When a human person makes an omelette, he may use two, maybe three, eggs and a little cheese and some vegetables. At a Denny’s, for example, their “chef” uses a little more than a dozen eggs and a block of government cheese with hydrogenated oil and sodium gravy.
I know people, dedicated to their eating disorders, who are able to get a to-go box and put most of their meal away before they even start. Once I’m served something, it’s hard to stop eating until it’s done, so I got fat.
Probably most of the 8 pounds gone can be attributed to booze bloat. On the road, out of the 210 days, I probably drank alcohol on 208 nights. And those two sober nights happened because I was trapped in Utah.
I enjoyed a few drinks over the past two weeks, but nothing, nothing, like on the road. I don’t know if I subconsciously made a choice to drink less or if getting drunk with my mother in a senior community would be the rock bottom that I’m not quite ready for, yet.