here's what happened after I walked 17 miles with a 25-lb pack on (+ pics)

Published: Mon, 06/01/15

, I’m actually LOL’ing while writing this post because, well, this story is pretty funny. Though the lessons learned are what I want to share with you.

In the past couple weeks, I’ve written about my adventures on the #tetatrek, aka the 160-mile hike that I completed with my in-laws in Portugal and Spain. We logged between 7 and 17 miles daily for 2 weeks. The trip was incredibly fun and so rewarding.

But it was also completely disorienting. Or at least the eating situation was … and still is.

See, I’ve been in Europe for 5 weeks now and have not had access to any of creature comforts like Starbucks coffee, Whole Foods Market, #BASes, boo boo protein shakes made with the Vitamix, sugar-free fro-yo, etc (though at least in Paris I had some Quest bars). Well, not that anyone should feel bad for me—good gosh this is an amazing experience!—but you know how it is … when you don’t have access to the foods you are used to, you are pushed out of your comfort zone.

For that I am grateful for two reasons: 1) It forces me to practice what I preach, which is being able to choose the best possible option wherever I end up (a la #moderation365) and 2) It encourages me to try new foods, experiment with my eating some more and “do as the Europeans do,” which is all new and different.

It’s been a great experience, but I’ve also experienced a little bit of sputtering. What I mean by that is a little bit of back-and-forth, trying-and-learning and trial-and-error, particularly for the first 3-4 days of the hike.

I wrote about the two mindset traps I fell into in my last email: scarcity mindset and peer pressure. It was so great to have to deal with these challenges again, and after a few days of sputtering, I dug deep, assessed what was going on and slowly settled back into my automated eating—the moderate, MINDFUL mindset I’ve been practicing for the last 4 years.

But not before this happened:

It was day 3 of the hike, and we had 13 miles on the docket. Okay, cool. Day 1 and day 2 were 12 and 10 miles respectively, so no sweat. EXCEPT that we ended up miscalculating the route and finished with almost 18 miles under our belt. We were physically exhausted, mentall drained from the constant expectation management going on in our brains all day (I swear to god, every time someone asked how many more miles were left, the answer was ALWAYS 6 MILES! Wtf?). Ha!

Despite catching the most gorgeous sunset as we (finally!!!) came to our hotel, we all were pretty much in pity-party mode AND mentally going … LOOK HOW MUCH FOOD WE EARNED TODAY! WE CAN EAT ANYTHING WE WANT! WE DESERVE A REWARD FOR ALL THIS BULLSHIT. Haha! ... but srsly.

The Portuguese sunset rewarding us:

(More trip pics at the bottom of this email for ya :))

Well, whether we did or did not “earn” it and whether we did or did not need it, we ate it. All of it. The six of us ordered 6 pasta dishes, 1 pizza to share around the table, a calzone to share, a ton of bread, 2 bottles of wine and might as well polish it off with a round of limoncello. Our server could barely keep up with the amount of food we had on these tiny European tables, never mind find places to put it all. It was hilarious.

But the most hilarious part of the night had to have been after we ordered 2 tiramisus to share around the table. One got polished off, and there was a single bite left on the other plate. Our server came to take the plate away and asked, “Are you finished with this one?” Jade says, in a completely serious, not joking way “Yes, thank you. We always like to leave at least one bite on the plate for good practice.”

Um … HAHAHA.

The server gave us the funniest look, and it wasn’t until after he walked away that we all realized the hilarity of “leaving one bite” on the last plate of food after all we ate, and we all burst out laughing. It’s been an ongoing joke of the trip ever since. Because … what?! HAHA.

Anyway, for me, Jade’s comment was a reminder of two eating strategies colliding. Because as funny as it was, leaving a bite of food on my plate, or eating to 80% fullness are actually two things I practice regularly. I don’t do them to deprive myself, I do them to practice being mindful. I don’t do them because I “can’t” eat the whole thing or I have some kind of restriction thing I need to follow, I do them because it helps me feel satisfied and not stuffed.

Well, at this meal, I was stuffed. And the juxtaposition of the way I’ve been doing things for the last 4 years and this insane night of eating was extremely educational. It was awesome.

I don’t feel at all guilty. This kind of stuff happens and it’s totally fine, and I’m not even going to lie and say I hated the food. It was delicious. But this story is not even about the food itself. Anyone can eat whatever they want any time (including me) … I would never judge anyone else’s food choices or prerogative to do whatever the hell they like.

But for me, it was a reminder of the mindful approach that I want to have, the things I have practiced for the last 4 years.

The biggest insight being the difference between choices versus decisions—a distinction I learned from Jade years ago:

I wrote about that in my blog on situational eating, and this story is a perfect example of that. When we make decisions, we eat based on our surroundings, what’s going on around us—like who we’re with, what the "special dish" is, food FOMO, the fact that you deserve to eat a ton of stuff that you actually don’t even really want simply because you deserve a reward—and we have tons of considerations.

Choices, on the other hand, don’t consider. They say, “I know my body and I know what feels good to put into it. It doesn’t matter where I am, I eat according to these guidelines and do my best." For me, that means high protein, high veggie, dietary fats to satiate and minimal starches because I know they make me feel like shit. These are my own unique insights born out of YEARS of listening to my body. Yours will be different of course.

And another piece of the puzzle that came about centered on starch and using biofeedback (hunger, energy, cravings, satiety, sleep, etc). Even though I walked a ton, I didn’t feel better or have more energy than usual as a result of eating a ton of starch. Physically, I felt the exact same (or even slightly worse because of the heaviness). So the idea that I need a ton of white carbs “for energy” is just not true. You might need more. If you are confused about carbs, I recommend you check out Metabolic Effect’s resources on The Carb Tipping Point.

Sure, making considerations at times happens, like it did for me, and so this story is not even about saying, “it’s wrong” or what happened was “bad,” it’s just another stop on the journey that continues. It’s instructional. Slip-ups and overindulgences are opportunities to introspect and learn.

I never regret anything. Regret is a choice, and when I stew in remorse and guilt and self-disgust because of experiences I have, I only feel worse and more discouraged.

What does encourage me is watching. Staying aware. Being mindful. Continuing to learn. I love this process. It never ends and the delight comes from knowing I have an infinite number of opportunities to learn, grow and continue to practice what I preach.

It’s all good.

Some of the changes I made to my eating from Day 1 to day 14 on the hike included fueling with less bread and more fruit, getting my hands on some high-fiber breakfast bars that I ate throughout the day during the hikes, and I stopped stuffing myself at breakfast. I have never been a huge/early breakfast eater but I found myself eating foods I didn’t really love in amounts that made me physically uncomfortable just out of a pressure to “fuel up” for the walk. It didn’t make me feel any less energetic to lighten up my volume in the morning. I went back to my old standbys for dinners, things that I know make me feel good: protein, lots of veggies and salads, and I’d have a single roll instead of 3 or 4 ;) Always aiming for satisfaction—never depriving and never stuffing.

There you have it. I’ll probably be writing more about the #tetatrek in the coming months, but right now, I want to get back to my fam! Three more weeks in Europe, we’ll see what other lessons I can learn!

More soon.

As always, thank you for your interest! It really means the world to me. And of course I always love your feedback and sharing of where you are on your journey. Respond and let me know!

Xo,

Jill

And some more pics for you ...

In order: our Nice rooftop, #BAS I snagged in Nice, a shot of Jade and Keoni on the train from Spain to France, the most gigantic (and delicious) steak you've ever seen--split among the 6 of us in Spain, Jade catching a shot of the beautiful azure French riviera coast and finally, "I'll take another 10 of these tiny coffees please, mercy!" :)