Days 6 & 7: The Final Blur to Victory
Well, by now you know I made it, but I haven't spelled out how it happened yet, so here goes. This weekend was both the last 2 days of my week of meat, and also the time for a recreation of this year's Microsoft Puzzle Hunt. The event was fantastic in many ways, among them was the fact that it largely kept me distracted from the fact I had serious dietary restrictions...
Saturday I woke up early because I had to be at event headquarters (which also happened to be my workplace) by 10 am. I was in a hurry, so I forgot to bring any meat snacks with me. I was worried that I might have problems, but this is because I forgot that there were always take-out lunches provided at work on the weekends. I was reminded of this when lunch arrived. The problem was, it came in the form of bbq pork sandwiches (among other things). I ended up sharing my meal with another teammate. I got the pork (sans bbq sauce, of course), he got the bun, the sauce, the side salad, and the container of beans. Here is a picture of the whole ensemble before it was disassembled:
After lunch, I went back to work on the puzzles and forgot about food for awhile, though I did continue my normal steady intake of water, as I did all week, and what I believe now to be the top reason for my success. When dinner came, I was a little disappointed. Sure there was plenty of food, but the only meat product there was was drenched in sauces. I tried a tiny bit after scraping off the sauces from one piece, but after tasting it, I realized it was just too saturated with the sauce, and that it wasn't in the spirit of the contest for me to eat meat with so much non-meat content. So I went hungry until Kiki saved the day. Later that night she agreed to stop by the store, buy me some snacks, and deliver them to the event. This included a full roasted chicken (which I ate immediately when she arrived), and an assortment of meat snacks similar to those that we bought early last week, of which I showed a picture of on this very blog. The roasted chicken I quickly devoured is below -- you'll notice that I was so hungry I took a bite before I was able to get the camera out for the picture.
It turned out that the chicken was my last actual meal of the week. The game lasted 26 hours, finishing around noon on Sunday. I snacked on pepperonis and ate another carton of sliced turkey while finishing up the game, but when I got home I was completely drained from not having sleep. Originally I expected to be counting down the minutes to midnight, with a giant feast of pizza waiting for me on the other side. Instead, I went down for a nap at 2 pm on Sunday afternoon, and didn't wake up until 9:30 am Monday morning...
So that's it!! I made it. It can be done. I think there were three key things that made it possible for me to achieve this. One, the fact that I've been on the Atkins diet in some form for almost 2 years has surely acclimated my body to eating more than the normal dosage of meat products. Two, the fact that I'm able to get great variety, quality, and quantity of meat for nearly every meal at work is a huge advantage. Three, I drank TONS of water, which definitely helped digestion in general.
So now there is only one more thing to wait for... the money to show up in my Paypal account. Sorry Sean, but thanks for the memorable adventure!!
Saturday I woke up early because I had to be at event headquarters (which also happened to be my workplace) by 10 am. I was in a hurry, so I forgot to bring any meat snacks with me. I was worried that I might have problems, but this is because I forgot that there were always take-out lunches provided at work on the weekends. I was reminded of this when lunch arrived. The problem was, it came in the form of bbq pork sandwiches (among other things). I ended up sharing my meal with another teammate. I got the pork (sans bbq sauce, of course), he got the bun, the sauce, the side salad, and the container of beans. Here is a picture of the whole ensemble before it was disassembled:
After lunch, I went back to work on the puzzles and forgot about food for awhile, though I did continue my normal steady intake of water, as I did all week, and what I believe now to be the top reason for my success. When dinner came, I was a little disappointed. Sure there was plenty of food, but the only meat product there was was drenched in sauces. I tried a tiny bit after scraping off the sauces from one piece, but after tasting it, I realized it was just too saturated with the sauce, and that it wasn't in the spirit of the contest for me to eat meat with so much non-meat content. So I went hungry until Kiki saved the day. Later that night she agreed to stop by the store, buy me some snacks, and deliver them to the event. This included a full roasted chicken (which I ate immediately when she arrived), and an assortment of meat snacks similar to those that we bought early last week, of which I showed a picture of on this very blog. The roasted chicken I quickly devoured is below -- you'll notice that I was so hungry I took a bite before I was able to get the camera out for the picture.
It turned out that the chicken was my last actual meal of the week. The game lasted 26 hours, finishing around noon on Sunday. I snacked on pepperonis and ate another carton of sliced turkey while finishing up the game, but when I got home I was completely drained from not having sleep. Originally I expected to be counting down the minutes to midnight, with a giant feast of pizza waiting for me on the other side. Instead, I went down for a nap at 2 pm on Sunday afternoon, and didn't wake up until 9:30 am Monday morning...
So that's it!! I made it. It can be done. I think there were three key things that made it possible for me to achieve this. One, the fact that I've been on the Atkins diet in some form for almost 2 years has surely acclimated my body to eating more than the normal dosage of meat products. Two, the fact that I'm able to get great variety, quality, and quantity of meat for nearly every meal at work is a huge advantage. Three, I drank TONS of water, which definitely helped digestion in general.
So now there is only one more thing to wait for... the money to show up in my Paypal account. Sorry Sean, but thanks for the memorable adventure!!
posted by ubragg at 1:09 AM
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