Off to Las Vegas Sunday Morning/ Got a Question?

patk · Jul 19, 2003

I'm heading to Vegas on Sunday morning for 5 days. I am 8 weeks out from contest as of today. I am planning on staying trac while I'm away. I am preparing food for the first couple of days and then after that I'll have to make do. I was thinking that I'll head to the grocery store and just get some food for the last few days and prepare it at the hotel. Does anyone have any suggestions of places that I might be able to buy some prepared food like chicken breasts, turkey ect....? I have no room for error and I need to stay strict. I'm gonna be training every day as normal and doing my cardio every day as well. If I wasn't going for work then I wouldn't even be going this close to contest. I'm gonna just use my free time to train and then relax the rest of the time. All advice is much appreciated, take care.

patk

crackerjack414 · Jul 19, 2003

iam not sure if they are in nevada or not but they are all over the west coast is a store called winco foods. Good cheap food.

Dave_19 · Jul 19, 2003

buffeats in vegas are very cheap, and large variety... if your staying at a nice 4+ star hotel they should have a huge variety of resturants to eat from, I'll be thier too at the luxor pyramid hotel in Oct for the olympia weekend, I know they have like 6 resturants in hotel but that can add up $$ especially with the lady

wolverine · Jul 19, 2003

Daveb_19 said:
I'll be thier too at the luxor pyramid hotel in Oct for the olympia weekend, I know they have like 6 resturants in hotel but that can add up $$ especially with the lady

I'll be staying at the luxor Olympia weekend too, but the wifey is staying home, lol.

homonunculus · Jul 19, 2003

Look for...

Pat,

If there is a "Trader Joe's" grocery store around, they have prepared food that is pretty good. "Just chicken" and "just teriyaki chicken" is cooked (flavoered), chopped chicken breast that tastes awesome. They have pre-made chicken salads, etc. which are pretty good.

You can find the pre-made salads anywhere, of course. I like to pick up a rotisserie chicken now and then.

You can also go to a book store for a nutritional guide to fast-food eating. Stuff like Carl's Jr.' chicken breast sandwiches are surprising "clean."

-Randy

P.S. SOunds like you're leaving just a few days before the USA's start?...

patk · Jul 19, 2003

Thanks alot Randy! Yeah, I'll be leaving before the USA's start. I have an anual work trip that always lands around the same weekend as the usa's. Last year I stayed for the show, but this year it's just too close to contest time to stay away any longer. I need to get home and get my routine back in order. As much as I'll try and stay 100% on my eating and training while gone I know it's nearly impossible to stay 100% on with time travel and all. But I'm confident that I'll be about 99%

Thanks again, take care.

patk

crackerjack414 · Jul 19, 2003

u know what else Trader Joe's has, some killer chocolate bars. lol but i wouldnt know anything about that

xcelbeyond · Jul 19, 2003

It can be done but it's tough. I just returned from a 5-day business trip in Atlanta. I took a small cooler and some whey protein isolate. I made a drink for mid-morning then at lunch break I'd run back to my room and make one for mid afternoon.

I found a little hole-in-the-wall cafe, next door to the Gold's that I worked out at that would make me 8 scrambled eggs for less than $4! Most restaurant food has TOO MUCH hidden sugar in it!

xcel

WeirdAl · Jul 19, 2003

I wrote an article for the MuscleChemistry June newsletter on preparing food for a trip. It's here:
**broken link removed**

BTW, 10 day trip went well - diet was perfect (and it had to be!), due to planning ahead!

xcelbeyond · Jul 20, 2003

Great article WeirdAl. I'm sure patk has his diet outlined in stone

It sounds like your trip was a personal vacation, not a business trip. Packing and eating for a vacation is a real peice of cake (not trying to put down your article).

When you're staying in a hotel and then at work most of the day in a "unusual" environment, it's a whole different ball game. Generally there's no fridge or cooking facilites in the hotel room (at least at the Sheraton or Hilton, which is where the conference is and work usually puts me up).

xcel

patk · Jul 20, 2003

WeirdAl.....that's a great article. Like excel said, it's alot harder when there on business. My hotel room won't have any cooking facilities or fridge. I do have my diet outlined in stone for sure. I have prepared enough food for my first 2 days atleast in a cooler. I am also packing a tub of whey protein and egg protein. I've got alot of advice and with the help of a good friend who has lived in vegas, I think that I will be able to pull it off without too much trouble. I am going to have to go a little out of my way to get food while there, but it's gotta be done. Thank all of you for your help, it comes very much appreciated! I'll be off first thing in the morning, take care.

patk

WeirdAl · Jul 20, 2003

Thanks for the props on the article. Being on vacation made most of the eating easier than if I were on business, EXCEPT that we drove about 2000 miles during the trip

And the hotels we stayed in 3 of the nights didn't have a microwave... so I ate a lot of cold sweet potatoes and cold chicken and salmon. One thing I tried doing was pulling things out of the cooler several hours before I wanted to eat them, so they at least warmed up to room temp. Also, it might be a good idea to grab some sort of hot plate or something that you can just plug in wherever there's an outlet... and if you will be driving, you can get a power inverter (12v DC to 120v AC) to power it.

Hope your trip goes well, and your prep stays on track!

MikeS · Jul 20, 2003

LAS VEGAS-

PatK-enjoy the town and nail a chorus girl for us! (yes you can then post pics of that!)

patk · Jul 20, 2003

You got it buddy.....

I missed your call last night, but I'll buzz ya soon buddy. 5 am.....taking off! Take care all.

patk

patk · Jul 26, 2003

Good to be back!

Well, it's great to be home. The trip went fairly well. After my food for the first 2 days was gone, it was frustrating trying to stay on track. I had to make do with the food at the hotel for the most part. I mainly ate egg white omlets in the morning, steak off the buffet for lunch and in the evenings we had company sponsored dinners which were pretty much all healthy meals like baked chicken breasts with veggies, filet mignons, slamon. then in between I just had protein shakes. It was real hard, I really didn't have time to leave the hotel except one day and I went to the Gold's off of Decatur and worked out. I saw Jay Cutler and Craig Titus there. Actually I saw Jay like 4 times while there. He was one of our special guests on our trade show floor, so I got to hang and chat with him for a while. Anyway, I fell a little off track, but like I said it's good to be home and back to the grind.

MikeS and MadDog, got your messages and I'll get back to ya soon. Take care.

patk

MikeS · Jul 26, 2003

Good to see you back bro!
Shit sounds like the food was good to me, as long as you brought protein and whatever other nutrients/supps you needed!

xcelbeyond · Jul 26, 2003

Sounds like you stayed on-track as much as you possibly could. I know just what you mean about those business trip as I do a week-long one every year also

I do "make enough time" to get into a gym though. One year we met in Burlington Vermont and the only "facility" close by was the one in the hotel. You should have seen the look on people's faces when I tried to improvise by picking up the exercise equipment

xcel

patk · Jul 26, 2003

xcel....I know what you mean buddy. The hotel I was in had a "spa". The weight area was about the size of my living room in my condo. Basically it had some circuit training equipment and dumbells up to 50lbs.......WTF! Needless to say I did alot of super sets, drop sets and high reps! Atleast I got to the Gold's one day anyhow.

patk

Dave_19 · Jul 31, 2003

wolverine said:
I'll be staying at the luxor Olympia weekend too, but the wifey is staying home, lol.

thanks cool man as Ive told everyone from the boards goign feel free to look for me and say whats up, I'll be thier 5 days 4 nights some pics of me here if u dont know me, except got a shaved head now: http://photos.yahoo.com/davebohr20