I'm Stuck In Reno For A Couple More Days

Life is just so full of curve balls. Such is life.

Today, my wife Christine and I had every intention of heading back on a plane (oh boy, yet another high-carb snack to enjoy--NOT!) to our hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina. But, as luck would have it, we were one of the fortuitous folks who got overbooked and subsequently "bumped" from our flight.

Bummer.

I suppose this is bound to happen more often than not when they decide to purposefully overbook the plane by 10 people (yep, the Continental Airlines rep confirmed to me that they do it all the time! ARGH!), but this is TWICE it has happened to us in the past three flights we have taken. Oh well, so whaddya do about it, right? Grin and bear it, then move on. It's all good.

They did put us up in a hotel today and tomorrow at no charge, gave us free meal vouchers so we can eat in the one and only restaurant in the building (I sure hope they've got SOMETHING low-carb!), provided $600 worth of future Continential flights (SWEET!), and a limo ride to the airport in Sacramento, California tomorrow night.

Our flight leaves out of there around midnight on Monday morning and we'll get back home by Monday afternoon going through Houston and Atlanta along the way. The only thing I requested from them was to put us in first class for our trouble--AND THEY DID! Sweetness since my big ole long legs on my 6'3" body have been scrunched up like sardines on these multiple flights.

Well, if you are a regular reader of my blog (and why wouldn't you be since everyone else already is? *grin*), then you know me and the Mrs. have been in Reno, Nevada since Wednesday as part of the HPBA Expo looking at and experiencing grills, grills, and more grills. You gotta love it and you LITERALLY will when you find out about your opportunity to win one of the top-of-the-line grills available in 2007. More details will be forthcoming so keep reading (see, I told you it's worth your time to read my blog all the time).

It has been an exhausting trip, but so much fun and informative about the BBQ industry. We even won a FREE BBQ grill in a drawing the other day, so Christine is VERY happy about that. And so am I since a grill can be a low-carber's best friend. Just about ANY food tastes better cooked on a BBQ grill. Mmm mmm, I can't wait to strike up the barbie, baby!

You will get to hear three different interviews from people in the BBQ industry in upcoming podcast shows: Leslie Wheeler from the HPBA discussing the skyrocketing popularity of grilling, author Karen Adler who is one of the two self-proclaimed "BBQ Queens," and finally (drumroll please...here's the "famous" BBQ expert so many of you were trying to guess the indentity of) I have bestselling author and the host of the popular PBS television show "BBQ U" Steven Raichlen. Each of these interviews will give you a glimpse of what's happening now in the wonderful world of BBQ.

That's what you have to look forward to when I can get back to Spartanburg.

For now, I have FREE WiFi Internet access in the hotel I am staying at until Sunday night. Don't you know I'll be blogging away the best I know how to try to get back into my normal routine again. THANKS as always for your faithful readership to the "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb" blog.

When you see what I have for you in the month of April to celebrate my two years of blogging, then hopefully you will continue to keep coming back here and sharing with others the work I am doing to educate and encourage those who are desiring not just weight loss, but a happier and healthier life. You guys are AWESOME!

Cheerio...gotta go check out that restaurant in the lobby now! :)

Do You Want A Muffin? You're Joking, Right?

You're NEVER gonna guess where I am typing this note right now. Before I tell you WHERE I am, I'm also excited to be typing this from my new-to-me iBook laptop computer that I picked up this week. YEAH! I've been wanting one of these for the longest time to use when I travel around the country. So, where exactly am I right now?

Hmmm, well, I'm not in my hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina, but I'll give you a hint. I lying on a queen-sized bed looking outside my window at a picturesque view of the most gorgeous mountains you have ever seen (well, maybe not what YOU have ever seen, but they're absolutely beautiful to me). In fact, I'm clear across the country in what they call "the biggest little city in the world"--that's right, I'm in Reno, Nevada!

I'm in town through Saturday as part of the Hearth, Patio, & Barbecue Association (HPBA) Expo taking place this week as the largest such event in the world. It's gonna be so cool and I can't wait to check out all the sights and sounds of this amazing event. And, in case you were wondering, YES there will be LOTS of BBQ to chow down on while I'm here. WOO HOO! Did I die and go to low-carb heaven? :)

My wife Christine is also here with me and I'm so glad she got to come with me since she doesn't get to do these kind of trips very often. She deserves getting as much attention as I do for putting up with me when I was morbidly obese and then lovingly being there for me since 2004 as I worked out my diet losing over 180 pounds to take back control of my life. She's as much a part of my weight loss success as me!

Anyways, I wanted to blog about some interesting stories that happened today during my flight to Houston and then to Reno.

On the trip from Spartanburg to Houston, our plane took off around 6:30am our time so the flight attendant went around shortly after departure asking the passengers if they wanted an apple spice muffin. "Do you want a muffin, do you want a muffin?" she said to everyone as she pranced down the aisle with these high-carb morsels of pure unadulterated RAT POISON!

So she gets to us and asks her now infamous question, "Do you want a muffin?" Already knowing what my answer would be, I assumed my wife would tell the lady she'd like one but her husband will pass. But that's not what happened. Do you know what Mrs. Livin' La Vida Low-Carb did instead? She leaned over and asked me with a straight face, "Do you want a muffin?"

If you could have seen the look I gave her when she asked that ridiculous question, I'm sure you would have laughed your head off! LOL! I responded, "Say what?! You're joking, right? You know I can't have a muffin." Christine said she got nervous and just forgot I was livin' la vida low-carb. Forgot? Oh my, how in the world did that happen? :-~

With that answer the stewardess moved on to the next victim...er, I mean, passenger to offer them one of these carb-y breakfast items to begin their sugar-loading for the day. ARGH!

When they came back around a few minutes later offering drink service, she asked what we would like to drink and I responded that I would like a Diet Coke. But when she went to pour my drink she picked up a regular Coke instead. She saw me gazing at her with a look of concern on my face and she immediately responded, "Oh my gosh, you said diet didn't you?" I smiled and said, "Yes I did. I haven't had sugar in over three years, so I probably shouldn't start back now."

Her eyes grew really big when I said this and she retorted, "No sugar at all for three years? WOW, you must be adding years to your life." I grinned back at her and exclaimed, "Yes ma'am I am."

Isn't it funny how so many people universally accept the idea that consuming sugar and high fructose corn syrup in drinks like regular soda is bad for your health and yet they keep on guzzling those products down along with stuffing their faces with high-carb junk foods like muffins? Where is the disconnect here? We know it's bad for us, but do we not care about our health enough to make better choices? Apparently not.

There were a group of college students flying together on our trip from Houston to Reno and you couldn't help but hear every word they were saying. We've all been that young and acted foolishly in public, so their apparent disrespect for everyone around them was not all that surprising. One of them screamed out, "Did you bring the cookies?" even before we got off the ground for our four-hour flight. Someone answered, "No, but I've got some sour gummi worms." The young man quickly shot back, "Oh, but I wanted the cookies."

Sigh. So young and so incredibly ignorant about what those "cookies" and "sour gummi worms" are doing not just to their weight, but also their health. One of these days it's gonna catch up to 'em and they'll wish they had learned better nutritional habits earlier in life. How can we get this message across loud and clear to a generation that thinks they are invincible?

Finally, the most disturbing observation from my flight today was when I saw what they were serving as breakfast on the flight from Houston to Reno. Are you ready for this menu because it shocked the boo-boo out of me:

Whole Grain Cheerios - 15g carbs
2% Reduced Fat Milk - 12g carbs
Apple Spice Muffin - 25g carbs
Banana - 30g carbs
Glass of Orange Juice - 25g carbs

GRAND TOTAL CARBOHYDRATES: 100+ (EEEEEEK!!!)

I can't remember the last time I've had that many carbs in one DAY, much less one MEAL! What's most upsetting is the fact that so many people who ate this breakfast thought they were eating "healthy" because of the whole grains, low-fat milk, fruit, and fruit juice. What a disturbing sham on the American people who have no idea they are consuming gobs and gobs of sugar that is literally destroying their health.

Will we ever wake up to this reality? Can we convince people of our message?

That's why I created the "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb" blog and will keep sharing the truth every opportunity I can get. I'll check in as much as I can while I'm here in Reno, NV and look forward to recording several interviews for my podcast show in the next couple of days. It's costing me $10 a day for Internet access, but worth every minute of it to be able to answer your e-mails and blog about livin' la vida low-carb because that's my commitment to you.

I'm already getting sleepy now since I got up at 4:00am EST and it's now 9:00pm in my body although the clock show 6:00pm here on the West Coast. I'm gonna sleep good tonight because I'm really, really, really tire...zzzzzzzzzzzzzz...(shhhhh, Jimmy will be back tomorrow with more updates. Nighty night!).