fibroid fighter on the road

I was in Chicago and Detroit on business this past week. Traveling and eating out is certainly difficult while trying to keep to a fibroid-fighting diet. It also reminded me of some of the habits that probably helped feed my fibroids. All that coffee I used to drink! All those cookies, lurking at every turn at the airport, at the hotel check-in counter, and in clients’ conference rooms! Temptations that now must be ignored.

I did however have some eating success. Was delighted to discover that Big Bowl, a popular Chicago Asian-style eatery, has hormone-free chicken and pork on its menu. Andies Restaurant in the Andersonville neighborhood, a longtime popular Mediterranean place, has a long list of vegetarian options and kindly puts asterisks by the dairy-free ones. I had lentils with Portobello mushrooms over rice, garnished with sun-dried tomatoes, delicious!

Eating in an airport, never easy, is now nearly impossible, as everything seems to be chock-full of gluten and sugar, and usually chilled to near-frozen. Starbucks used to be the one place I could count on for something tasty at the airport, but now coffee with cream, steamed milk, those sugary flavored syrups, and even soy lattes are all out for me. And forget the biscotti and baked goods! They do have some nuts on sale in an effort to be healthy, but those too are now something I need to limit. I will admit that Starbucks serves some non-caffeinated tea, but have you ever tried it? Tazo has to be the worst tea brand I have ever tasted, virtually undrinkable in this tea lover’s opinion. Usually however the Starbucks workers are kind enough to give me a cup of plain hot water free of charge, which I very much appreciate (I always offer to pay for the cup, but so far they have never taken me up on it).

On the way to Chicago I brought some cooked turkey slices I picked up at Whole Foods, packed in a baggie. I also brought a container of Just Tomatoes, the dried tomato chips that are flavorful and also give a great dose of lycopene (I also keep these around the house for when I have delayed going to the grocery store and am poking around my cabinets for something to munch on). They are light and easy to carry, and so delicious they feel like a treat. A plastic baggie filled with goji berrieswas an excellent snack. While in Chicago I had a kitchen available to me, and cooked quinoia with tomato paste and sautéed green beans for breakfast three mornings in a row. But basically throughout my trip I ended up eating quite a few energy bars.

Energy bars are rather problematic for fibroid-fighters. Read the labels on most brands, and you will find lots of processed soy and wheat and milk proteins. The palm oil many of them use is also not the greatest, being that it’s a saturated fat. Many of them are also packed with various sugars. Even the good ones I list below tend to be heavy on nuts and seeds which is not really recommended for fibroid-fighters. Thus, personally I think of energy bars as only being for the most dire of circumstances, such as when I am on the road and there are not really any good alternatives.

If one must have an energy bar, I recommend three brands. One is Larabar, which is gluten free. Its bars are mainly dried fruit combined with nuts. The cherry pie flavor is particularly nice, and cherries are good for fibroid-fighters because they are an alkalizing food. Ruth’s Hemp bars are tasty, I particularly like the chocolate raspberry. I am also a fan of the Pro Bar Superfood Slam, which is organic and packed with sprouted grains (although I have to admit it felt a bit heavy to me this time, after my month of so of fibroid-friendly light eating). At the grocery store after returning I also saw some new bars by Andrew Weil that looked good but I haven't tried them yet.

In addition to the eating difficulties, while on the road I didn’t get to exercise and hardly had time to meditate. Combine that with erratic sleep and sitting for long periods of time all the various irritations of modern travel (oomph! the person in the seat behind me on the plane just kicked my seat hard as I wrote that!). I have thus concluded that travel is not very helpful for my fibroid-fighting program. Fortunately, I have been able to cut down my upcoming travel schedule, if you want to be able to work on shrinking your fibroids hopefully you will be able to do the same.