Book Tour Diary #4: Nutrition, or Lack Thereof

Posted by Scalzi about 1 year ago | Permalink | Comments (4)

One of the things that I am learning very quickly on this book tour is that moving around a lot lends one toward eating a lot of crap. For example, here was the menu for yesterday:

One bag of Dijon Mustard potato chips
Half a bag of honey roasted peanuts
Six Reisen chocolate candies
Four Red vines
One large Rice Krispy square (with mini M&Ms)
One Coke
Two Coke Zeroes
One Diet Coke (clearly I’m working through the Coke family)
One absurdly expensive acon cheeseburger with fries at about 10:30 pm, when I realized I actually hadn’t eaten, you know, food at any point during that day.

I don’t make the argument that the bacon cheeseburger was healthy or anything, mind you. It just wasn’t largely based on sugar or sugar substitutes.

The reason for this manifestly insane diet was basically that I was grazing while I was doing a number of things. The problem with this is, alas, that my metabolism has just sent me a note that reads, more or less, “Hey, just to let you know, I’m happily converting this all to fat. Thought you might like to know.”

Plan for the tour: Actually try not to eat too much crap. Otherwise I’ll come home looking like I ate a weather balloon. I don’t think that would be good.

Comments

  1. Shawn Powers' Buddy IconShawn Powers

    Posted about 1 year ago

    Yeah, what’s up with this 30 something metabolism? It wasn’t long ago that I could eat anything I wanted without concern.

    Now, I can easily put 35 pounds on in 6 months. Sadly, I’ve tested that theory over the past half year. Ugh.

  2. Karen of Mavarin's Buddy IconKaren of Mavarin

    Posted about 1 year ago

    Does that mean you don’t want me to stop at In-N-Out Burger for you en route to the festivities on Monday? ‘Cause I will, if you want.

  3. Lawrence Schimel's Buddy IconLawrence Schimel

    Posted about 1 year ago

    Whenever I’m on tour or at a convention, I always make sure to always travel with things like South Beach Diet Meal Replacement Bars or at least granola bars in every backpack, suitcase, jacket, etc.

    Also good are things like dried apricots, a bag of almonds, peanut butter, halvah… basically anything that doesn’t need to be refrigerated, but can give you a quick dose of energy/protein/etc. without being all refined sugars.

    (If you can find them, those fruit-roll-ups or fruit leathers-the name changes depending on what part of the country you’re in-are also good.)

  4. deCadmus' Buddy IcondeCadmus

    Posted about 1 year ago

    While I’ve never done a book tour (I’m thinking I should maybe write that book first) I have done speaking tours that had me in a different city day after day, night after night. If there’s one thing I can impart as essential learning, it’s that it really pays to be good to yourself…

    Be really, really careful of the sugary crap. Ultimately it will leave you like so much wilted spinach, just when you really need some energy. What worked for me was a ready supply of fruit, nuts (macadamia nuts and almonds, especially) and the traveler’s best friend: beef (or turkey, or salmon) jerky.

    Drink lots and lots of water. Keep a big bottle readily at hand, not only so that you always have some to drink, but you can also measure how much you’ve drunk (e.g. you can easily spot that you’re two quarts behind).

    Get some exercise. If nothing else, just get out of the hotel and walk a few blocks (or many) in the morning or at night.

    Take care of yourself… not just for yourself, but because it also allows you to give the best performance you can, which is what your readers deserve, right?

    Knock ‘em dead, Scalzi!

    -dec