Starving Foodie

This week, I’m at the Gaylord National Resort in Washington D.C. for Hostingcon, the annual geek fest for people providing internet services.  Conferences pose some huge challenges:

• Disrupted Exercise Routine
• Unhealthy Food Abundant
• Networking Drinking Events

Fruit Hoarding

The food at these events is typically poor, but this year, I have to give the operation some credit. At least there is some fruit available during breaks. This is a welcome addition to the fat-laden goodies like cookies, donuts, and muffins that are typically served.  When I find some good fruit, I stash it in my conference bag.

Luckily, my fruit hoard has saved me twice.

Yesterday, before the evening network event. I had an apple.  Typically at these events I drift from one reception to another, trying to limit the drinks people are tossing my way.  Finger foods are the menu du jour, so the apple helped.  I drank less and was less tempted by the nachos on offer.

Today when walking into the exhibit hall around 10:30 AM, Otis Spunkmeyer greeted my nostrils.  For our obese nation, fresh-baked cookies are probably better than a booth babe in attracting attendees to your both.  The plum I had stashed in my bag saved me. One booth was giving out slices of chocoloate cake — that’s the last thing an overweight sedentary system administrator needs.

Lunch Deconstructed

Lunch is tough.  There is a mixed green salad offered but very little healthy protein.  Yesterday, they served some turkey and cheese sandwiches on a roll.  So I made a salad with some cucumbers and tomatoes and took the turkey from the sandwich to make a meal.  I thought this was pretty good.  I did indulge a bit in the mini-desert, which was a shot glass sized serving of cheesecake.

Today was a little tougher.  The protein option was a fish bathed in butter and bread crumbs or a chicken breast wrapped in ham with some cheese.  I scraped the ham and cheese off of the chicken and added it to my salad.  Still pretty fatty, but better than the butter soaked fish.

Not Drinking

Alcohol greases the engine of business.  Hanging out in a social setting and kicking back a beer or six builds trust.  Why you should trust a drunken salesperson is beyond me, but that’s how it works.

Last night was tough.  There are many people here I’ve know for years, so catching up required more than a couple of drinks.  Fortunately in H3I speak, this is an infrequent event, so overdoing it is relatively minor in the grand scheme of things.  I did, however, make it back with much less damage than in the past.

Tonight, I had a wonderful dinner with some of business partners.  I had a couple of drinks at dinner and one after.  Probably 3 servings of alcohol total.  The bread bowl had a flat bread in it, so I ate a very small portion of it — better than eating the entire bowl of bread which was an old habit.

I had a mixed salad and fish for dinner.  The portion was a little large but I did not have any afternoon snack and a light lunch, so on balance, I think it was a success.

Exercise (Kind of)

The conference runs from 8:30 AM to about 5:30 PM, then dinner and/or a networking reception.  By the time you’re done, exhaustion takes hold.

Yesterday, I asked myself a question:

“What benefits the my business more?  Going to a boring sessions with little import or taking 45 minutes out of the day to improve my health?”

When posed that way, the answer was clear.  In the past, I felt a little guilty about taking some “me time” at these events as they can be expensive.  After a closer inspection, I realized that being rejuvenated from exercise would make me more effective in the important sessions.

This is a win-win attitude.  I win and the business wins.  This is a big shift in my attitude about business events.  In the future, I will look for low impact events and see if I can use that time to get some exercise.

Simply Stairs

Taking the stairs.  Though sometimes I forget or just follow the crowd down the escalator, I’ve been trying to take the stairs.  This conference is spread over 3 floors which each floor occupying about 2 stories.  So to go from the exhibit hall to the conference room is 6 flights.  I did that about 4x today, so that 24 stories.

Hanging in There

I’ve one more day at the conference and then over to my aunt’s place for  some family time.  I think I’ve managed pretty well but will not know for sure until I hit the scale when I get home on Sunday.