I’ve read a handful of articles about being paleo while being a patient at a hospital {I’d list ’em.. but I read them forever ago and have no idea where they are}. But I haven’t seen one about being the person waiting at the hospital for someone.
Kinda random right? Yeah well this week was full of this and a vast number of takeout choices… Why? Both my Daddy and my Grandfather had major surgery on Thursday {Hence the whole Liz-has-been-MIA-forever-thing}. We got the call Tuesday that Daddy was going to be going in for minimum triple bypass and my grandfather was going in for surgery to remove his cancer {stomach/esophagus}. We new about my grandfather’s ahead of time, but were originally going to go down and visit him this weekend to visit {Super stressful surgery…he’s still in the ICU even now}. Anyhoo…. when I got the call food + food planning for the next few days was farthest thing from my mind {heck we hadn’t even grocery shopped yet for the week!}. Side note… they were in hospitals across the street from eachother… made for some easy hospital jumping!
Day of Surgery I believe me and my troops {Mr. Not So Paleo, My sister and her GF = my troops}, got there around 9am that day and were there till roughly 7 that night with one quick stop home during to take care of the dogs and stuff {my poor rock awesome Mum who is beyond amazing drove my grandfather in at 4:30 am to his surgery, and then moved to my Dad’s hospital and stayed there until ohh 2pm on Friday. I mean seriously, she’s beyond amazing}.
All of this lead to food on the go and lots of coffee. My whole point to this is when you’re in a situation like this {and I’m crossing my fingers you never are}, you’ve got to make the best food choice you can. If you normally don’t take your coffee with milk but you like it with milk and gave it up because you know it’s healthier…and you want some… Do.It. You’re going to need every sort of {within reason} comfort available to you. You’ve still got to eat healthy, but if you want cheese on a salad or you’re not 100% sure how that chicken was cooked. It’s O.K I swear, it’s not the end of the world. Good news is though, once you hit a certain point in being paleo it becomes second nature, make spilt second decisions about what to eat, what’s good what’s not. So it’ll make your life easier in these instances.
But Don’t. Let. It. Become. A. Big. Deal. It’s not…. it’s just food. If you’ve gotta hit gray areas for a day or two to survive and keep sane you do it. And yes some people might think that’s crazy, that you should be eating beyond optimally in these instances to stay healthy. But you know what… when you know one of the people you’ve loved your whole life is under the knife…. you sorta kinda want some milk in your coffee and you’re not going to think to hard on it. And you’re going to need to eat at some point to keep stable and able to function. So don’t let the choices in the Hospital cafeteria way you down too much. The goal is to eat and have some fuel and to move on and continue to do whatever keeps you calm {For me it was playing solitaire with an actual deck of cards and music}.
So to conclude this two things:
One: Eating in stressful emergency like situations shouldn’t be a big deal or a major stress to you… you are stressed enough as it is, make the best choice you can and don’t freaking freak out if your burger isn’t grassfed or if you have no idea what your chicken was cooked in. It’s not the end of the world I promise.
Two: If you’re ever in this situation and you need a shoulder totally email me. If you’re freaking out over food choices, email me… if you just need a friend email me… I’m always around 🙂
Fantastic news is they’re both doing good. My Dad is already up and walking and hopefully due home in the next few days {he ended up having quadruple bypass, and the Dr. Said his heart looks amazing!} My grandfather is doing well, he’s also walking around a bit… but they’re are still a few complications from his surgery they’re still working on.
{If you have questions about either surgery or want to know more about them, feel free to email me questions {liz@paleoonabudget.com}}
Glad to hear your family members are on the mend 🙂
Thank you Kate!!
Thank goodness for medical expertise when it’s really needed, and thank goodness for good outcomes after it’s applied!
Where did I read “one cheat meal won’t make you fat, any more than one healthy one will make you thin”? (I suffer from slippery slope syndrome, though, so I have to watch it). I think you’re right that it’s a) second nature to choose well, and b) those choices are still going to have you light years ahead of Doritos and Coke.
*compromise choices
Exactly! And I too suffer from slippery slope syndrome! And yeah, I can’t see my self ever falling back to the chips and candy route I used to do in stressful times… so me thinks a coffee with milk or a chicken ceaser salad was a huge improvement lol!
Glad to hear your family members are doing well. I was in a similar situation in April, we were in the hospital area for almost 2 weeks living out of a hotel. I ate the best I could as I could and if I didn’t, oh well. I was stressed enough already, the last thing on my mind was “oh no is this burrito from Chipotle good for me?” The funny thing is after 1 week the kids were done with eating out and all the wanted was home cooked meals.
Great website and good words of advice.
Thank you Allen 🙂 I hope everything is going well with you and your family!
Yeah…we were gone 2-3 days and I was ready for a “real meal” if you will! Mr. Not So Paleo was even asking for salad because he wanted something more fresh when we got home!
This is my issue in EVERYTHING – I’m still at that point where making “good” paleo choices aren’t second nature! So i FREAK OUT when I make the wrong one….Thank you for this!
You’re welcome! Yeah you can’t freak out over the little things when you’re put in these moments…. it’s just a do the best you can and when everything calms down… get back to being your serious-paleo self 🙂
I’m glad to hear that people are on the mend, so worrying. My best to Pa and the Commander for swift recoveries. My dad had a heart attack just before Thanksgiving last year so I feel your stress.
Not stressing about stress is an art form, one I am well practiced with, but I certainly don’t succeed all the time. Most importantly, you need to recognize when you are stressing and take the deep breaths required, and say to yourself, “Self, you have enough to worry about, food should not be another, ” and eat accordingly, whether it’s a pizza or a sweet potato.