Monday, February 21, 2011

Portland: The land of bikes, brews and big bites!

I spent a wonderful weekend in Portland with my husband. He was up there all week for work, so I flew up Friday afternoon to spend the weekend together. I have never visited Portland, so I was very excited.

I LOVE IT! What a great city! Bikes, coffee, local brews, vegetarian restaurants, what more could you want? We went to a great brew pub on Friday night. We split a flight and I had the house veggie burger with sweet potato fries. On Saturday we found a great cafe and I had a scrumptious bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar and walnuts. We walked all day, visiting every bike shop in the city and had a lovey lunch at a local vegetarian chain. I had the Cuban bowl, which was brown rice, black beans, sweet potatoes, plantains and pico. Do you see a trend? Without boring you with the rest of my meals...I ate and drank my way through the city.
- a large chocolate chip cookie
- butternut squash ravioli with brown butter sage sauce
- a loaf of fresh bread with olive oil
- chocolate semifreddo
You get the idea....

I truly enjoyed every meal and every drink, but as soon as my plate left the table...it started. First, the pang of guilt. Then the caloric breakdown in my head of what I had consumed. And finally the internal dialogue about portion control and healthier choices.

Can I no longer enjoy a fun weekend with my husband? Am I so programmed to equate food with calories and work outs that I can't enjoy a night out? How sad is that? The whole flight home was a pep talk with myself on how I will go for a good long ride on Monday and straight the the grocery store to stock up on veggies.

All in all, I had a wonderful time. Portland is a lovely city and I will definitely be back. Maybe I should rent a bike to work off every meal as soon as it is consumed :)

I hope you had a good weekend!

3 comments:

  1. It sounds like a lovely weekend! You are entitled to a weekend with your husband out of training mode :P but yeah, I totally get it.

    What?? No pics of these lovely things you ate?? bad blogger!! LOL The rav's sound delightful

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  2. Can we chalk it up to being a new blogger? I need to start thinking like a blogger!

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  3. I love Portland! I was there for the first time this past summer for the Hood to Coast Relay. If it didn't rain so much I would consider living there. It's a great city and so scenic. Had I known you were going I would have told you about the cupcake store I went to that you have to go to also! I'm glad you had a great time..and don't worry about the food, the calories from all the food are temporary :)

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