For a few brief moments during my almost 3 week trip to Argentina and Antarctica I had the idea that I could still try to eat paleo/primal AND low carb while experiencing all the culture and different sorts of foods… this turned out to be a somewhat foolish idea which lasted all fo 5 seconds.
While I did manage to get some meals in that fit my ideal criteria, i.e. with the bar-b-que pork you see above, there was just too much good food to eat!
The BJJ Cavewife and I like to joke that I have an inner ‘fatman’ that likes to come out every once in a while…. and boy did he come out during this trip.
WARNING – DO NOT READ PAST THIS POINT IF YOU HAVEN’T EATEN IN A WHILE…
Argentina offers a delicious assortment of foods. I’ve already discussed empanadas which are basically meat and some vegetables wrapped in a flour, and they taste fantastic. If you’re not careful, you can eat more than you intended to… and my inner fatman definitely wasn’t careful. I’ve already shown some pictures from the empanada competition, so here are some proper pictures of what they typically look like:
One of the main things people seemed to eat, especially for lunch, were sandwiches. The one on the left is a burger type sandwich and the one on the right is called, sandwiches de miga… and yes my inner fatman ate them all up, bread and everything:
Since my inner fat-man had been unleashed and was running wild and definitely leading the charge I also had my fair share of desserts. One of the main desserts is dulce de leche which they apply generously to various pastries. I may or may not have had one too many of these dulce de leche drizzled churros and donuts to the point of having a stomach ache. My inner fatman doesn’t know his limits
My inner fatman had to have a taste of typical desserts we have at home as well… such as this cheesecake:
And of course no meal would be complete without some Argentinian wine or cocktail served with some hors d’oeuvres…
On the ship to Antarctica I was a victim to sea sickness… especially while traversing the very scary Drake’s Passage. Here is a video of what it Drake’s Passage can look like, although our experience was a bit more mild:
Needless to say, I couldn’t eat much during this period… and when I did finally regain my appetitie, I could only eat very neutral things. It was this time that my inner fat-man came busting loose and re-kindled his love affair with bread and butter…. the perfect sea-sickness food. I got so used to eating this that I even started eating it when I wasn’t sea sick. This meant lots and lots of bread and butter with breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
After almost 3 straight weeks of letting my inner fatman run the show I was eager to get back home so that I could resume some good clean eating.
I estimate that during this period I was eating anywhere from 200-300 gm of carbs a day which should make my thyroid happy, although I’m sure all the gluten probably did a number on me.
It will be interesting to see how much my weight and abdominal circumference have changed after all of this… I’m a little frightened to see if my inner fatman managed to become an outer fatman…