Allegiant Airlines

I am taking a moment to write something unrelated to food or fitness to tell you about the horrible service we received while flying on Allegiant airline recently.  On June 23, 2013, we were on a flight from Las Vegas to Boise in the early afternoon.  It was extremely hot.  As we were all boarding, the plane became increasingly more uncomfortable.  Most of the passengers were mildly grumbling about the lack of air flow coming from the overhead vents.  The flight attendants were gossiping at the front of the plane, giving no attention to their uncomfortable passengers.  Boarding was finished and they were preparing for departure.  At this point, most folks are in a full on sweat. 

Besides the heat and the gossiping crew, the flight attendants were rude and unhelpful.  I witnessed one flight attendant interact with a passenger regarding his knapsack.  He was in the front row where there is nowhere to place his carry-on.  I heard the attendant say, rather sternly, “Well, you’ll just have to go find a place for that!  You can’t hold it on your lap!”; which completely surprised me, as I have never heard a flight attendant say such a thing.  Normally, they say something like “let me help you find a place for that.” 

At this point, the heat is almost unbearable.  The air is so stagnant, I felt as though I could hardly breathe.  Even if we could have some warm air circulating through the cabin, it would be better than nothing.  I asked one attendant if we would get some air movement soon and she barely responded with something about the plane moving away from the gate.

The normal announcements commence.  At the end of the safety announcement, the attendant speaking on the intercom said to please let them know if there is anything they can do to make our flight more comfortable.  The entire plane pleaded “air -- turn on the air”.  Nothing was said to address our pleas.  As the attendants were walking the aisles performing their last check, I asked her politely and in earnest, when the air flow would begin.  She barely acknowledged me, as she was walking away, telling me that soon enough I would be complaining that it’s too cold!  I couldn’t believe that response.  This is supposed to be a service industry, is it not?  That was beyond rude & completely unprofessional!

After sweating us out with the extreme heat & lack of circulation, then they served refreshments; which, much to our surprise, were not complementary.  So, most of us (undoubtedly parched) went without because we didn’t want to pay $3.00 for a soda.  The flight attendant serving drinks acted irritated that I didn’t realize it was not complementary.  Then, the lady in front of me tried to hand the attendant some trash to which she was met with a snotty response that she did not have the trash bag ; and she actually refused to take the item from the lady.  I found this surprising because she had the cart right in front of her.  Every other flight I’ve been on has had a trash on the cart.  A place for the attendants to place their empties, etc.

Well, the flight proceeded and finally air flow did start to cool things off.  And, true to her word, it became so blistery cold that everyone who had a sweater, put it on.  It was frigid in that plane by the time we landed in Boise, but not one person said a word about it.  We just took our lumps like troopers.  I have no idea if the crew has control over the temperature in the plane, but it seemed like the attendants plummeted the thermostat on purpose – froze us out to be hateful & vengeful.  They really showed us!  Don’t you dare complain!  Not one single member of that crew made us feel valued.  No one made any attempt to explain the temperature issues.  Not a single word or announcement saying, “hey, folks, we know it’s hot, we are so sorry… we are working on the issue…” or “this is what’s going on… “, etc.  Not a word of explanation.

Finally, we landed in Boise.  Horrible experience over and they have the nerve to ask us to turn around and crisscross the seat belts so that they can better prepare for the turn-around flight right back to Vegas.  After being treated like that, I am not interested in making their job any easier.  Not one of those people should be in the service/safety/airline industry.  I found them hateful, rude and condescending.  We will never, ever fly with that airline again.

Final Week of the Reset!

I am so excited!  We have entered our final week for our Ultimate Reset experience.  Whew!  I'm so ready for the food to be changed up again.  I have to say, as good as the salads are, we are getting pretty tired of salad for lunch.  I'm looking forward to this week's meals.  They look delicious.  I will definitely be keeping quite a few of the recipes and rotate them in our normal meal plans even after this is over.  We will not be staying vegetarian, but we will have vegetarian meals more often.

We ran out of the supplements last week because my husband and I were sharing them.  I definitely feel a difference not taking them.  I don't have as much energy and I do get hungry more often.  So, the supplements are key.  I don't know how much weight we've lost because we don't have a scale, but my pants are fitting looser, so I would say maybe 5 lbs or so for me.  I didn't have much to lose.  The big result will be my husband's cholesterol numbers.  I will post an update when I know.

Day 7 of the Reset

OK, so I haven't taken pictures of the food as I had intended.  I'm usually so anxious to eat that I forget!  But, I did remember to take a shot of my half eaten lunch from day 2.  It was Greek Salad w/chicken breast.  It was, oh, so good!

Day 2 started out rough.  I fought a headache on day 1 and woke up on day 2 with nausea; which I'm sure was residual from the migraine.  I actually ended up having to take my nausea medicine after which, I felt much better.  Day 2 food was amazing! The Black Beans & Rice in a corn tortilla was Yum-O.  We all liked it.  We were all full and completely satisfied.

Day 3 began much better. I felt good.  Breakfast was satisfying; although I was tired of kale after the 2nd day of it with breakfast.  Dinner was a challenge.  Dinner consisted of Nori Rolls with Tempeh and Veggies, Japanese Cucumber Salad and Miso Soup.  Lots of seaweed!  None of us like the seaweed.  We all gave it the good ol' college try, but nope, no way, just can't do it!  So, we peeled the stuffing out of the seaweed wrap and it was really yummy without the seaweed.  The Miso soup was also a complete no go.  I tried the next night to make it better by adding some garlic and green onions, but it was just so beyond redemption for us that we couldn't make it happen.

The stir fry, the roasted root medley, and the zucchini cashew soup nights, along with the fruit plate breakfasts have been amazing - oh, & the oatmeal... so good.  I'd say more than half the food has been so good that I will make them even after the Reset.

Finally, we get to the baked tempeh!  The marinade is so icky... we choked it down.  The first two bites were ok, but after that... we're talking gag reflex issues.  So, I have a plan for the next night of Tempeh, which is tonight.  I'm gonna simplify the recipe and just try it with Himalayan salt.  I'll report back on how that experiment works.  Also, the salads have been amazingly good, but on day 7 we are so tired of salad for lunch we could scream.  I think we have salad every single day for lunch for the next 2 weeks.  Ugggh!  Although, in week 3 it looks like they switch it up with the types of salads, so that will be a nice respite.

The most difficult part for me, so far, has been not snacking in the evening after dinner.  I'm not hungry, but I crave something to chew.  Usually an apple or orange or gum, but since I can tell that I'm actually still full from dinner and we can't have gum, I have to stop myself.

Day 6 was the most difficult for me.  I wanted to give up.  It's not an easy thing to do... all this planning and prep work of new and unknown things.  It's a great deal of work in the evening to prep the following day's lunches and breakfasts, but I trudge on.  It does make it easier that my family is doing it together.  My son is eating breakfasts & dinners with us, but he is not taking the supplements.  He is 12 and he is noticing a difference in his mid-section and his acne.

Check back later in the week for information about the supplements!

Starting the Beachbody Ultimate Reset

This is Day 1 of my Ultimate Reset.  So far, the food has been amazing!  I'm full and I can't wait to try more recipes. If you don't know what the Ultimate Reset is, I'll explain briefly.  It is kind of a cleanse, but not in the way you would think.  You still eat food and plenty of it from what I can see so far.  The Reset is a way to slowly migrate your eating habits from processed, sugar, fat, "fake" food to real, fresh, wholesome foods.  Between the food and the supplements, my body will be eliminating all those nasty toxins. You can read more about it on Beachbody's website.  I'll keep you updated on my progress.  I wish I would've taken a picture of the food, but I didn't think to do it until just now, so I'll try to remember to do it from now on.  

During this 21 day Reset, I am looking forward to seeing any changes in my body's aches and pains.  As you may know, I have Sjogren's Syndrome (an auto-immune disorder), so I have my own set of challenges.  I take quite a few prescriptions and I have normal aches and pains.  I'm curious how resetting my body will affect how I feel.  I also struggle with severe fatigue due to Sjogren's, so that's another thing to monitor on this program.  I have recently had shoulder surgery, so I am also healing from that.  I got my doctors' blessings before ordering this program, so I'm good to go!

I feel full and satisfied - not hungry or craving anything right now.  I do have a headache and I feel really tired, but as I said, this is not unusual for me.  My shoulder aches and it is moving up my neck, so I don't think my headache or fatigue is related to the Reset.

More soon...

P.S. You may be thinking that I already eat pretty clean and that is true, but I do have my little addictions to sugar, dairy, breads, alcohol, etc. (i.e. candy at the movies, cheese, butter, pancakes w/syrup, carbonated flavored water).  This is a way to get back to my clean eating ways!