Not Blowing Away

By Valerie Driscoll, Lead Coach and Coaching Program Developer for Apollo Health

By the time we were in the middle of the walk out to view the glacier, they had closed the trailhead due to the 50mph winds. If you look at the photo above, my favorite from my birding trip to Patagonia, I am the tiny speck out in the front. In the still shot, and from the distance and perspective of the photographer, it is impossible to see that we were being blown around as if we weighed nothing at all, the wind at one point blowing me completely over onto my back as I crouched down to pull another layer of warmth out of my backpack. I felt like a toppled turtle with my arms and legs waving in the air as I attempted to right myself and get back on my feet.

Believe it or not, however, this wasn’t the hardest I got blown around during my almost 3-week trip. The crazy crosswinds that worked to blow me off of my Bredesen Protocol practice were twice as difficult to navigate and yielded none of the exhilaration of my glacial walk. I pride myself on always being prepared for success when I travel, but I woefully misunderstood the challenges I would face. The walking, hiking, and climbing stuff was easy; it was looking at the buffet of pasta, breads, potatoes, corn, and mystery meat and trying to figure out what the heck to eat. For the most part, veggies were either an unexciting salad or onions and peppers sautéed in oil.

A small, guided birding trip, this was the first time I experienced having very little control over travel times and methods, meals, and sleep. About four days into the trip, having run out of my own food, facing another sad salad at a pizza and pasta joint while the rest of the group was living it up with a cheese plate, (birders can be a crazy bunch), I thought to myself, “Sod it, this is too hard, and I am hitting a wall and going AWOL.”

And I almost did, but two things saved me. The first was hunger; I had woken up hungry for the first time in years and remembered how much I hate being hungry – like hangry hungry. While practicing KetoFLEX 12/3, I am never hungry. The other factor that kept me from getting blown over was the rest of the Apollo community and the stories I hear from so many of you; you guys kept me steadfast, strong, and in an upright position. I sometimes have to remind myself why this and you matter so much to me, and why my own health matters.

So I went to bed that night and formulated a plan for the next 15 days of survival. These became my strategies for success:

Get grateful – The great fortune of having been able to travel to a spectacular place with elite birders, see so many things, and learn so much was not lost on me, but sometimes when I get tired, my inner dialogue gets cranky. To counter this tendency, I listened every morning to a gratitude meditation and drank in the magnificent landscapes with my coffee, while my trip-mates were eating breakfast. It also doubled as my quiet time on this otherwise chatty trip.

Pick a poison – I told myself that I could have a glass of wine at the end of the trip. For the rest of the group, beer or wine was enjoyed at lunch and dinner, with much fanfare. To ease my pain, I also calculated the cost of the 14 glasses of wine I would NOT be drinking and bought myself a beautiful scarf instead. Her name, of course, is Malbec.

Do it dirty – Under the conditions, my usual 90ish % was going to be impossible, so rather than blow it all up, I lowered my expectations and did it dirty. Some things were sacrosanct, like morning fasting and no cheese or pastries (of which there were billions at the buffets). I also did some HIIT walking and strength training using bodyweight every day. Doing it dirty also kept me from stressing about what I could not easily control.

Know your limits – I rested when I needed to, even if I felt like a weenie. I was not as committed to the cause as some of the others on the trip, who were CRAZY birders, so rather than caving in to FOMO, which could involve a 4 a.m. excursion, I said no.

Quickly, everyone got used to the fact that I would not be at group breakfast. The Chilean driver came to call me, “Ball, la mujer que toma agua” (Val, the woman who drinks water). I realized that if I do travel like this again, I will need to do more research and make a better plan. As always, when we know better, we do better.

Although I came home to VA after 30 hours of travel (thank you, blizzard), tired and hungry, I wasn’t knocked down, and I was ready to kick into some higher ketones. I also walked to the store to restock and kissed the crown of broccoli before I placed it in my cart.