Back from PAX!

So, I really did mean to blog while I was at PAX. However, good intentions fell to the wayside once I was there. A couple of times I felt like I should blog but then I just didn't. And I'm glad I didn't because I was already running perilously low on sleep.

So, how did my PAX adventure go? Well, first off, I was not able to stay on plan as well as I'd hoped, but I did much better than I feared. I had my Medifast meals and my almonds with me for the convention, and I did dinner each night in as reasonable a way as possible, but I broke plan every day. I'll go over my breaches:

Thursday: I arrived in Boston and got checked in. Brandon and I didn't get hooked up together until around 8 pm and I met him, Damien, and Ken for dinner. We walked from the hotel and hit Whiskey Priest, an Irish Pub where I chose fried cod and potatoes. The cod was very lightly dusted in flour and fried, and potatoes are totally off the reservation, but I went with it anyway.

My badge and my Pinny Arcade Pins I acquired. I failed to get Leeroy Jenkins and for that, I am very, very sad.

Friday: Full day at PAX, and I had hoped to playtest Thornwatch that night, at 7 pm, but I was not only not on the playtest list, I wasn't even on the alternate list. But, if I wanted a shot, I'd need to be there. So I ended up having lemon pepper hot wings from the convention center food court. They were baked, not fried, but still... hot wings aren't on the menu either. I didn't get a chance to playtest Thornwatch, either, as I was about the 20th person in line for the 'alternates that didn't even get onto the alternates list'.

About to playtest Hearthstone on iPad, I watched some Heroes of the Storm

Saturday: Another full day at PAX, and the night of the Frontalot concert. Brandon got a group of us together to go get Japanese Hot Pot in Chinatown, so Ken, Brandon, Lena, Henny, Brad, Chris and I all piled into a van after we got poached from the cab line. We ended up at this amazing hot pot restaurant where I had shaved chicken breast slices, 6 types of mushrooms, tofu, cabbage, and udon noodles all cooked in spicy broth. If I had skipped the udon, this meal would have been completely on plan, but I ate them anyway. We had to zip back to the hotel so Brandon and Ken could get ready for the show.

Not a great picture, but you can see Vic-20 (Ken), MC Frontalot (Damien) and Bl4k Lotus (Brandon) here. Sturgis (Sturgis) was out of frame behind them.

Sunday: Partial day at PAX. I ended up in airports and/or airplanes for 11 hours. I found a place in Newark that let me get hot and sour soup and chicken teriyaki for dinner, and that seemed like a fair choice.

After this, I was fairly certain I'd thrown myself out of ketosis, because of all the carbs. I think that's fairly accurate considering that I'm pretty hungry today. However, by sticking to one reasonable meal a day, and no desserts, combined with the fact that I was walking 5+ miles a day, I came home to a pretty happy surprise... a nearly 4 pound loss from Thursday morning, and nearly 3 lbs down from my previous low.

Now, there's some more caveats this as well. I wasn't drinking anywhere near enough water. I mean nothing close. And, I was getting about 5 hours of sleep a night. So... today I'm a little logy and I'm drinking as much water as I can stomach. We'll see what this means for my weight over the next couple of days, and if I'll rehydrate and pop back up some, or if I'll rehyrdrate and lose more.

Either way, I'm happy to have made it through PAX without a gain!