I recently came back from a nearly week long business trip. This trip was to a convention with the company that I work for, as one of the vendors at the convention. What it boils down to, for this post’s purpose, is that my lunches were incredibly poor. Now this was not because my business didn’t give me time to eat; they gave me my normal amount of time for my lunch that I would get on a regular day, not just a convention day. It was incredibly poor because I really wanted to just spend more time sitting rather than standing in line for food. My lunch on the second to last day was leftover bacon from breakfast and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. That was fairly satisfying in terms of flavor. Definitely not the healthiest option in the world.
I should probably give some context. I originally had bought some microwavable meals from Walmart for the trip. I had previously eaten such meals before at a former job. However, I chose not to bring them on the trip for a couple different reasons. So I didn’t have that to eat. I probably should have brought something along the lines of stuff for pb&j sandwiches (peanut butter and jelly) since that would be the easiest sandwich to make and store the supplies for. There wasn’t a grocery store in close proximity to the path that I would take from the hotel to the convention. So I really only had the options of bringing and eating leftovers from breakfast from the hotel as my lunch or buying food at the convention.
Now I should mention that the first lunch I had at the convention cost about 8.75 for a cheeseburger and chips (crisps for my British readers). I was worried about the time (my lunch was only 20 min instead of my regular 30) which was probably unfounded but the adrenaline of the event probably heightened my worry about time. Second, I really didn’t think that I had time to eat the chips and I also didn’t have water on me at the time (I forgot to bring a bottle from the booth). So I decided to not eat the chips. Therefore, I ended up paying nearly 9 US dollars for a cheeseburger. Non-gourmet burgers should not cost that much, especially when my first two dinners were costing me a $20 bill to include a good tip. If I was going to spend that much on dinner everyday, I was not going to be buying myself lunch. Leftover breakfast it was.
So my first attempt at a breakfast lunch included what Americans call (or at least my region of the country) an English muffin. I put some butter on it and ate it before I had some orange sections. Now I didn’t finish the orange because it didn’t taste the way I was expecting it to, so I decided to not eat all of it as a precautionary measure. The English muffin was okay but it was not the most palatable thing at the time. The bacon and sugar I later consumed tasted better. This was not what I started out on intending to eat during my time at the convention. In retrospect there were better ways that I could have prepared or done.
One option was buying a pizza on the first day and eating that for my lunches and/or dinner. I would have found that option perfectly acceptable as I will regularly eat leftover pizza cold. That would not have worked for some people for various reasons. Another option was to have pre-made sandwiches prior to the trip and taking them to the convention. That would probably have been one of the healthiest options that I could have taken. I am almost certain that there were plenty of ways that I could have made food that was healthier for me than bacon and candy. However, it was my first convention and I had not yet gathered enough experience to plan my lunches out properly. Hopefully I shall get better with this. Have you worked at a convention or gone to one? Did you buy the convention food or bring your own? What did you bring? Please comment below with your answers and thank you for reading.
unknownclimate 