As I sit here in front of my office computer again, I literally have no freakin’ idea what time it is! That’s because this East Coast guy has been hanging out in Seattle, Washington for the past few days for the American Society of Bariatric Physicians (ASBP) conference featuring presentations over the weekend from The Nutrition & Metabolism Society. If you’ve been following my Twitter or Facebook pages since Thursday, then you already know I was LIVE-streaming all the presentations that I attended and it was packed with some really fascinating and sometimes controversial discussions. It was funny reading the comments from people who thought I was the one making some of these statements when all I was doing was simply reporting on what was being said. Go check out the snippets of information that I provided all from my iPhone while attending the Symposium lectures because it was a lot to take in. All in all, what you’ll find was mostly incredible stuff that I will attempt to share with you in a series of reports from the event coming up in the next week or so. Stay tuned!
While in Seattle, it was literally a low-carb all-star event getting to hang out with people like Dr. Mary C. Vernon, Jackie Eberstein, Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt, Dr. Eric Westman, Gary Taubes, Nora Gedgaudas, Laura Dolson, Peter Ballerstedt, Dr. Richard Feinman, Laurie Cagnassola, Dr. Ron Rosedale, Dr. Stephen Phinney, Dr. Donald Layman, Jeff Clinger, Dr. Jay Wortman, Adele Hite, Drs. Mike & Mary Dan Eades, Dr. Eric Kossoff, and so many more–ALL IN ONE PLACE! How often do you get a chance to casually chit-chat with people like this with a few days (well, actually, you can do just that on our annual low-carb cruise, too!)? Nora said it was “like being a kid in a candy store…except for the sugar.” I couldn’t agree more!
I also had the distinct privilege to meet some of my favorite low-carb friends in the Seattle area and there’s a bunch of them, too! Hanging out with Danielle, Krys, Keith, Susan, Olivia, and many more was such a special part of this trip for me. It’s one thing to “know” you via e-mail and comments at my blog. But getting to actually meet you in the flesh, shake your hand, hug your neck, and tell you how much I appreciate you never gets old. That’s why I get up every single day to blog, podcast, and everything else because I care about your health and want to provide you with quality information that will help put you in the best possible position to further educate yourself, your family, and anyone you come into contact with. That’s exactly what I heard from the Seattle peeps I got to meet this weekend and I’m so proud of them for learning and sharing about the wonderfully healthy benefits of livin’ la vida low-carb!
The only bad part about a trip like this (besides it coming to an end!) was the flying. On the way there, we flew from Charlotte, NC to Minneapolis, MN connecting to Seattle. The last leg of the trip was about 5 hours and it was not too shabby. I think about how far Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt had to travel coming all the way from Sweden (almost 24 total hours of travel time!) and I don’t feel so bad–plus the fact he’s now stuck in Seattle indefinitely because of the Iceland volcano eruption. EEEEEK! But still, this one was a doozy especially on the way home. Our flight was at 10:50PM PT on Sunday night and was set to arrive at JFK airport in New York City at 7:10AM ET. I was so looking forward to sleeping during this “red eye” flight. Nope. But they put me in the middle seat between Christine by the window and a Middle-Eastern guy who kept getting up to go to the bathroom all night. Needless to say, NO SLEEP FOR ME!
Then on our connecting flight from JFK to Charlotte at 8:30AM ET, we were in a smaller plane and my seat was right next to a man who easily weighed 400+ pounds. I felt so bad for him because that was me a little more than 6 years ago. The poor guy couldn’t help but take up all of his window seat and about a third of my aisle seat because of his size. I was doing my best to help make him comfortable by leaning out into the aisle as much as possible so he’d have room. When the flight attendant would walk by or serve drinks, I had no choice but to lean directly into him which I know was both embarrassing and somewhat humiliating for this guy. The tray wouldn’t come down for him when she served us drinks and I could tell he was frustrated and agitated with this plane ride. We did the best we could to cope with it for 90 minutes.
When we got to Charlotte, it took a little time to get my one bag that I checked with Delta for $25 (this is why I don’t like flying–are they gonna charge to go to the bathroom next?) and then we hit the road for one hour back down to our home in Spartanburg, South Carolina. With little to no sleep for over 36 hours, we got home and crashed for the best power nap ever! After a few hours we got up to unpack and I noticed the TSA had searched through my bag as one of their “random” searches. This was the fifth time I’ve had my luggage rummaged through by them and they actually damaged several books I had received while at the conference with their sloppy repacking. Not cool.
At least it felt good to be back in my own bed again and we just took it easy watching some of our favorite TV shows we had on the DVR before heading for bed again. Today it’s time to get back to work and I’ve got something REALLY special to share about later today regarding the significance of April 20th on the calendar. You WON’T want to miss that, so be sure to come back and see what the fuss is all about. I can promise you there will quite possible be something valuable in it for you if you do!
Special THANKS to all those readers who supported my trip to Seattle through The Nutrition & Metabolism Society as well as assistance from Innovative Metabolic Solutions. The appreciation for the work I do by the individuals and organizations who see the value of the information I provide at my blog and podcast show is both gratifying and humbling. If you had told me seven years ago when I was a 400+ pound man who didn’t give a rip about healthy living that I’d be attending conferences and writing about the science behind diet, nutrition, and health, I would have thought you’re nuts! But here I am in 2010 doing exactly that and it’s the best “job” in the entire world to have the joy and privilege of sharing with you each and every day. THANK YOU for making all of this possible for me by showing up and reading “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” and engaging in the process of changing this world for the better one person at a time.
