Las Vegas Trip

This past week I had the opportunity to get away for a few days with a friend. We flew to Las Vegas! The last time I had been there I was in my 20s, so needless to say it’s been a few years. We had a very fun time--even though neither of us are gamblers. 

Of course I concerned myself with the normal things when traveling. My main concern is what am I going to eat? Considering Vegas has a huge amount of restaurants on the strip I did a search for those with vegan choices and found very few. Next, I called our hotel to ask where the nearest grocery store was and it was quite a trip to get there so I decided once again to bring my own food. 

Next, I considered portable options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I made sure that our room had a refrigerator in it. I brought a couple bags of salad, celery & carrot sticks, bread & peanut butter, Dr. McDougal’s cup of noodles, oatmeal, powdered soy milk, Rip’s whole wheat crackers and some fresh fruit. It was great! I always had something with me that I could eat and never had to worry about going hungry. 

We did go out to eat more than once and one evening we had a really nice dinner at the Treasure Island Hotel. I ordered a vegetable stir fry and asked if they would prepare the vegetables without oil--just use water instead. It was no problem at all! They were completely accommodating to my request and I had a great dinner. Sorry for the crappy picture (taken on my phone in terrible lighting) but this was my vegetable stir fry. 

The last night there we caught the public bus and rode over to the Fremont Street Experience. It was a great time of laser show & jazz music. What a fun time! On the way back to catch the bus we walked right in front of the Heart Attack Grill (which I’ve talked about in a previous post). For those of you who don’t know they advertise that if you weigh 350 lbs. or more you eat for free. We stopped for a while and I watched as one man walked on to the industrial scale outside the restaurant to get weighed. He stopped and stood on the scale (which is part of the walkway into the restaurant) and the pounds kept going up, up, up. You could hear people cheering for him as the pounds kept accumulating. But then the scale stopped at 327 lbs. and everyone who was previous cheering for him gave a disappointed sigh “awwh!!!”  Wow. How sick is it that people cheer for someone who is literally killing themselves; and how perverted is their disappointment that this guy didn’t weigh 350 lbs? I couldn't take it any longer and we walked around the corner to catch the bus. 

When we got on the bus I noticed another guy who had probably just come from the Heart Attack Grill because he was wearing one of their hospital-like bracelets. At the end of this pleasant street experience I observed my archrival. Everything inside me wanted to stand on the street in front the restaurant and shout out that eating this way is not life! I wanted to question each of those guys about what they think they are doing?  Don’t you choose life?!  Don’t you want to live a quality life of health and well-being? The option is simple: eat a low-fat plant-based vegan diet and you will regain health and well being. You don’t have to continue on the path to disease and death. 

Once again, I am so thankful to be healthy and well. Sorry for preaching but I am passionate about this and convinced that health is determined by what you put into your mouth. In order to prevent or heal any disease, you have to stop doing what made you sick in the first place.  Love yourself! Eat plants!