I Lost 10 Lbs. During Hurricane Ian
Why let a good natural disaster go to waste?
Hurricane Ian chased me out of my home. When I found out I was being ordered to evacuate, I barely had time to pack some clothes, make a hasty hotel reservation, grab my dog, and turn my car east.
I forgot to bring snacks.
“Eh, there’ll be plenty of places to eat in Orlando,” I shrugged. “The storm isn’t hitting there anyway.”
Well, just one problem with that…
The storm turned south of Tampa, barely grazing the Bay Area. Once it made landfall, it began chugging its way east — to Orlando.
I evacuated on Monday last week, and by Wednesday everything in downtown Orlando was shut down. The Subway across the street? No sandwiches to be had. Pizza places stopped delivering. Door Dash just laughed at me.
Thankfully, my hotel’s restaurant still had food and were more than happy to serve us until they ran out. Only problem is, there were hundreds of fellow refugees staying there, which meant the minimum wait time for ordering and receiving food was two hours.
More than once, I skipped that process and just didn’t eat. I’ve never been the patient sort.
I got home Friday afternoon and went directly to the grocery store, which had only reopened in Tampa that morning. I wasn’t hopeful — I figured it would already be cleaned out that late in the day. Surprisingly, it wasn’t.
Ever hear the old expression, “Don’t grocery shop when you’re hungry?” Despite making a list before going, I wound up leaving there with a gallon of milk, five lbs. of hamburger meat, and like 20 Lean Cuisine frozen dinners.
I ate three of those immediately after getting back to the house. Washed them down with beer.
I slept like a baby that night — sleeping in your own bed after being thrown out of your home for five days has that effect. After negotiating my morning ritual, I decided to weigh myself.
I wasn’t optimistic either. I knew I had survived on oxygen and very little else most of the week, but at my age my body has a tendency to rebound quickly with one decent binge. I took off my glasses, my watch, most of my clothes — anything I could think of to help me out here — and stepped onto the scale with my eyes closed.
When I opened them, I glanced down, expecting to collapse into a heap of self-loathing and despair. I was 10 lbs. lighter than when I left home.
So, hey! Next time the weather is super bad news and you have to leave home in a hurry, forget the snacks. Make sure you book yourself in a city that will also get hit by the storm you’re running from. I promise, you won’t regret it!
And when you’ve found out you lost a ton of weight with my fool-proof plan , do what I did. Celebrate with a pizza and a pint of ice cream!
