Spring Break season just ended, and we’re moving into beach trip season. Travel makes seasons irrelevant and nothing feels better than packing nothing but a bathing suit in the middle of winter. However, anyone focusing on clean eating and healthy living can find sustaining our lifestyle while on the road a difficulty. While keeping our bodies moving is easy while we’re travelling, eating well is often not.
So while on a trip south for spring break recently I wrote down some things I find most useful to remember. Don’t let an unhappy tummy, or worse, ruin your next trip.
REMEMBER THE WINS
While you’re doing your best to win moment-to-moment from day-to-day, don’t let the moments that aren’t your best, like eating McDonald’s or corn-filled greasy chips, bring you down. You’re on vacation, so ease up just a little.
Don’t forget to acknowledge the moments you did win. A side salad instead of french fries, or quinoa instead of pasta, may seem small in the moment but are meaningful and indicative of your commitment to live well. Don’t look at all of the things you ate that you shouldn’t have. Look at all of the choices you made that were good ones. Sometimes we lose sight of that big picture. But life is an average. Weigh in more on the side of good than bad.
EAT ONE GOOD MEAL EVERY DAY
Eat consistently one good meal a day. Make it the same meal each day so you keep some regularity to your digestive system and can cleanse the system. For Spring Break I packed enough oatmeal for me to have for breakfast each day of the trip. I also bought enough apples for have one each day in my oatmeal. And I found a nut mix/trail mix blend at the grocery store and added it to my oatmeal as well. I actually ate better for breakfast than every other person on that trip. It cost me very little, and kept my body running smoothly for the entire vacation.
HEALTH GOALS
Aim for 7000 steps a day. Or 5000. Or 10,000. Just have a goal in mind, and reward yourself for your success. Pedometers are cheap and useful. Walking is easy exercise and can be done anywhere. Walk around the hotel a few times, stroll the town’s main street, or go for a hike. Just keep moving.
PLAN AHEAD
Use Trip Advisor to search the town you’re going to ahead of time. There’s a lot of vegan/vegetarian/gluten-free restaurants out there. Trip Advisor is good because it rates the restaurants and provides reviews from actual diners. Our family has found some great eats while travelling this way.
AVOID FREE HOTEL BREAKFASTS
Hotel free breakfasts are not your friend. Other than the fruit and the turkey sausage (not knowing what ingredients besides turkey there are, and ignorance may be bliss in this one) there was literally nothing I could eat at the Holiday Inn free breakfast. Pancakes, cinnamon buns, toast, muffins, cereal, eggs, bacon, omelettes with cheese, and more. That morning I compromised on the instant oatmeal they had (even though there’s citric acid in it, and I shouldn’t have eaten it). There were raisins and walnuts to add, so I thought that was nice. They had dairy free milk – soy milk. Again, plan ahead.
While I packed the oatmeal for breakfast each day of the trip, we’d stopped at the hotel half way to our destination, and I’d left my oatmeal packed in the truck. I should have planned ahead.
THE BIG ‘P’
Regularity/Motility is key to a comfortable and happy vacation. Stay hydrated. Eat mostly fruits and vegetables. Eat grains (bread does not count). Keep your body moving. Motility is the key to comfortable, convenient travel and standing up to the onslaught of new (and sometimes harmful) microbes to your system. Keep it regular and moving and you’ll have less of a chance of getting sick.
PACK LIGHT, DON’T OVERTHINK IT
Less is more. Pack light and you can move more freely. Don’t pack the extra nail polish or pair of shoes. Make room to travel unburdened. In most cases, you can always buy what you need on the road. Think Japanese-style simplicity.
“Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.” – Matsuo Basho
Travel is catharsis for the soul. Our world is such a small place in a vast universe, and yet full of wonder. Enjoy it with a body that feels good, feet that are light and a heart that’s happy. I hope the sun shines warmly on all of your travels.
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Vital Living Life 