Jim and I just returned from a three- week motorcycle ride out west.  In the past few years I have blogged during our yearly motorcycle journeys, but this year I wimped out and didn’t take the time to do it.  We traveled through Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico before heading home.  We saw evidence all around us of God’s amazing artistic masterpieces in the beauty of nature along the journey.  We also found some really fun twisty, curvy motorcycle roads as we traveled.   It was a great trip, but as always whenever we travel . . . it is very nice to be home. 

I am often asked how to stay on a healthy path when traveling.  Our kids are now grown and Jim is able to take a little extra time off of work, so we really enjoy traveling these days.   I actually find it to be quite easy to stay on track when away from home.  Of course, your mind-set and how determined you are to stay focused is the biggest hurdle.  Some people adjust and make more exceptions with their diet while traveling.  For me, it is important to stay as close to my usual routine as possible.  I am pretty sure that if I eat some of the foods that I don’t normally eat, I would get “hooked” and have a hard time taking them back out of my diet.  Some of these foods really are addictive and it can be hard to consume them occasionally without getting on some kind of yo-yo diet program.  I also just don’t feel drawn to eating the foods that helped me to get so sick years ago.  I don’t want to go back and experience that again!   For all of these reasons, it’s just not worth it to me to get off track.  However, each person has to decide how important it is to stay on a specific "plan" while traveling.  If you use vacation time as a time to relax and not be so focused, that is certainly an option.  If you really want to keep your health focus while traveling, don’t feel you HAVE to compromise.  Once you have made your mind up, it is not hard to eat healthy when traveling.

Mode of transportation will dictate some of your options.  When traveling by car, we usually take a cooler and a snack/picnic basket.  We start off with fresh produce, raw nuts and seeds, and some snacks like hummus, dehydrated crackers, and survival bars.  Sometimes I will even make a dehydrated granola.  We usually take enough freshly made juice to drink during the first couple of days.  We also make a quart of smoothie for each of us the night before we travel and put them in the freezer in quart canning jars.  The next morning we take them from the freezer and put them in insulated sleeves that you can get at camping/hiking/outdoor/sports stores.  We have our smoothie for lunch on the first day of our travels.  

We also pack some non-caffeinated herbal teas.  I like a blend of mint and rooibus and Jim likes a special herbal blend that tastes a little more like a traditional tea.  Rooibus tea is loaded with antioxidants, and yet it has no caffeine!  We carry all of these in our store at Abundant Living.  Jim takes some agave to put in his tea that we usually make every morning and I take some whole-leaf green stevia.  We use the quart jar from the smoothies that we eat on the first day to make a quart of tea for us to drink throughout the morning each day.  I pack some Barley Max and Spiralina and take these in the morning along with my herb tea (and usually take barley and spiralina again once or twice later in the day as well).  Once we have gone through all of our fresh juices, whenever hunger strikes in the morning I will usually have an orange or two.   Jim likes something a little more substantial, so he will often eat a bowl of oatmeal or a piece of fruit and some raw nuts at some point in the morning.    

At lunch, we will snack on what we have brought along with us in our picnic basket.  We replenish our snack bag along the way at health food stores, fruit stands and grocery stores.  I buy organic whenever available and pick the best options when we can’t get organic (which is often the case when traveling).  There are some foods that I just won’t buy unless they are organic, like strawberries and grapes due to high concentration of pesticides used on these foods.   I like to look for health food stores whenever I can find them, but don’t usually go too far out of the way when we are just passing through a town, so it is often several days between finding such options.   We have been known to buy a watermelon for lunch and stop by a road side park to eat it.  This is a great option to nourish and hydrate on a hot summer day when traveling. 

At dinner, we will find a restaurant that offers a nice dark green salad.  Occasionally, in some really small towns, this is not an option but most of the time it is not hard to locate an eatery that offers a good salad.   Most restaurants have a number of veggie options available on the menu to go with our salad, even when they don’t have a “vegetarian” section on the menu.  I sometimes will simply go to a grocery store or health food store and get salad fixings and take back to the hotel to make a nice salad when I am not thrilled over the food options that we have access to at local restaurants. We love Mexican style food, so some nights we will go for Mexican.  When we do this, I usually can’t get a salad (most Mexican restaurants don’t have dark green salads) so I either get salad fixings at a grocery store to eat prior to going out to eat, or just eat a few raw veggies before heading out.  When we eat Mexican, I get a veggie fajita and Jim gets a bean burrito.  We ask them to leave off the cheese and it makes for a nice veggie meal.  When we eat at an Italian style restaurant, we typically can get a really nice salad.  I don’t “do” wheat and stick with being mostly gluten-free, so I don’t eat the pasta, but can usually find steamed veggies to go with my marinara sauce.  Some restaurants will do“eggplant parmesan” without the cheese (so really, it’s eggplant with marinara sauce).  I love eggplant so this is a real treat for me!

This is pretty much our traveling routine.  We eat fresh foods throughout the day (that we have brought with us or we have gotten along the way) and we eat out at a restaurant where we can get some good, healthy options in the evening.  When we travel by motorcycle we do the same thing, but obviously have to take a bit less of our snacks and treats because we are more limited on space. 
It is always good to have a few things handy to snack on for times when you are not finding the best food options, regardless of how you are traveling.  When traveling by plane, we are the most limited in space for packing food, but I still find room to take some “survival” foods like nuts, seeds, flax crackers, dehydrated treats and/or survival bars.  I also will look online for health food stores to shop at and restaurants that offer vegetarian options, once we make it to our destination.   

Regardless of how we are traveling, I always keep an eye out for places to get freshly made juice.  Sometimes we find fresh juices available at health food stores, restaurants or juice bars.    Occasionally we will stop by 'Star Bucks' and have a non-caffeinated herbal tea with steamed soy milk and honey.  I like a combo of red bush (rooibus) and mint and Jim drinks mint by itself.  

Because we have traveled a good bit over the last couple of years, I can truly say that sticking close to your diet/lifestyle/health goals when traveling is not hard to do at all.  Of course there are also LOTS of options to do otherwise if that is what you choose.  Just know that it is a choice . . . don’t feel forced to eat foods that you know aren’t the best for you when you are traveling.  

One area that I have personally struggled with as far as traveling and health goes, is staying on an exercise program while traveling.  Some travels offer lots of opportunities for getting physical activity, but some of our travels do not.   I’ve recently begun traveling with my “Fit10” unit which is small enough to even take on my motorcycle, but is very efficient and effective at keeping me involved in at least a minimal amount of exercise while traveling (it takes 10 minutes or less to get a good overall workout).  This helps while away, but also makes it easier to get back to my regular routine when I return home.  It is also an amazing stretching tool so it is nice to have it with me for that puprose as well.  A little bit of thinking and planning ahead will keep you moving forward along your health journey . . . . even as you travel away from home! 

Blessings & Good Health To You,
Ginny

the journey continues " ~ I Peter 1:18