While we were on our long road trip, Lindsay asked the following question:
I’m curious what you guys eat while you are on the road. Do you pack meals, or do you have a few “go-to” places that serve healthier food? Also, when you are visiting family/friends do you just put healthy eating on the back burner? I’ve gotten the impression that you value relationships with people more than being a stickler with healthy/real eating. So, what does that look like when you are visiting people and staying in their home? And if you do just eat whatever is served, how does that affect how you feel (physically)?
I decided to break down all the questions and answer them individually. So here goes!
I’m curious what you guys eat while you are on the road. Do you pack meals, or do you have a few “go-to” places that serve healthier food?
When we plan to only be on the road for one day, we can typically pack all of our food. This obviously means we can eat much healthier food, plus it keeps our costs much lower. (Eating out costs a minimum of $35 for our family – ouch!)
Here’s a list of 27 ideas I typically pick from when packing food for a trip. In addition, I pack a lot of fruits and vegetables.
Fruits and Veggies on the Go – read more!
Taking along fruits and vegetables has been so helpful in keeping us from feeling gross on a road trip. We munch on apples, clementines, berries, carrots, sweet peppers, and cucumbers along the way so that even if we do need to grab fast food, our stomachs don’t rebel as much. We are also careful to drink plenty of water. Well…I’ll admit to drinking a little less than normal to avoid taking quite as many potty stops. (“Mom, you pee all the time!” I’m not sure why they are still shocked about this.)
When we are on the road for many days at a time, it becomes significantly more difficult to pack food. Somewhere between Durango, CO and home, I snapped a couple pictures of the food in my lap to give you an idea of how we eat during long road trips.
Once I ran into a grocery store while Matt filled our van with gas (LOVING the lower prices on gas right now, by the way!). The deli section had a few items marked down that I grabbed. Some are compromise foods, but wow was this a tasty lunch. We enjoyed big salads with popcorn chicken, fresh raspberries, and sweet peppers. I also picked up some chips and fresh salsa for snacking later that day.
In an effort to keep our food stops quick, we do sometimes hit a fast food restaurant. Sometimes we get salads, but come on. Our family rarely goes to Chick fil a, so we really enjoyed our treat of chicken sandwiches and waffle fries.
That’s the beauty of eating out very rarely. When we do, it’s a treat. And yes, we do feel kind of bleh later. ;)
When you are visiting family/friends do you just put healthy eating on the back burner? I’ve gotten the impression that you value relationships with people more than being a stickler with healthy/real eating. So, what does that look like when you are visiting people and staying in their home?
When we are visiting others, we focus on enjoying fellowship and appreciating the hospitality of others – no matter what food is served. On this trip, we were served everything from farm fresh eggs or mixed green salad to canned cinnamon rolls or non-dairy whipped topping. We ate it all with gratitude. Actually, I didn’t eat it all. My system really can’t handle high amounts of sugar anymore, so I had to graciously decline some offerings. Like on the eggs and cinnamon roll morning, I just ate eggs and drank coffee with our hosts. No one questioned why I wasn’t eating rolls, and trust me, my boys ate my share. :)
During our extended stay in California, we were able to eat many delicious home-cooked and healthy meals – some prepared by me, many prepared by other loving hands. We also ordered pizza once to maintain the sanity of all the mothers trying to keep up with all the festivities. Balance is key, right?
If you do just eat whatever is served, how does that affect how you feel (physically)?
No doubt, our bodies do feel the difference in eating choices (and lack of activity) after a day or so. We’ve found that as long as we continue drinking plenty of water and find ways to sneak in fruits and vegetables, we do okay. Now that we’re home, we’ll get back to our regularly scheduled program of eating mostly whole foods.
Here’s a picture of our shopping cart yesterday when we got back home from being on the road for 12 days:
I had done some price matching on my phone during the 5,934 hours I had to sit and do nothing in the van. Most of what I found didn’t work to price match, but I did get four pineapple for $1.29 each, and golden delicious apples for just 68¢ per pound. Mixed greens, spinach, raspberries, blueberries, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, and zucchini came home with us, as well as some cheese, buttermilk, yogurt, and cream. Tonight we’ll pick up our farm fresh milk (can’t wait!) and get back to our normal dairy drinking and culturing.
Oh, and see the big turkey in my cart? More on that tomorrow, because obviously, you want to know all about my turkey.
So how about you? How to you eat when traveling? What works best for your family?
Michelle says
Thanks for this post! Very encouraging! We do similar things. We try to pick restaurants that have a variety of fresh veggies like sandwich places and The Pita Pit. I want to start packing our food more often when traveling so I will be checking out your links!
Laura says
Haven’t heard of the Pita Pit, but that sounds like a fun place! I forgot to mention that we stopped once at a Subway and I loaded my sandwich with veggies. It tasted SO good! I had never had cucumber slices on a sandwich before, but YUM! I’ll be doing that again. :)
Lana says
Subway is always our lunch stop when we travel! It really keeps us feeling better and we love the cucumbers on the sandwich, too!
Kari says
I did notice the turkey and I do want to know! :-)
Laura says
Cooked and deboned it yesterday, thinking of you the whole time – wishing you could be here to enjoy my carcass (and the soup that will go with it). :) The veggies you packed for us were wonderful for munching on as we entered Arizona and Colorado. Food tastes so much better when prepared in love. Miss you – hope you are resting and taking time to breathe now!!
Rebecca says
I have a 1 year old and 2 year old. My parents live 4 hours away and we make the drive at least once every 6 weeks. Currently I’ve been stopping at Panera for breakfast with them both to eat and to let them stretch their legs. I’d love to pack a breakfast, but they make a HUGE mess when they eat in the car and I find the trip goes much more smoothly when they can be out of their car seats for a bit. Right now it is freeeeeeeezing cold so stopping at a park is out. Any other suggestions for places to eat?
Laura says
I remember when ours were little – stopping to eat was easier at that point, you are right! Panera is a great choice! I’ll look forward to reading what others might suggest. :)
Anitra says
I agree… about the only breakfast I’ll pack for my 4-year-old to eat in the car is some form of sticky-spread sandwich (peanut butter & fruit on bread or waffles, cream cheese on a bagel) or dry cereal in a snack cup. It still gets messy. Stopping can save your sanity, and Panera at least gives you some healthier options. When we’re visiting my mom, there’s a Tim Horton’s nearby, so we often go there – gotta love that they have oatmeal as a breakfast choice, and fresh fruit!
The good news is that it does get better – my oldest is 6, and I can trust her with food in the car (usually).
Lana says
Chick fil A salads are delicious but have to admit to loving the less good for us stuff there. We do pretty much the same as your family. We carry cases of water and always pack plenty of apples. They keep well and we can eat one anytime we are feeling raw food poor. The problem I have food wise when we visit my parents is the crazy amount of salt that my Mom uses. I end up feeling gross and having swelled ankles and legs. I do not know what to do about that one. I ended up doing much of the cooking while we were there over Christmas because Mom was very sick and she was shouting from the recliner in the family room to make sure I salted everything well. :)
Laura says
Hahaha – “shouting from the recliner…” that cracks me up. Glad you were able to take care of the cooking during your stay – and hopefully control the salt a little bit too. :)
Julia says
I love that you put hospitality and relationships first. I’ve heard other people say “I won’t eat” certain things (everything from factory farmed meat to non organic veggies) and I feel that it is rude to be invited to someone’s home and not eat what is prepared unless it is a true allergy. I would probably not invite someone over who was that particular. God is in control! Thank you for this post.
Alicia says
We travel quite a bit and I make us a homemade version of Protein Boxes (Starbuck’s). I pack apples (sometimes I pre-slice and sometimes I take a small cutting board and knife), peanut butter, mini whole wheat bagels, cheese sliced into squares, hard boiled eggs, and grapes. Plus pistachios or almonds. Sometimes I change it up and pack veggies with hummus instead of the apples and peanut butter but hubs prefers the apples/PB. We usually stop and have one meal at a restaurant such as Cracker Barrel where I get the trout and he gets the meatloaf. We do not stop at fast food because it doesn’t sit well. We always take some Naked green juice and a case of water.
Karen Dee says
I am a Weight Watcher, so, I try to take a lot of healthy, low point foods with me so I can munch if I want. Subway is good and I really enjoy a Wendy’s baked potato with my whipped butter! :)
Meg says
Last summer I followed your example of cherry tomatoes, sweet little peppers, and carrots from a previous travel post for one long road trip and my husband loved it :) We also brought tortillas and peanut butter and jelly since he loves tortilla pb&js and kept the refrigerated items in a cooler with some cans of soda, which was a splurge since we don’t usually drink that. I think it made it a little less tempting to go to a fast food restaurant when we knew we had a cold soda waiting for us along with our healthy, affordable lunch.