Traveling Healthy with a Family

You know, it’s one thing to feed your family healthy at home, or do a cleanse, or a smoothie challenge, but what do we do when we will be on the road, away from home for a few days, we’re on a budget, and we’re taking kids with appetites.  The following are some ideas that work for us.  You may have different favorite foods or a different ability to treat. The idea is to make travel work for you and your family and stay healthy while having a little fun together.

In the past, this was daunting, and I’ll admit, it has kept me in place more than once.  I’m a single, stay-at-home, home-schooling mom, and for us, it’s a treat to go out to eat as a family, let alone take all of us, every meal, every day, for a few days.  That is out of the question.

Recently, my son played in a three-day chess tournament several hours away from home.  This is his one true love, so we found a way to go.  He has a very supportive grandmother, who sent money to cover gas and motel.  I am grateful for that.  But we wondered what we would do about the food?  It is not always so easy on some of us to eat change our diet when traveling.

Last spring, I took my four teens to a convention for four days, and we found a few things that worked for us.  Remembering what we did, I put some things together for the chess tournament.  This time there would be three of us traveling–my 22 year old daughter, and my 15 year old son, and myself.

First, water.   The water, to us is very important.  We drink a lot of it, and do better if we can maintain our regular habits away from home, as much as possible.  We gathered several one-gallon glass jugs and filled them with the water we usually drink.  You may have an R/O filtering system, or do something with distilled, or run yours through some special machine.  Maybe you just have an on-tap or pitcher filter.  I think it is better to drink something at least as clean while you are on the road, as you do at home, so we took several gallons with us.  We took about a gallon per person, per day—maybe a little less.

My son was going to be in tournament play most of the time, and wasn’t going to want to go out to eat anywhere, so we took a soft lunchbox, and started a list of easy things to stock it, that he would eat.

I was near the end of the St. Patrick’s green smoothie challenge and wanted to keep going.  We have taken green smoothies on the road with us before, and they were a lifesaver.  So, we blended up all the greens in the house and filled one- quart glass jars, which we put on ice in our five-day ice cooler in the car.  The rest of the cooler was filled with whatever veggies we had on hand.  Carrots, celery, broccoli, lemon, and a supply of organic apples and pears my daughter had picked up for .97/lb. at the natural foods store she drives past on the way to and from her college classes each day.  The cooler was stuffed.  I threw some baggies of sunflower seeds I had on hand on top of the water jugs, and my son found a couple of cans, yes, I said cans, of pinto beans with flip tops he could snack on in the car. We eat a lot of raw food, but I do buy something quick sometimes.

I also took enzymes, which help me, a small canister of dulse, which is yummy, a canister of  raw wheatgrass powder, some organic apple juice, and a superfood drink I was trying.

Most of the trip, we ate out of the ice chest.  One evening, my daughter and I ate at an organic salad bar.  There was a breakfast buffet at the motel, which was different that any I had eaten at before.  We were seven miles from the U.S./Mexico border, and they served plain pinto beans along with the usual selections for breakfast.  So, we all had bowls of beans in the mornings to get started, and ate our veggies and drank smoothies later in the day.

We had a great time.  The water lasted, we ate healthy, and we all came home feeling at least as good as we did when we left.  I am looking forward to next time.