ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
One of the most frequent questions we get on email, facebook, and on www.itsmynow.com surrounds how to STAY in the zone of eating clean and ItsMyNow principles when eating OUT or TRAVELING! We’ve given a few tips here and there, but we haven’t really taken a stand on EXACTLY how to do it. Why? Because we kept fumbling it up ourselves! (with accountability comes honesty- LOL). WE KNEW what to do! We PLANNED each trip with good snacks. We’d even occasionally take shakers and protein mix on the road when we were gone for more than a week at a time. But we’d either UNDER eat and shake our metabolism (negatively) or overeat a good snack (nuts) or just cave and roll back into old restaurant habits then come home for ‘recovery’. Recovery from a sugar-sweet binge or a few days of travel with poor choices is a TWO WEEK RECOVERY! Just to get BACK to where we were before leaving. SO FRUSTRATING! Talk about two steps forward and four back. We’d had the setback so many times, we have known that we HAD to capture success in this area. What does that mean? Well, in essence, it means KNOWING and DOING!
Success on the road has FIVE ELEMENTS!!
1. KNOWLEDGE-- understanding the BIG 5 and putting that knowledge into daily menu choices
2. TRACKING – even on the road, (ESPECIALLY on the road) so that the old habit of mentally downplaying reality of numbers doesn’t repeat
3. ACCOUNTABILITY- Yes, the ‘A’ of ABC--- Breaking the habit of checking in when on the road is almost like ‘permission’ to ‘get away’ with something.
4. PLANNING- When traveling, planning and preparation IS a critical key to Success.
5. DISCIPLINE- You’ll be around other people who ARE NOT on ANY plan. They’ll order yummie appetizers and decadent desserts and sugary beverages! The choice you make IN ADVANCE will be the choice you make. Because the choice you make in the moment (as with ANY choice) may be compromised by emotions, feelings, and environment.
Well, Angie and I both had upcoming road trips a week apart. Hers was to Orlando. Mine to Lexington, KY. Both a drive in the car. I have to say that her trip sounded harder as she was driving four 23-year-olds who had brought home-made brownies, bags of cookies and junk food for the ROAD TRIP! Fortunately, I was driving alone with NO tempting treats from skinnie, crazy eating, fun ‘kids’! LOL.
So... let’s take Angie’s trip.
My trip wasn’t as tempting, but Angie DID reciprocate the ACCOUNTABILITY with me. I looked at the schedule of the conference and calculated where I might need a snack. I took:
1/8 c. pre measured nut mix that I make (walnuts, pecans, almonds, pistachios and dried cherries—all with light salt and no added oils)
1 Jordan Rubin Power bar and 1 Gnu food Fiber Bar
I left the house @ 10 a.m. with a shake in the car for a 2.5 hour drive. When I arrived near 1, I ate the protein bar.
During rehearsal near 3:40, I ate one baggie of my nuts. Then at 5:45, the company provided dinner which included salmon (delicious, but I scraped off the sauce, cut it in half to be @ 3 oz, moved it off the mixed rice) and ate ALL the salad with squeezed lemon and pepper vs. the offered dressing and ALL my steamed veggies. That night there was a party with food. Normally I don’t eat at these events because I’m taking pictures or talking with people! And this was the case. When I got back to the hotel room, I was starving, BUT, I chose to go to bed on an empty stomach.
The next morning I taught at 9. I had coffee as I dressed. Although BREAKFAST is my largest meal at home, I don’t like to eat before I teach, especially at 9 a.m., so as SOON as I finished teaching, I went back stage where they had bagels, Danish, and melon! I selected 2 pieces of melon and ate my Gnu Fiber bar. Yummie. The Company prepared lunch once again had salad, chicken (removed covering and rice) and vegetables. (Does it go unsaid that I didn’t touch the bread basket or the dessert that sat 1 foot from my face the entire meal?)
I left Lexington close to 4:30 p.m. knowing that Thomas would want to go to dinner as soon as I hit Bowling Green, so I grabbed a Skinnie Latte from Starbucks on my way out of town for the drive, (there are 16g protein in the skim milk from that!). So, really a BREEZE! BUT, only because ... well because ANGIE had done it so successfully the weekend before. And because I really DID have the FIVE elements in motion. (PLUS I was on about day 25 sugar FREE and I am committed to going the distance!)
When you’re stuck, have some ‘GO TO CHARACTER TRAITS’ that you can feel proud of sticking to!
1. When you have an option, get the grilled, baked, broiled, poached or steam fish, chicken.
2. Choose vegetable based soups if they are an option. They’re filling, and low in calorie. AVOID ALL CREAM BASED sauces or soups.
3. Always order a salad and vegetables (dry) and/or with the dressing on the side. If you can order balsamic and olive oil, use a T of each to sprinkle on. OFTEN, I’ll use a squeeze of lemon and pepper! You GET used to it! And you actually taste the vegetable vs. the sauce!
4. Always order a salad and vegetables (dry) and/or with the dressing on the side. If you can order balsamic and olive oil, use a T of each to sprinkle on. OFTEN, I’ll use a squeeze of lemon and pepper! You GET used to it! And you actually taste the vegetable vs. the sauce!
5. Know some fast food options that are IMN friendly on the road when FAST is the only option. (I was able to give Angie the totals of WENDY’S small and large chili as well as the grilled chicken salad without dressing so she could add the TOTALS to her day). There are some iphone aps that are VERY helpful. Mine is called RESTAURANTS and it does detail the more popular fast food options.
You know, we are all about the business of living our lives FULL OUT! And that includes travel as well as other people who don’t eat the way we do (although there is ALWAYS conversation about it as others watch! Curiosity and Admiration!). For so long (and I still am tempted to stay grounded), I just didn’t want to travel OR go out to eat because it wasn’t as ‘reliable’ as I was learning how to do the numbers and make a day effective. BUT, after 15 months, we are starting to ‘get it’ at new levels. AND, we are learning that we can TRUST ourselves in situations we would have failed in a year ago. What’s the difference? Well, you may get tired of hearing it, but ACCOUNTABILITY and TRACKING have truly brought us into a whole new way of looking at food in the course of a day.
Some EASY on the road snacks
Apple/Banana
Weight watches moz cheese stick
20 almonds (pre measure in a baggie)
Turkey Jerkey (great source of protein)
A Protein shake to go using the SHAKER
(for sale on www.itsmynow.com )
Protein Bars (Jordan Rubin GARDEN OF LIFE)
Fit Smart Bar
Gnu Food Fiber bar
*watch hidden sugars, ingredients you cannot pronounce
