Sneaking Health in Unexpected Places: The Road Trip

Few things feel as sweet as road trips, with breezy weather and your favourite person in the next seat.  Perhaps this is why we sometimes enable four wheels to derail our diets. But it is possible to eat as well in the car as you do at home - perhaps even better. 

Plan to get to your destination without indigestion. If the road is your destination, even more excuse to enjoy the scenery rather than the aftereffects of a neon slushy. 

If you plan ahead:

1) Bring candied ginger. Besides being a sweet treat, it can help curb nausea if someone in your vehicle gets motion sick with winding roads. This is sometimes hard to predict, so better be safe and prepared. Worse comes to worse, you’ve got a much better alternative to gas station confectionary.

2) Bring a cooler filled with your healthy fridge – carrots, hummus, and bottled water.  Bring bags of cherries or your favorite fruit, as well as sandwiches and iced coffee. If you have kids, you can never have enough paper towel. 

3) Bring non-perishables, especially if you're going without the cooler. Homemade trail mix, granola bars and containers of unsweetened applesauce will help to curb stomach grumbles that may lead to pulling over to way too many rest stops.

4) Throw running shoes and running gear into the back seat.  Stop in a small town and run all the way through it.  An easy and free way to cure tired legs and restless minds.

If your motto is “life is a highway” and you would rather eat on the go:

1) Bring your healthy eating habits on the road. If you go to a coffee shop for breakfast, ask if it is something you would eat at home.  From time to time, a donut is a nice treat. A few days in a row, however, and you’ll be giving your body an expected early morning sugar shock. This can become a tough habit to break, even after one week. 

2) If you stop at a rest stop or a gas station, do not buy something that never expires. Food is supposed to be whole to be able to break down in our digestive tracts with ease. If food has an expiry date years from now, imagine how it will be treated in your own gut. This is hard work for your body and if you are not moving, even harder. Choose something that has recognizable ingredients.

3) Portion control. Sometimes it doesn’t feel so wonderful being the person eating the salad when your family is eating burgers. Order a small burger. Do not load it, and perhaps have a salad instead of fries on the side. Order water. Choose your vice, rather than your vices. One at a time.

4) Those who aren’t driving can car dance, can do car yoga, and can get creative stretching and moving. Switch it up so everyone gets a chance to give Nicky Minaj true competition. Wigs optional.

Bon voyage.

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Courtney Sunday has two cats and a boyfriend who are very patient with her health and wellness obsessions. She teaches yoga, Pilates and indoor cycling and gives Thai massages through her Toronto business Om at Home Yoga. When she is tuckered out, she takes up the sport of sleeping.