Road Trippin'

I've been driving from just North of San Francisco east....since last Tuesday (10/1). Heading to the small town of Crawfordsville, IN via Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakoka (in Sioux Falls, SD for the night)... In a few days, I'll make it to Crawfordsville and in a week, I'll head back on a more southern route. This is my longest roadtrip solo....I'm loving it. I love the solitude, the varied scenery, the changing weather (heavy snowfall in early October???) despite not being able to get into or drive thru Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, etc. 

Roadtrips were always food centric for me.... always about junkfood piled upon junkfood... stopping at dives, buying more crap at gas stations, if I saw a sign about food, it was Game On!

I had my VSG surgery on 3/13/13. I still have 80 lbs to lose.... Here's how I've been handling this road trip (2 weeks on the road...1 week at my brothers): 

Here's the list of what I have with me....in a week, I've only bought 3 meals. I often take a hardboiled egg or such if the hotel offers it...or an apple. Otherwise...I skip all the oatmeal, pancakes, pastry, toast, cereal, etc. 

I've had an easy time of it... when I ran into much colder conditions than anticipated, I picked up some warmer pants, a fleece jacket...etc.... XLs.... there are not a lot of stores around in some of the areas I've been in. When I was larger, it would have been a much bigger problem to try to find clothes on the fly.... I know many of you can relate to that. What a relief to be able to find clothes in a pinch that fit and kept me warm. I had years of making due with clothes that were too warm or too cold for the weather I was in, just because I couldn't readily find suitable clothing in my size. 

I made sure my hotels (usually Comfort Inn/Suites, Quality Inn, Motel 6, Fairfield Inn, etc) all had a refrigerator (I did find an adaptor for my car fridge so I can plug it into a standard outlet if the hotel doesn't have a fridge...only ran into that with Motel 6) and a microwave (for warming up leftovers and my morning Premier Protein).

Here's what I brought for my trip: 

I have a cooler that plugs into my car...keeping things cool (can even keep things warm, but I never use that feature).

Large coffee cup 

Premier Protein Drinks (1 per day)

Vitamins (each days bagged up in ziplock snack bags)

jerky (single portion packets)

1/2 dozen light string cheese (I just took what I had in my fridge at home)

Light & Fit Greek Yogurt (100 calories each) again....just took what was in my fridge. Six or so.

Quest Bars....I cut a bunch in half...I eat one half a day. 

2 rubbermaid sandwich size containers that are microwave friendly for leftovers. 

Starkist (or competitor) foil bags of tuna & salmon. I can always through one on a restaurant side salad. 

Syntrax Mint Cookie protein powder. 

Some packets of protein hot cocoa and chicken soup. 

Miralax. 

Some utensils & a dish towel. 

Really...it's been easy. Easier to do as a solo traveler though...it would be harder if my boyfriend was with me. I'd have to sit in restaurants and have to deal with looking at food I wasn't going to eat. Aside from all that time I no longer have to spend in restaurants.... I've also saved a lot of money by providing my own food... of course, the savings went into clothing purchases. 

I saw a frozen custard place today...we don't have those where I'm from. Before WLS, I would have been all over that and then would have picked up tons of junk to eat afterward.... 

I just feel more sane... not constantly chasing the carb craziness...and beating myself up for the results. 

I thought I'd post and share what's been working for me. I've done great....only one night did I indulge in some popcorn the hotel was offering. Not bad at all for a weeklong roadtrip. Lightyears, universes of lightyears better than any previous roadtrip I've undertaken. 

Happy Travels!

Sandra

 

 

 

 

Your post was timely for me - I'm doing a 2-day roadtrip myself starting Friday, from Detroit Lakes, MN to Fort Worth, TX!  I actually do it twice a year since I spend my summers here in lovely MN.  I loved my plug-in cooler, but it was too big to make the trip with me this year, so I'm going to have to make do with a couple of smaller ones - one to hold my frozen food (rhubarb from my garden, raspberries from my friend's garden) and one to hold my fresh food.  My brother made me some homemade jerky (it's really good, really easy to make, and I know what the ingredients are) for the road, and I have some light string cheese (Frigo is the BOMB!), along with some Dannon Light and Fit Greek yogurt.  I also have some leftover prosciutto, which will be good wrapped around my string cheese.  

You've given me some good ideas for what else to bring!  It used to be much easier when there was a Wendy's on practically every exit - their chili is a good choice.  

Enjoy the rest of your roadtrip - I wish I could say that I enjoy mine as much as you do yours, but the scenery just isn't that great!

 

Wonderful post, Sandra! You've given all of us great ideas for how to use our sleeve while traveling. Happy trails!