How To Stick to Your Meal Plan on Vacation

What’s the most important thing in comedy?  I don’t- TIMING.  What’s the most important part of show prep for a bodybuilding competition?  FOOD.

And in case there was any question about the importance of food thing, there was this cryptic text from my trainer (in all caps):

EAT RIGHT.  TIME IS LIMITED.

So it was a bit of a comedy of errors for us to take a family vacation to Disneyland when I am only five (5) weeks away from my next competition.  But I am up for the challenge!

THE PLAN

Planning was essential in a situation like this.  The criteria:

  • Must be healthy mix of protein, carbs and fats and vegetables
  • Must be portable
  • Must be able to stay fresh during a 22 hour drive and 1 week visit

Here’s what I packed:

Protein:

  • Turkey and veggie meatballs

    Turkey and veggie meatballs
    Turkey and veggie meatballs
  • Hard boiled eggs
  • Egg whites
  • Protein powder

Carbs (with some protein too)

  • Quest Bars
  • Greek yogurt (80 calorie serving)
  • Plain rice cakes
  • Baggies of brown rice

    baggie of brown rice
    baggie of brown rice
  • Baggies of sweet potatoes

Fats

  • Peanut butter
  • Whole roasted almonds

    Peanut butter rice cake
    Peanut butter rice cake

Vegetables/Fruits

  • Green beans (steamed)
  • Raw spinach
  • Cucumbers
  • (Also red and green peppers and onions were cooked into turkey meatballs)
  • Apples
  • Carrots

Misc:

  • Reduced-sugar ketchup
  • Salt
  • I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter spray
  • Packets of Stevia
  • Packets of sugar-free vanilla creamer
  • Shaker bottle (for protein shakes)
  • Insulated bag for my immediate foods

    The essentials of travel food
    The essentials of travel food
  • Giant bag (matching patter, ’cause I’m like that) for kid snacks and my dry foods

    Big bag of snacks
    Big bag of snacks

Vacation cheat meals

  • Once a day I’ll eat a small portion of restaurant food with my family.  I just need to make good choices and no dessert.

You know, every time someone cheats on her meal plan, a fairy dies.  Let’s keep the fairies alive.

View from the Peter Pan ride
View from the Peter Pan ride

THE REALITY

The following pre-packed foods did not survive:

  • Spinach.  It wilted and got STINKY!
  • Ditto for the baggies of brown rice and sweet potatoes
  • The cooked green beans lasted for as long as the ice did, but once that melted the greens turned yellowish-nasty

Everything else survived.  Yay!  It helped that there is a refrigerator at the hotel.

Ah, refrigerators!
Ah, refrigerators!

It’s five days into the vacation, and so far so good.  While my kids ate cotton candy, I had turkey meatballs.  While my kids (and husband) ate ice cream, I had Greek yogurt.  The Quest Bars, almonds and apples helped a lot.

Eating healthy on vacation
Eating healthy on vacation

Only one fairy bit the pixie dust during this trip so far.  (My husband bought a giant hot fudge sundae with three flavors of ice cream, whip cream, and two chocolate chip cookies…I ate the cookies.  Sorry, fairies.

Lisa 😉

Lisa Traugott is a Mom’s Choice Award winning writer, fitness blogger, wife and mom of two.  Her book, “She’s Losing It!”  is available at Amazon.com.High Resolution Front Cover.4837209

ShesLosingIt.com (c) 2015 Lisa Traugott. All rights reserved. No portion of this blog, including any text, photographs, video, and artwork, may be reproduced or copied without written permission.

 

3 thoughts on “How To Stick to Your Meal Plan on Vacation

    1. Thanks! The owl bags are from Thirty-one. My friend, Shannon Burl, is a sales rep for them. If you search for her on Facebook she can send you info.

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