Fun and healthy. They don’t need to be mutually exclusive.
No reason to take a break from healthy living just because we’re on vacation. This is an unhealthy habit to get into and truly not sustainable. In fact, most of us have been living this way for most of our lives. We “push our health forward” by making excuses as to why we deserve to have that last cookie, that delicious ice cream cone or a sweet piece of cake.
Just this one time. I’m on vacation. I’m camping. I’m celebrating.
Clean and healthy eating is a lifestyle, not just something we should do on occasion. We’ll never achieve the level of health we want if we continuously push our health forward. Our behavior was trained with sweet rewards when we were children and we have continued this habit well into our adult years. Problem is, we do this over and over and over and eventually we end up in an unhealthy place before we know it. It’s not our fault, originally, but we have the power to change it now.
Eventually—if we continue to push our health forward—we’ll end up in a great rear-end health collision crisis and never know that what hit us from behind—was ourselves.
Something to ponder, yes?
How To Eat Healthy While Camping
Bring: satiating and satisfying foods—
- Minimum of 1/2 gallon of spring water per person/per day for drinking
- Crudités – carrots, peppers, celery, cherry tomatoes, etc.
- Guacamole – make fresh! Mash an avocado with garlic salt and viola! Use with crudités.
- Salsa and/or salsa verde – serve with crudités or nonGMO tortilla chips.
- Hummus- serve with crudités or nonGMO tortilla chips.
- Tapenade- serve with crudités or nonGMO tortilla chips.
- Hard boiled eggs – individual snacks or turn into deviled eggs.
- Avocados and whole grain rustic bread. (See healthy ideas below).
- Grilled chicken cut into strips or drumsticks.
- Homemade trail mix – a mix of healthy nuts and small about of dried cherries.
- Shrimp boil (See healthy ideas below.)
Don’t Bring: empty calories and high sugars and carbs—
- Soda or pop of any kind (especially diet, as artificial sugars cause more sugar cravings.)
- Yogurt – there are many fake sugars in yogurts. And inulin – which cause digestive issues. To get your probiotics – buy high quality supplements. https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/lweisen
- Power bars; high in concentrated sugars, soy and fillers.
- Store bought fruit juice; high in concentrated sugars
- Limit fruit; I know I know…we think fruit is really healthy. And it is, in moderation. Your TOTAL sugar consumption should be less than 20 grams per day. This includes fruit. Start counting your grams.
- Sugary mixers like Margherita mix or daiquiri’s.
- Buns, rolls, bagels, doughnuts, etc. Skip the empty carbs.
Shrimp Boil: 1 bag of peeled and deveined shrimp, thawed. 5 ears of corn cut into 2 inch chunks. 1 pound of small red potatoes, quartered. Old Bay seasoning. Bring a very large stockpot of water to a full rolling boil. Carefully add 6 Tablespoons Old Bay seasoning (watch so it doesn’t foam over when adding). Add potatoes, lower flame, cover and cook for 4 minutes. Add corn and boil both for 12 more minutes or until all are tender. Turn heat off, add shrimp cover and cook for 4-5 minutes or until shrimp is no longer gray. Dump entire contents through strainer. Line the picnic table with a vinyl tablecloth and newspaper and dump shrimp boil onto table. Sprinkle with more Old Bay, grab your napkins and dig in! This is great as a leftover snack!
Avocado Egg Toasts With Pomegranate: Slice a few pieces of high quality whole grain bread and toast on the grill or griddle. Layer a mashed avocado and halved hard boiled egg on top. Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds and nosh!
Tip! Save the leftover pomegranate seeds and add to your guacamole. So delish!
Eating healthy can be fun and satisfying. It just takes a little creativity!
