Grokkin' on the Go: Road Trips

If you're not following  primal lifestyle, road trips may not be all that difficult, especially if you're not a picky-eater.  Before my Primal days, my go-to pit stop was Subway since they're one of the "healthier" fast-food chains...at least calorically speaking.  Once I transitioned to the Primal WOE, road trips required a bit more planning.  I'm on the road quite often, so I've been able to hone my Grokkin' on the Road skills quite a bit.  Hopefully, my lessons-learned will be helpful for you, too!


Food Options

• Intermittent Fasting: Okay, obviously this isn't really a food option.  It's a lack-of-food option.  Road trips do, however, provide a great opportunity to get in a good IF.  If you're going to be sitting on your butt for hours on end, you don't exactly need tons of fuel.  However, IFing simply isn't for everyone, nor does it work in every situation.  Personally, I have been on road trips where an IF is not a big deal, and I've been on others where even attempting to IF has made me miserable.  You have to decide what works best for you.  If you do plan to IF, make sure you keep plenty of water handy so you remain hydrated!  Remember, if you're not comfortable with IFing, then don't do it!

• Pack Snacks: This option is probably the most budget-friendly, but it requires that you plan in advance.  Of the three different options I describe here, this is the one I use most frequently.  But what type of snacks should you pack?  Well, that really depends on your own personal preferences.  Most often, I'll pack veggie sticks (carrots, peppers, and cucumbers) and some high-quality deli meats.  The key here is high-quality.  Most deli meats are full of icky ingredients like nitrates and fillers, so you'll want to avoid those.  The brands I trust most are Dietz & Watson and Applegate Farms.  Both of their websites provide full ingredients listings for all of their products, so do a bit of research before you head to the grocery store.  Fruit is another great option, but I typically don't pack fruit because it makes my hands sticky!  Depending on the length of the road trip, I sometimes also stock up on Primal-friendly convenience foods such as snack bars.  Here are some of my favorites:
• Tanka Bar - 12 Pack
• Larabar Blueberry Muffin -- 16 Bars
• Clif Kid Twisted Fruit Ropes, Variety Pack, 8 Strawberry, 8 Mixed Berry, 8 Grape, Pack of 24
• Fried Pork Rinds Plain 12-2 oz pkgs.
• Golden Valley Natural Organic Beef Jerky, Original, 3-Ounce Pouches (Pack of 8)
• Health Best Almonds Whole Raw, 15-Ounce Packages (Pack of 2)

• Eat at a Restaurant: This is a tough one when you're Primal, especially if you're looking for somewhere that's cheap and fast.  Still, it can be done!  Here's a list of my go-to places and the meals I choose there:
• Jimmy John's: You can get anything on the menu as an "unwich" meaning that it's served wrapped in lettuce instead of on bread.  All of the meat at Jimmy John's is natural, unlike the franken meats at Subway.  You can read a bit about JJ's dedication to fresh, real food here.  I most often order the "J.J. Gargantuan" which, as the name implies, is gigantic.  It's very satisfying!
• Chipotle: Order a salad or burrito bowl without the rice and beans.  Load up on the fajita veggies and your meat of choice.  Spring for the guacamole- it's worth it.  The only real drawback to Chipotle is that they use soybean oil in many of their foods, including the fajita vegetables.  Still, there are worse options out there, and eating a Chipotle once in a while will not kill you, I promise.  If you want to cut back on your expose to soybean oil, the pork is the only meat option that's not cooked in it.
• In & Out Burger: You can order your burger "Protein Style" which means that they wrap it in lettuce instead of bread (similar to JJ's).  I always order mine with two times the meat.  One skimpy burger just doesn't cut it.  You decide if you want to splurge on the sauces, but I order mine dry.
• Carl's Junior- I've actually never eaten here because this chain isn't in my area.  They do offer a similar option to In & Out's, except theirs is called the Low Carb Six Dollar Burger.  Same deal: a burger wrapped in lettuce with some fixings.
• In addition to the above, I also recommend non-chain restaurants that make Primal-eating easy such as sushi bars (order sashimi), Mexican restaurants (order fajitas sans the tortillas), and burger joins (just ask them to hold the bun).  You can also opt for places that serve salads, but be wary of ingredients!

Fitness Options

If you're stuck in a car for an eight-hour drive, fitness isn't exactly easy to come by.  Personally, I try to fit in a good Grok walk both before and after my drive, and I don't concern myself with much else.  Again, one day of low fitness will not be the death of you, and the Primal gods are very forgiving.  Still, if you simply need to get more activity in, it's possible!

• Plan regular breaks: Stop every hour or so at a rest area and walk around for 15 minutes.  Of course, this will make your road trip last much longer, but if fitness is super-important to you, take regular breaks.
• Squeeze your butt: That's right, I said it!  It's very easy to work your glutes while sitting around all day.  Just tense your hiney muscles for about 10 seconds, then relax for 10 seconds, and repeat as often as makes you happy.
• Tighten your abs: You can also do a mini-abs workout en route to your final destination.  Engage your abs for 10 seconds, relax for 10 seconds, rince and repeat.
• Other car exercises can be found here.

And that's that!  With a little bit of planning, staying Primal on the road is totally doable.  But don't forget...if you go off-track for one day, it's not the end of the world!  Car trips are torturous enough without worrying about food and fitness, so don't stress yourself out trying to be 100% Primal!

(Have some great ideas of your own?  Please share in the comments section!)


**This post is part of a blog carnival, hosted by Primal Toad here.**

Grokkin' on the Go: Overview

Let's face it.  Being a grok or grokette in a modern world isn't always easy.  Many of us are restrained 8 hours or more each day by a desk job.  While our ancestors spent those 8 hours hunting and gathering, and thus being active, our modern lifestyle and modern conveniences often do us more harm than good.  It seems that time often works against us.


Personally, I've found myself struggling a great deal over the past month.  I spent 16 days travelling abroad, and then came back to the states only to travel for an additional two weeks.  Now I'm in the throes of relocating for work, so I'm spending more hours than I would like in a car travelling from Ohio to Maryland and back again.  Staying committed to a Primal lifestyle, especially when surrounded by convenient, tempting, non-Primal foods is not an easy task.


Prior to leaving the country, I tried to plan as much as possible.  I sought advice from fellow groks and grokettes in various online communities and was repeatedly told that Grokkin' on the go is easy.  I was told to IF lots when travelling since I wouldn't be expending much energy anyway.  I was told to just order Primal foods at restaurants.  I was told to build mini-workouts in whenever I could.  All great ideas, but in the real world, they weren't working.


Staying Primal while travelling abroad is damn near impossible, as far as I'm concerned.  I wanted to try the local cuisine and not be restrained to only Primal-approved foods.  Where was the advice on how to handle that?  When I was travelling in the States, I spent much time with my BF's family who all but shove delicious non-Primal food in your face in order to make you feel welcomed.  Where's the advice on how to handle that situation?  IFing is not the solution to every problem.  And advice like "just eat Primal foods" doesn't work when your BF's mom makes you a fabulous home-cooked meal of non-Primal foods.


So I decided it was time to give some real-world advice.   And here it is:


Do the best that you can.


You don't always have to be perfectly Primal.  It's okay to eat sugar and grains once in a while.  The Primal gods will not smite you, I promise.


Still, it doesn't hurt to plan.  Based on my experiences over the past month of travelling, I've decided to formulate a Grokkin' on the Go survival guide.  Part 1, which I will post tomorrow, will focus on Grokkin' on the Go during road trips.  Part 2 will focus on Grokkin' on the Go while travelling abroad, or even vacationing for an extended period of time.


The reason why I'm not posting either of those guides tonight is because I want to make it abundantly clear that you need to give yourself a little leeway sometimes.  The first week I was abroad, I refused to eat anything non-Primal, and I was making myself crazy in the process.  I was depriving myself of a great cultural experience because I didn't want to go off-plan.  Eventually, my will-power broke down and instead of enjoying the local cuisine reasonably, I was binging on everything in sight.  If you deprive yourself, you'll set yourself up for failure.  


So you know what?  If you're travelling to Italy, you had better damn well have some pasta while you're there.  And if you're going to visit your grandma and she offers you a fresh-basked cookie, you had damn well better eat it.


Primal is not a religion.  It's a lifestyle.  And there needs to be wiggle-room in any lifestyle.  So when I post these guides over the next couple of days, remember just that.  They're guides.  They're not rules. What's important is that once your vacation comes to an end, you recommit yourself to the Primal lifestyle.  Don't let a vacation turn into a month-long excuse to eat crappy foods, like I did.  Treat yourself, but don't sabotage yourself.


At the end of the day, it's all about making choices that make you happy.  And sometimes, the choice that makes you happy just might not be the Primal one.

An Introduction

This blog is all about my journey following a Paleo/Primal way of eating.  I assume, if you're here, that you stumbled across this blog by searching for some information about the Primal lifestyle.  I don't claim to be an expert and I'm probably not the right person to explain to you how the Primal lifestyle works.  If you're looking for more information about becoming Primal or Paleo, please check out my links page for more information.


So what is this blog, exactly?  It's a place for me to share my trials and tribulations of following the Primal lifestyle.  Who knows what will happen along the way?


So who am I and how did I get here?  Well, that's a really, really long story.  I grew up in a household that didn't emphasize nutrition, so not surprisingly, I grew up very overweight.  By my teens, I weighed a staggering 265 pounds.  I've battled with various eating disorders over the course of my life, starting in high school when I tried starving myself to lose weight.  It wasn't a successful venture (surprise, surprise).  After I graduated from college in 2006, I decided enough was enough, and made a rela effort to lose weight.  Using extreme calorie restriction (we're talking less than 1000 calories per day) and intense cardio exercise I dropped over 100 pounds in less than a year.  I also awakened The Beast.  Extreme calorie restriction often leads to binges, and binge I did.  At first, my binges were rare, but then they became a regular occurrence.  I self-diagnosed myself with Binge Eating Disorder in 2008; in 2010, my BED was confirmed by a psychologist.  The Beast is something I still live with every day.


I hit an all-time low in November 2008.  I starved myself down to 145 pounds by eating only 300 calories per day.  The Beast sought revenge and by January of 2009, a mere two months later, I gained 40 pounds.  Maintaining a healthy weight, and a healthy relationship with food, has been a struggle ever since.


And then I heard about Primal.


Fast forward to February 2011.  I spent the past three-years yo-yo dieting and feeling miserable.  After a particularly bad binge-streak celebrating my boyfriend's birthday, I was at my wits end.  One night, the BF and I curled up on the sofa and watched the movie Fat Head on Netflix.  Suddenly, everything seemed crystal-clear.  I was addicted to carbs, and that addiction was not only stunting my weight-loss progress, but also making me unhealthy.  I decided it was time to do some research...and time to make some real changes.  No more quick-fixes.


On March 1st, I jumped into the Primal lifestyle head-first, and the first two months brought me amazing results.  I was healthy, I felt good, I was happy, I was no longer preoccupied with food, the Beast was kept at bay, and I was losing weight and inches rapidly.  It was amazing.  I finally found a lifestyle that worked for me.


And then everything went to hell.


The problem with the Beast is that it doesn't like to be locked away.  After graduating from graduate school, I treated myself to a trip to New Zealand, which knocked me out of the Primal routine.  The Beast was back.  Over the course of three weeks, I spent more days binging than not binging.  I'm too afraid to step on the scale to see the damage that I caused.  Now, here I am, recommitting myself to the Primal lifestyle and fighting tooth and nail to keep the Beast at bay.


And this is where you find me now.


When I started the Primal journey back in March, I kept a blog on SparkPeople.com, but I decided it's time to branch out to a wider community.  I hope that by reading this blog you'll find some good stories, some words of advice, and a real person to relate with.  I'm not perfect and I don't pretend to be.  I'm a real person trying to figure things out, and I'm inviting you to join me as I embark, once again, down the Primal Pathways.


Cheers!