Eating and Traveling- starting off right

Whether you are taking a day trip, a weekend break, or a long vacation, traveling offers a supreme opportunity for relaxation and enjoyment. For many, traveling also invites unwanted situations contradictory to the joy and vibrancy of “getting away”- indigestion, malaise, lack of activity, a sense of laziness, overeating, constipation, stress, and irritability. Fortunately, there are some ways to help prevent these from happening. Here are some helpful tips heard from clients over the years:

“I often have to travel for work and leave on the early morning flights. In the past I used these times as an excuse to eat fast food and it helped me to look forward to getting up so early. But after learning the hard way time and time again, I finally admitted to myself that those breakfasts don’t make me feel good and completely throw off my whole day (moody, fatigue, more hungry than usual). On my last trip, I experimented with bringing leftovers as breakfast instead and it made a world of difference. I had more energy, felt healthier, and didn’t get as tired with all the travel. I’m going to do that from now.”

“In the past, I was hesitant to increase my awareness around meal timing. I thought that somehow greater awareness would draw me into rigidity or detailed planning which felt like the antithesis of “vacationing”. Surprisingly, just keeping in touch with my body allowed me to be more spontaneous because I didn’t have all the other pitfalls during the day- bouts of hunger, irritability, feeling overfull, etc.”

“My family and I go camping a lot in the summer and being a foodie, I have often used this as an opportunity to eat lots of “fun foods.” This is fun in a way, but actually it dampers my experience more than helps. I end up beating myself up by feeling guilty over my choices when I get back. Working with CPF this summer has helped me to realize that planning out balanced meals in addition to some of my favorite snack foods can feel good and I don’t have as much guilt. Now, when I have that hot dog, s’more, or crab mac and cheese, I really do enjoy it because it’s not just another junk food I have been splurging on. My body just feels better.”

"Most helpful for me, day trip or long vacation, is just remembering to stay hydrated!”

What’s your favorite tips and tricks to feeling your best when traveling?

Remember to Hydrate

It is warm! Keep the fans on and the water pouring. Here are some great ways to increase water consumption during this beautiful, hot weather we are having:

-          Keep two pitchers in the fridge (if you like cold water). When you finish one fill it up again but place it in the fridge behind the cooler one. This way you always have a cold pitcher of water ready

-          Cool and flavor your water: frozen fruits (berries or citrus wedges for example) can be a great addition to you water

-          Other delicious flavor enhancing ideas: mint, cucumber, lime, lemon, grapefruit, orange, and grapes sliced in half- fresh or frozen (grapes are really delicious to eat frozen by the way)

Aiming to have around 8 cups of water a day is a good goal (and more than that in hot weather or with increased activity).  To know if you are drinking enough water, a good marker is clear urine by lunch time. If it’s not clear, time to drink some more! Enjoy the heat with great hydration!

Back to School- Lunch

Just in time for school to start. Let's talk lunch and how to mix things up with sandwiches.

  Picture courtesy of Mark A. Hicks, illustrator

for Discovery Education's Clip Art Gallery.

Here are some great beyond-the-breadbox ideas from education.com on how to vary sandwiches while keeping the grain:

"Spice up your typical sandwiches by using different grain products instead of plain white bread:

• Different breads (9-grain, whole-wheat, spelt, kamut, sourdough)
• Rice cakes
• Plain or flavored bagels
• Whole-wheat buns
• English muffins
• Matzo crackers
• Pita bread"

For more on lunch for school see this post on our blog.

Cooking Corner

Tips and Tricks- grow it back!
 

Have you ever seen a potato in your house that started growing little buds out of it? How about that garlic bulb where small, green protrusions begin to poke out from one of the cloves? Have you noticed that whenever you purchase green onions they are usually sold with their roots?  Did you know that all of these items (plus leeks and others) can be planted to make new plants!? 

I did some experiments this summer that have been fun, successful, and useful. These experiments would be a great way to involve kids too (please read more posts about kids and food in our July and October posts of 2010 especially).

Today I will write about the Green Onion Experiment. As I continued to place roots of green onions in our compost bin, I wondered what would happen if I placed these in soil instead of tossing them. Low and behold, they grow! I discovered this years ago but I learned something new this summer (more below). I probably could have just looked on the internet to see if this would work and how to do it, but I just wanted to try it first. Here is some guidance:

-          Use green onions as usual for cooking but save the roots and about an inch of the white part of the onion.

-          In a pot or in soil in your yard, plant the root and small stem in the ground, roots down, a few inches deeps, cover with soil; water gently.

-          Let the green onion grow and cut the green portion as you need it, it will just keep growing.

-          Another option that I just discovered in the past two weeks! After the first bullet point above, place the roots with small stems into a jar with a small amount of water. I usually do this to keep the roots fresh until I can plant them. Well, this time around, it took me a lot longer than I thought to plant them. I set them in our window sill (that is on the way down stairs for me to remember to take them out to the garden).  I liked the jar sitting in the sill with the onion roots in it. It looked shabby chic plus I just wasn’t making the time to plant them. Well, I decided to just leave them there because they started growing great that way too! Take a look at these pictures: 

Exhibit A: Green Onions after Days in Jar

Exhibit B: Green Onions 2 Weeks Later!

I can’t wait to use them this weekend. In future cooking tips and tricks posts, I will share with you experience with leeks, garlic, onions, and salads even. We would love to hear your thoughts and experiences. Please share your posts below. Cheers!