After indulging in my mom’s home cooking over the break, I am ready to get back on track. My only problem with vacations and road trips is taking my cravings with me when I return home. It’s fine to treat yourself on trips with unhealthy foods you normally wouldn’t eat, as long as you can jump right back on the healthy wagon afterwards. Eating an entire tub of ice cream on vacation might be a little overboard, but diving into a hot fudge Sunday is a well deserved treat if you practice a clean diet and active life on normal days.
After eating like crap, I like to cleanse my body with clean food and nutrient rich meals to detox my body from the junk. Because I tend to take my cravings home with me after vacation, this cleanse will help me get back on track. This isn’t a dangerous cleanse or calorie restriction cleanse. I couldn’t imagine eating apples and sipping on green tea for a week. It’s three days of completely clean eating and exercise to help me get back on my healthy lifestyle.
Don’t feel guilty or discouraged after indulgences. Everything is reversible. If you gain a couple pounds on a trip, who cares? Don’t get discouraged and go in the wrong direction. Pick yourself back up and get back on track.
I made sure to eat as healthy as possible on my 20 hour drive home yesterday. Eating healthy on the road is hard. The drive is so boring and there isn’t much to think about other than your stomach. I didn’t pack much before the trip as I usually do. I had to make gas stations and fast food stops work.
We took off around five am to head to Georgia. I scarfed down two cups of coffee and four large egg whites with my parents before we hit the road. A couple hours down the road, I stopped to get gas. I was hungry, so I bought a light yogurt and a cup of fruit at a gas station. I found that if you choose gas stations that are connected to grocery stores, they have fresh options. The grocery stores usually send over the fruit or vegetables for their coolers. And if you don’t mind eating day old fruit, it’s much cheaper.
A couple hours later, I grabbed a peach that was hiding in the bottom of my travel bag from the day before. Sounds delicious right?
Our next gas station stop was around 11 am. Surprisingly this gas station had Chobani yogurt and bananas. I grabbed both. Choosing high protein and fiber snacks is a great choice. The two keep you full and energized longer.
Plain Chobani isn’t meant for eating by itself, so I cut up the bananas and mixed in my Aronia Berry Puree. I didn’t think twice before I left the gas station and forgot a spoon.
After passing over a 100 billboards with: Mcdonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Arby’s, Long John Silvers restaurant signs, I thought we’d never find something semi-healthy to eat. We were both trying to eat better after the weekend. I was tempted just to pick up a bunch of items from the gas station. Finally we came to a little town in Missouri that had a Panera Bread…score!
I ordered the pick two and a fruit cup. For one of my picks, I ordered the classic salad with the Asian dressing on the side…even though they gave me balsamic 😉 I’m not one to go back and ask for what I ordered. I use to work at a cafe when I was in high school and every time someone came back to point out that I made a mistake, I felt bad. I promised myself to never do that to others. Their balsamic is really good anyways.
For my other pick, I chose the Mediterranean veggie. Instead of the tomato basil bread, I had them put it on wheat because it has more fiber. This sandwich was delicious. I want to make my own version for dinner sometime.
For the next three days, I am going to start my morning with a protein smoothie and an egg white omelet with vegetables. To get my caffeine fix, I had a cup of coffee with 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk and 1 packet Stevia.
For fiber and protein, I made an egg white omelet. I used four egg whites, spinach, squash and seasoned it with garlic powder, black pepper and onion powder.
For lunch, I’m going to make another protein smoothie with a spinach salad. My salad will have: 3 cups spinach, 1 large orange bell pepper, raw almonds, poppy seed dressing, fresh cooked shrimp, blackberries, snap peas and edamame.
I am a huge snacker, so I put together a bunch of snack ideas. I want to keep everything fresh, high fiber, and nutrient packed. I am also going to make sure to drink a lot of water. I like to squeeze lemon in my water for natural flavor.
This cleanse has no limits to “how much” you can eat. If I’m hungry, I’ll eat. If I’m full, I won’t. It’s about listening to your body.
For dinner, I am going to have two large servings of vegetables, one serving of lean protein and a starchy vegetable. Starchy vegetables always help my late night sweet cravings go away. They also provide energy for my light night workouts. I will most likely have a bowl of berries and almonds later in the night when I get hungry, instead of my usual dark chocolate chips and popcorn.
The number one thing to push me back on track, exercise! Here is what my three day exercise routine will look like with this cleanse.
I plan on continuing this cleanse for the next three days. Then returning to my normal healthy living lifestyle.
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