Found one of my “triggers” - road trips

snemberton
snemberton Posts: 175 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Husband and I are doing some traveling this weekend. It’s the first big road trip since I started tracking calories. I fully expected to eat at maintenance or maybe a small deficit, as we were going to be going out to eat with family on our stops and such. So that I was mentally prepared for.

What I didn’t realize is how much my brain automatically associated long road trips with junk food snacks. I’ve had the worst cravings all day for awful high calorie junk. I’ve been able to refocus and be overall ok, but dang. I never realized the attachment I had to junk food on road trips! First time all of this has been truly “difficult” for me.

Guess I need to retrain my brain a bit for this. I don’t mind caving a little, since I’m not on the road like this all that often, but I want to be careful and not spoil most of my week’s deficit on some cupcakes and candy bars! LOL

Replies

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,893 Member
    Could you try to find something interesting to do? regular stops at interesting location? reward yourself with those instead of with food.
  • motivatedmartha
    motivatedmartha Posts: 1,108 Member
    I live a 5 hour drive from 'the rest of the world' and when visiting family and friends would consume bags of toffee and enjoy icecreams throughout the journey. I now also use fruit. I grab grapes or oranges which my husband and I share throughout the journey - serves to provide a sweet hit and moisture while driving. Lunches are usually salads or sandwiches from chains so that I can more accurately log (I often intend but rarely actually pack a lunch). I am eternally grateful for pay at pump petrol stations; no need to run the gauntlet of goodies to pay for fuel!
  • snemberton
    snemberton Posts: 175 Member
    yirara wrote: »
    Could you try to find something interesting to do? regular stops at interesting location? reward yourself with those instead of with food.
    That’s technically what I did. I fit one small candy bar into my calorie count for the day and even with splurging a little on Mexican food with my family at dinner, I still had a small overall deficit.

    I am pretty strong willed and very motivated to make all this a lifestyle change, rather than a diet. I was able to overcome them, but I didn’t realize that was one of the triggers where I needed to make adjustments. With everything else so far, I’ve been able to make adjustments to my eating habits with minor effort. This one was significantly different. Took a lot more mental strength to bypass the cravings, but I did. Two more days on the road, but I should be ok. I know what snacks I can swap, just have to tamp down the cravings.

    It also isn’t a reward type thing. Every road trip my entire life apparently involved chips, sodas, cookies, candy, nuts and such. If we didn’t plan on stopping somewhere to purchase, we brought it along. It is so interesting how I never realized that I completely associated long drives with junk food. I know road trips are infrequent enough that I can likely be fine to splurge down the road when I’m not focused on a deficit, but I really don’t want to put a dent in my progress right now if I can help it.
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
    Another tip, get up early and walk or run. Banks a deficit, and makes it easier to sit for stretches of time. I also guzzle water and build in extra time for potty breaks. But it’s nice to walk around every few hours.
  • shnell25
    shnell25 Posts: 49 Member
    I am the same way. When we stop for gas I automatically think let me get some snacks. When I’m eating them I think I don’t even really want this.

    So now I try to plan ahead for road trips and pack granola and fruits and veggies that I can munch on so that I can reasonably indulge on vacation.
  • haviegirl
    haviegirl Posts: 230 Member
    I have the same problem. Road trips=Cheetos puffs for me. And rolls of sweettarts. Or gummy bears. Last week I had a 6 hour road trip, both ways. I kept things down pretty well, but it was a struggle!
  • snemberton
    snemberton Posts: 175 Member
    shnell25 wrote: »
    I am the same way. When we stop for gas I automatically think let me get some snacks. When I’m eating them I think I don’t even really want this.

    So now I try to plan ahead for road trips and pack granola and fruits and veggies that I can munch on so that I can reasonably indulge on vacation.
    Lots of truck stops and gas stations now have quite a few healthier options. At the place we stopped this morning, there were yogurt cups, cups of grapes and melons, hard boiled eggs, cheese and meat cups, nuts, oranges and bananas. Salads which looked relatively healthy too. Some of the really big nice truck stops have an even wider selection. Yeah, you still have to navigate all the junk food options too, but at least choices aren’t as limited as they have been in the past.
  • snemberton
    snemberton Posts: 175 Member
    peggym4640 wrote: »
    Is a road trip really a road trip without Doritos?
    I tend to want hostess cupcakes and cookies more than chips. But I love nuts and I’m really good about weighing them at home and having a small amount. Probably should avoid them on road trips because I would mindlessly munch on a lot more than acceptable.

    My kids like Doritos though. And Cheetos and Pringles.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    It’s weird to think about it this way, but I actually hit my goal weight somewhere on the road between North Carolina and California.

    We were moving cross country, and I didn’t want to stop often because we had our cat with us. You can’t exactly take a cat out on a leash when you stop. I also did not want to eat a lot of fast food. And I had food left from cleaning out our kitchen that I didn’t want to throw away, so it came with us.

    I ate a lot of protein bars on that trip. We would go get a decent dinner once we’d stopped for the night. I developed a thing for Oreo ice cream bars. (If you’re driving hundreds of miles all day, every day, then you really start to look forward to the next 7-11.) We picked up some peaches in Colorado and had to eat them all by the time we got to California. (For those who have never driven into California, they don’t allow you to bring in fresh produce.). Somehow I wound up dropping that last little bit of weight.

    Anyway, I guess the point is that a road trip doesn’t have to be awful for your weight loss plans, just try to pack lower calorie snacks and budget your calories as you normally do.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    snemberton wrote: »
    peggym4640 wrote: »
    Is a road trip really a road trip without Doritos?
    I tend to want hostess cupcakes and cookies more than chips. But I love nuts and I’m really good about weighing them at home and having a small amount. Probably should avoid them on road trips because I would mindlessly munch on a lot more than acceptable.

    My kids like Doritos though. And Cheetos and Pringles.

    Since upping protein and weighing out food I've stopped mindlessly munching - portion out some nuts before you leave?
  • snemberton
    snemberton Posts: 175 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    snemberton wrote: »
    peggym4640 wrote: »
    Is a road trip really a road trip without Doritos?
    I tend to want hostess cupcakes and cookies more than chips. But I love nuts and I’m really good about weighing them at home and having a small amount. Probably should avoid them on road trips because I would mindlessly munch on a lot more than acceptable.

    My kids like Doritos though. And Cheetos and Pringles.

    Since upping protein and weighing out food I've stopped mindlessly munching - portion out some nuts before you leave?
    Something to consider for next time. I expected to grab healthier options along the way, since I know they are available. What I didn’t expect was to have the cravings to this level.

    Working through it pretty well though. Didn’t even give my husband’s donuts a second glance this morning. (Might have taken one if they were the chocolate ones, but powdered aren’t nearly tempting enough for the calories. LOL)
  • JaydedMiss
    JaydedMiss Posts: 4,286 Member
    ya i get it...to me long road trips are coffee and snacks. Something just enjoyable to me about snacking away as we drive. Definatly something i had to overcome, I always crave like donuts and timbits and chips and chocolates, All the finger foods. And then all the yummy restaurant foods and how salty they can be bumps the cravings even more. Working where i work where im a passenger in a truck alot pointed that out to me most, All i want to do is snack as we drive.
  • MalkinMagic71
    MalkinMagic71 Posts: 1,433 Member
    Ate a family size bag of bugles driving from Pittsburgh to Niagara falls...no regrets. Couple boxes of goobers and peanut m&M's too. It was vacation so IDGAF.
  • FL_Hiker
    FL_Hiker Posts: 919 Member
    edited July 2018
    I feel ya lol we used to take a 19 hr road trip every winter when I was a kid, my dad wanted to make good time so we weren't allowed ANY stops! I still can't believe I was able to hold my pee that long. My parents would get us kids to shut up by constantly throwing snacks at us to keep us quiet the whole way. Now that I'm older I associate road trips with tons of junk food. Really wish I didn't feel that way... the snacks are what made the trips fun 😕
  • mountainmare
    mountainmare Posts: 294 Member
    We snowbird and take back roads down to Florida--I'm fine until North Carolina---then I brake and make a u-turn for the smell of hickory and a pink pig. I search out "hundred mile" barbeque!
    My biggest downfall is the hotel breakfasts--I tend to stash muffins for the road.
  • sara41164
    sara41164 Posts: 16 Member
    Road trip snacks are hard for me too. The kids always expect them and then I crave them even more when they are in my face. On our trip to Florida a month ago, I got snacks but this time I got some Beef Jerky, protein bars, trail mix and nuts. Those actually helped me get through the trip without digging into the kids stuff “to much”. Lol!
  • WJS_jeepster
    WJS_jeepster Posts: 224 Member
    FL_Hiker wrote: »
    I feel ya lol we used to take a 19 hr road trip every winter when I was a kid, my dad wanted to make good time so we weren't allowed ANY stops! I still can't believe I was able to hold my pee that long. My parents would get us kids to shut up by constantly throwing snacks at us to keep us quiet the whole way. Now that I'm older I associate road trips with tons of junk food. Really wish I didn't feel that way... the snacks are what made the trips fun 😕

    Didn't he have to stop and get gas? My dad was pretty similar with the "make good time" mantra, but my mom has a bladder the size of a peanut. We did a lot of stopping. She also would not use some of the grosser gas station bathrooms, so we had even more stops that necessary.

    My road-trip vice is Super Hot Tamales. I can't put more than one or two in my mouth at a time without feeling like flames are shooting out my ears, so the box lasts a little longer.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    a road trip isn't a road trip without cheetos, though

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