Road Trip Exercising and Eating Tips

I pack a lunchbox for the front seat and a cooler in the back with pregweighed and portioned snacks and meals. If I plan to eat out, I do it at supper so that I don't feel deprived in the evening. (I can't remember the last time I had breakfast out for that reason!)

Exercise on car trips for me is just getting steps to rest stops and a walk when I get where I am going. I suppose if I went away longer than a weekend, I would do my bodyweight routines.

CoachJen71 wrote: »

I pack a lunchbox for the front seat and a cooler in the back with pregweighed and portioned snacks and meals. If I plan to eat out, I do it at supper so that I don't feel deprived in the evening. (I can't remember the last time I had breakfast out for that reason!)

Exercise on car trips for me is just getting steps to rest stops and a walk when I get where I am going. I suppose if I went away longer than a weekend, I would do my bodyweight routines.

Agreed with this. Pack pre-measured snacks. I would put them in plastic ziplock bags and write the portion size on it. I drank nothing but water or if I needed an energy boost a 4 hour energy drink or coffee/hot chocolate mix b/c I hate the taste of coffee but I will drink it if I'm on a road trip and I'm driving or I'm the person who's meant to help keep the person driving awake.

I always stretched when I was getting gas b/c you get kind of cramped sitting in the same position for hours on end.

I also would try to shave off calories throughout the week be it by extra workouts or eating a little less every day or a combo of both. That way I had some extra calories to work with that weekend.

But I also just let myself eat what I wanted in reason. I realized that it was 2 days out of the month which in the grand scheme of things is not going to make or break your progress. So if I wanted some Starbursts, I had some. When we went out to dinner, I enjoyed myself. And when I got home, I got back to business the next day.

I pack pre-measured snacks also. For workouts, I'll fit in walks/runs as I can and Darebee.com has some great workout printables and many of them are body weight exercises so there is no equipment needed. This summer when we went on vacation, I printed several of those workouts to follow while we were gone. I'll also sometimes take some workout bands with me because they pack small and are a good change from weights.

Every couple of hours stop at a rest stop & at least take a walk around it.

CathyMini1 wrote: »

Hi, everyone!

I am headed on a 16+ hours road trip next month and would love to hear your tips for eating well and exercising while on the road. It's something I've started giving some thought to and wanted to see if anyone wanted to share what has worked for them in the past. TIA!

The advice you've already gotten is better than the advice I'm about to offer, but I'm going to give it anyway, as you didn't mention the circumstances of your travel.

I go on trips with a group of friends, some of whom are very focused on stopping at convenience stores for a snack, or eating at fast food chains while on the road. This adds to the challenge, for me. I really don't want to sit in the car eating my box lunch, while everyone else goes inside to eat. (I'm weak that way !)

So, in advance of the first such trip during weight loss, I identified several major fast food chains where I could get something that worked for me (I'm vegetarian as well as calorie/nutrition conscious, so this can be more complicated), and that were also places I knew my fast-foodie friends liked. I knew what I'd order before I even got there. They were willing for me to steer us to these places vs. others with only really bad choices.

Then, at convenience store stops, if I really felt the urge to buy a snack, I would go for a Greek yogurt, or some V8 juice, or something like that - something that made a solid nutritional contribution for its calories, or simply didn't have a big bundle of calories.

So, cooler & your own snacks is better, but if there's a social context like mine . . . .