On the Road - There Goes My Diet

[gcal]

Headed west, away from Tick City ... I mean Park City, Kentucky. You won't find a more beautiful state, but the ticks are brutal after 2 mild winters.

Anyway, on-the-road means sitting on my butt 6 to 8 hours a day, and SNACKING. Not talking apple slices and celery sticks, either. Talking about cookies and twinkies and trail mix. I wonder how many of those 30 lost pounds will be back before we get to Rapid City.

 

[RVTravel]

On the road does not have to mean eating bad.

 

[TrainChaser]

STOP occasionally. You're not in a road race, are you? It's okay to stop. You get extra points for it. Your numb butt will thank you, and you won't have to pee into a Gatorade bottle and then toss it out the window.

 

[gcal]

I am not the one driving. DH is. The old him would have tried to push thru without stopping for anything but bathroom breaks. The new DH is willing to keep it down to 300-400 mile legs. I would like to go much slower than that, but I will take any concession I can get.

 

[TMG51]

When I drive long distances, I will drive for 12+ hours at a time, or well over 700 miles at a time, stopping only for gas. I just drove from San Diego to the northeast in such a fashion. To combat snackiness, I placed only a healthy head of broccoli within arm's reach of the driver's seat. I found this tactic worked especially well as after only one or two florets I opted to eat nothing at all.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I have the same problem (eating junk while driving).  The only thing that works for me is not bringing it into the truck.  Once driving I don't miss it.  The fight comes in not buying the stuff on impulse.

As to driving long stretches: as one gets older it is important to stop every 2 hours or so and get out and walk.  Fatigue caused accidents is the biggest risk but blood clotting in the legs is a risk that increases as one gets older/heavier.  Probably important for the young also.

 -- Spiff

 

[Queen]

When I drive long distances, I will drive for 12+ hours at a time, or well over 700 miles at a time, stopping only for gas. I just drove from San Diego to the northeast in such a fashion. To combat snackiness, I placed only a healthy head of broccoli within arm's reach of the driver's seat. I found this tactic worked especially well as after only one or two florets I opted to eat nothing at all.

Made me laugh, loudly.  

As to driving long stretches: as one gets older it is important to stop every 2 hours or so and get out and walk.  Fatigue caused accidents is the biggest risk but blood clotting in the legs is a risk that increases as one gets older/heavier.  Probably important for the young also.

My mom turned me on to this, she and dad were lifelong RV'ers and she said to drive no more than two hours then get out and take a walk.  Started doing that and found I was nowhere near as stiff after a day of driving than I used to be.  My mom got very smart as I got older. 

 

[Dgorila1]

Why are you driving so long, do you have to be somewhere by a certain date?

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

My mom got very smart as I got older. 

I was surprised at how much my parents learned while I was away at college 

 -- Spiff

 

[gcal]

Why are you driving so long, do you have to be somewhere by a certain date?

DH likes to drive. He enjoys it. He would live on caffeine and drive 24/7 if he could.

 

[eDJ_]

Occasionally we talk about the 2-2-2 system here and I think the idea needs to be brought up again from time to time.

The first 2 is about getting up in the morning you are going to travel and fix breakfast, clean up, break camp, and get ready to go after the traffic hours.  Imagine 9am.  Here you will have an itinerary of places to see and things to do where you will spend no more than 2 hours behind he wheel.  (visiting sites, museums, stores, etc)

The second 2 is 2pm.  This is when you begin to look for a camping space to settle into and set up.  Thus you can get into a good space and start cooking a dinner and relax through the evening.   

The last 2 is about remaining in camp for 2 days. (the rest of the day on the afternoon that you arrive and the next day.  Then the following morning you will take off on the next leg of your touring. 

This is a slow travel method that suits some people quite well.   But you will want some internet connection where you can plan your next our itinerary. 

There are loads of Travel Planner & Campground websites  around.   Some will allow you to map out your road to your next destination with the option of stating how far off your path you are willing to drive to see interesting sites.  The software of the site will bring up all kinds of stuff to suggest that you otherwise may not know about.  

Free Campsites net

https://freecampsites.net/


Go Too Journey Planner

http://www.gotoo.com/jplanner1.asp


These and some others are in my lower website below.

 

[gcal]

Occasionally we talk about the 2-2-2 system here and I think the idea needs to be brought up again from time to time.

The first 2 is about getting up in the morning you are going to travel and fix breakfast, clean up, break camp, and get ready to go after the traffic hours.  Imagine 9am.  Here you will have an itinerary of places to see and things to do where you will spend no more than 2 hours behind he wheel.  (visiting sites, museums, stores, 

OMG! You mean there are actually people who are allowed to sleep in until 7:30 on moving datly because they don't plan to be on the road until 9:00 am?!?

 

[Almost There]

I've found that if it's just a travelling day that I can 'let' myself stay in bed much later than 7:30 am actually.

I'm still waiting for the kettle to boil for my morning tea and it's already 9:30 AM.

Most mornings even on a travelling day I'm not behind the wheel until at least 10 or 11 AM...I love it that way!

Not leaving until then has it's advantages...drive for several hours and it's already time to quit for the day. If I'm checking in to a campground, it's not too early and if it's just a parking lot night then I'm not hanging around all afternoon.

Maybe it's time for you, Gcal to take control, either of the journey or of the wheel. Either that or get sneaky and play with the clock....

 

[Zizzer_Zazzer_Zuz]

STOP occasionally.  You're not in a road race, are you?  It's okay to stop.  You get extra points for it.  Your numb butt will thank you, and you won't have to pee into a Gatorade bottle and then toss it out the window.

My dad was a swell guy. "8 weeks!" he'd boast, "Every meal, breakfast, lunch, and dinner a home cooked meal!". I bet you can guess how many of those meals he cooked, or cleaned up after ... for six people. That's 336 meals. The night he made the four of us kids to eat raw squid he filched from the Maine surf excluded.

I grew up eating sandwiches on picnic tables at all manor of rest stops, road side attractions, and simple picnic areas. As much as I learned to cook and bake from an early age I learned to do a lot of it on old fashioned pump Coleman stoves and out of big coolers. You want to know something? Not once (well ... once, but that's another story) OK, so we were almost never questioned or looked askance. If there a picnic tables and especially if there are grills set up shop. 

Want a cup of coffee? Pull over, stand up, make a cup of coffee. If it's a nice day take it outside cook it outside. Walk around while the water boils. Fill a sports bottle from the water fountain. Use the rest rooms. Climb the jungle gym. Take pictures of the cracked and aged stucco dinosaur. Stop and read the road side signs all over the place, you know the ones about some dead white guy that lived/died/drank/slept/fought near there once. Some of that shit's fascinating! Want a snack? Maybe a quick lunch? Something not quite a meal. Try boiling up some eggs in the morning or the night before. Jerky is better than sugary stuff. Nut's. Fresh fruit. Dried fruit. Chocolate. If you have a sweet tooth go for long lasting sweet things. Things you need to chew a little maybe. Look for small single serving portions. What ever snacks you pick choose your servings at breakfast just after you've eaten. Set some things aside in small plastic containers or baggies then set a timer and you can have 5 Peanut M&M's and 30 minutes later you can have a 2 inch square piece of jerky then 30 minutes a plum.

Then again, Dunkin Donuts has pretty damn good coffee and donuts.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

DH likes to drive. He enjoys it. He would live on caffeine and drive 24/7 if he could.

I'm pretty sure there's a 12 step program for that. If not, there sure should be.

 

[TrainChaser]

"I am not the one driving. DH is. The old him would have tried to push thru without stopping for anything but bathroom breaks. The new DH is willing to keep it down to 300-400 mile legs. I would like to go much slower than that, but I will take any concession I can get."

You need to keep reminding him how lucky he is to have you. If he had ME, he would learn some manners by being dragged behind the van for a few miles. Or, at least until the cop showed up. "I'm dragging a MAN? What's HE doing there? Never saw him before in my life, Officer!