We are a traveling family

We are a traveling family. What seems normal to us is plain craziness to others. My almost 3 year old has been on a dozen flights around the country and numerous road trips in his first 3 years, with more trips planned. It's second nature to us. We also live in the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex with no family within a six hour drive, so traveling is a necessity. We’d like to share some of our experiences and tips with the hopes that it benefits you, and other families with their travels; and maybe you’ll share your tips with us as well!

In July we planned a week long family road trip that spanned 2100 miles and 3 states, from Dallas and Amarillo Texas, to Albuquerque and Santa Fe New Mexico, through Colorado Springs, Breckenridge, Estes Park, and Fort Collins Colorado, back south to Manitou Springs and then a final visit to Amarillo before arriving back in Dallas. This started out as a simple, “let’s visit our sister in her new house in New Mexico and my Mom in Colorado” to weeklong trip with a dozen stops in between. Each stop provided an opportunity for the kids to stretch their legs, but also for everyone to gain new experiences.

With all of our travels we start out with a simple email agenda, and by the time we leave we have a detailed spreadsheet. It never fails. We just can’t plan a vacation that doesn’t involve numerous stops and visits and a detailed agenda.

Here’s a free printable template that we use for planning our vacations. You’ll see columns for each day broken into rows for morning activities, lunch location, afternoon activities, dinner location, evening activities and where we are sleeping. 

I also use a similar template to plan my clothes and accessories. This helps me to plan ahead with extra stuff that we might need like bathing suits, hiking boots, warm coats, etc. 

How do you plan for vacations or trips? Do you have big spreadsheets too?

Catching Up

Well, it's now Monday June 17th, and I think I only made it 4 days this month on the program.

We got to Oregon on Tuesday and for lunch ended up at a Vegan restaurant. If it's not Whole30 compliant, it's at least Vegan and healthy. Right? Maybe?

If you're in the Portland area try Native Foods. Between the three of us we had the Twister Wrap (Salad greens, fresh avocado and cucumber salsa, creamy chipotle sauce and blackened Native Chicken in an organic whole wheat wrap), the Rockin' Moroccan Bowl, (Native Chicken marinated in homemade Moroccan sauce with grilled veggies and quinoa), and the crispy sweet native fries. It was all beyond delicious and I don't think we were able to finish it all. The daily made from scratch lavendar lemonade and watermelon fresco drinks were awesome. Honestly, my FAVORITE things, were the desserts. Sorry. I have to admit it. The desserts were free and who can pass up Peanut Butter Parfait and Oatmeal Creme Pie? Just thinking of it now is making me drool a little... It was so decadent and delicious... seriously.

On Wednesday we ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant and I got the veggie omelet, but did have coffee with cream, no sugar. For lunch we went to Applebees and I had a the grilled shrimp salad with no dressing. Dinner was micro-brew beer, and more beer. I was tired and stressed and, did I mention we were in Portland!? We love Oregon. Beautiful, lush, green, healthy... I don't remember what we ate on Thursday or Friday, but I know it was not Whole30. And every day since we returned has been bad bad bad.
So here we are, Monday, June 17th. Day 1? I could wait and start again next month. July 1, Day 1, but that seems crazy. I really want to succeed at this. I need to make this work regardless of traveling and work and a busy lifestyle, and I don't want to wait anymore.

After a week and a half of eating poorly again, I'm feeling a plethora of ailments. My plantar fasciitis is acting up, my ankles are swollen, my pants are tight, I'm "hungry", I'm tired, I'm craving sugary creamy chocolate. My back has been hurting at night, which causes me to incessantly wake up and slowly and painfully roll over. I'm probably snoring again and I think my blood pressure must be up because i'm having random bouts of insane sweating. Or maybe that's just the 100 degree Texas heat coupled with my guilt-induced-stress?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to these issues alleviating again, like they did in May I when succeeded in following through with 10 days of the whole30. Imagine following through with whole30 for 30 days, or even 60 days, and not even having these issues alleviated, but completely eliminated. Gasp, that would be amazing! And of course a couple hundred pound weight loss would be ideal as well.

So back to the plan, last night we marinated pork chops for dinner tonight and lunches this week. I also made eggs, ground turkey, and veggies, added a ton of random spices (cumin, seasoned salt, pepper, cayenne, and turmeric) and divided them up into 10 Ziploc small bowls so that we'd have breakfast ready. The containers stack really well in the fridge, hold a 1/4 cup of meat and 2 eggs perfectly.

Tonight I'll need to take inventory of the fridge and freezer and figure out meals for the rest of the week. Seems so simple, but I've lived in the moment for so many years that preplanning meals doesn't come naturally and in the past couple months I've had a bad habit of forgetting to do this.

Whole30 - Day 3

What a crazy busy day.

Took my toddler (Grady's 19 months old) to the eye doctor first thing this morning for an exam and didn't have time (or make time?) for breakfast. Then grabbed a fast food burger on the way to work (no bun or cheese sadly), and then ran around work like a chicken trying to get travel arrangements organized for a last minute work trip to Oregon tomorrow!

Dinner was turkey meatloaf and sweet potato fries that I picked up from Sprouts. Again not the most ideal meal, but it's all Sprouts had and I was pressed for time. It sure beats fast food fries and soda?

This evening has been crazy running around packing and doing laundry trying to get ready for the trip tomorrow. And then I thought I had lost Grady's birth certificate and had a slight meltdown panic attack. Now it's 10pm and I need to actually work and prepare for the week ahead.

Thankfully the family is going with me to Oregon!!

I keep thinking that life will slow down and then I'll be able to focus on healthier eating and planning meals and cooking at home more, but the reality is, that this is my life. One reason I gained this excess weight is all the traveling for work and fun.

I need to learn how to better prepare for these busy days. Like filling the freezer with lots of meat kabobs that are precooked and easy to grab and defrost... Maybe also freeze fun dipping sauces too?

Any other ideas?