Posted by ross |

Road trips have an allure about them, at least in my possibly distorted view of things, that put me in the same frame of mind as the snow day.  Snow days and road trips, while existing in this dimension, seem to exist far enough outside of the reality that is my day to day schedule that not only is a break from the norm a fair possibility, but is downright expected!  This is particularly the case with food.  On a snow day (I live in Texas, so they happen twice a year: once when it actually ices over, and another when everyone thinks its going to ice over but because no one wants to work, they shut down the entire state), all bets are off when it comes to any scheduled meals.  We simply fire up the dvd player and eat popcorn, poptarts, and sugar pops all day long.  Road trips are no different.  The temptation for us is to stop every 2-3 hours and let the kids out of the cage to run around, which inevitably includes a small "snack," while at meal times engaging in the favorite American pastime of gorging on fast food.  This is not good.  Of course its a wee bit convenient, but the drawbacks bury any positives deep into the shady truckstop/fast food restaurant trashcan.  Sure the road trip needs to be fun, but that doesn't have to mean being unhealthy the entire way.  Here are two articles with suggestions for eating healthy when on the road.  We actually implemented some of these last summer when we drove cross-country, and not only did we eat better, but we saved some dough in the process.  And when we did plan on stopping at a fast food joint, we were able to treat it like a big event, which went a long way in keeping the kids in line.  Now if we can only work on being healthy on the snow days...

Here are the articles: article 1, article 2

Posted on: 6/4/2009 at 6:38 PM
Categories: Family | Road Trips
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