A Guide to Eating Healthy While Camping
Yes, You Can Still Eat Whole Foods When You’re Miles from Whole Foods
If only we had a Whole Foods in Alaska. It’s funny how we dream of getting away, taking a few days for camping in a pristine setting. Pure air, pure water, pure heaven. Ahhh.
But then what do we pack to eat. While we’re there? Typically, something processed, either pre-made dehydrated meals that are easy to pack, or road-trip food laced with enough preservatives to last 4 days in a hot trunk without even คาสิโนออนไลน์ UFABET ฝากถอนรวดเร็ว เริ่มต้นเล่นง่าย blushing. This is how your parents did it, and their parents before them, so it’s part of your camping DNA. Plus, if you grew up associating camping with boxes of donuts or buckets of fried chicken, it might not even feel like a vacation without them.
On the other hand, when you’ve worked hard to incorporate real foods into your diet.
When you’ve finally gotten a handle on your blood sugar, your body’s hunger cues and your weight; you can be reluctant to do anything that jeopardizes your hard-won gains. Vacations and travel can seem like such minefields that you’d rather just stay home. But don’t do. That your body and mind will love you for getting out into nature. It just takes a little extra planning to keep your health goals on track.
You may wonder how you can possibly eat healthy from a campsite when all you’ve got to work with is a cooler and a fire-pit. I won’t lie…it does take more planning than cooking in your own kitchen. But you absolutely can eat healthy while traveling or camping. It is possible to maintain your health with whole, real food and, what’s more, you can even have fun and tasty foods that feel vacation-worthy.
How to eat healthy while camping
Here are a few things to consider:
- My take is that if you are eating reasonable portions of real food on your trip, you can count it a win. You don’t necessarily have to make large formal meals or maintain strict divisions of what is breakfast food and what is lunch food if you don’t want to – and loosening up your expectations can make it easier. Hard-boiled eggs for dinner? Why not? Leftovers for breakfast? You’re on the trail that much faster, then!
- Just remember balance. When camping, you may tend to rely on carb-heavy foods like granola bars, energy bars, pasta, etc. But make sure to get your carbs from whole food and whole grain sources and balance each meal and snack with some healthy protein and fats. For instance, think of almond butter on whole grain bread, or hummus on a whole wheat pita.
- Finally, fruits and pre-cut veggies are your friends. They’re healthy, tasty, easy-to-pack, and hydrating (which is great when you’re hiking and playing hard). You might pack some tubs of pre-washed berries for noshing, and, of course, the classic watermelon can be plunked in the creek to stay cool until dessert time.
- For those of you with diabetes or pre-diabetes: Nature is your medicine. Breathing in the fresh air, walking around your campsite to collect firewood, and just moivng around as you set up camp, will get your trip off to a great start. All of these things reduce stress, and help your cells to open up and let the sugar in (so it’s not in your blood). Don’t be surprised if you see better than normal blood sugar readings while you are enjoying your natural surroundings!
What about if you want to make full meals? First off, you’ll need to know what you’re working with. Will you have access to cooking facilities – a grill, a campfire, a propane stove?
No grill, no problem
If you don’t have access to a grill, stove or firepit, then you can still make healthy meals from pre-cooked foods that you bring with you. Try to eat the more perishable foods first and then move on to the shelf-stable items. For example, if you have the cooler space, you might pack in a mixed-green salad with veggies and grilled chicken knowing you’ll polish that off the first night to get at least one dose of fresh greens.