Traveling on Paleo

The last weekend of my paleo experiment has taken me far out of my comfort zone to the land of Michigan. I say the land of Michigan because it is a 180 from my homeland of Oklahoma. The weather is nice, it feels like a great Oklahoma November day. I tried my best to prepare for my trip and stay on paleo just like I have been the last twenty nine days. I knew as long as I was prepared there would be no chance to fall of the wagon.

I started in the Tulsa airport around 9:30AM. I had breakfast at 6:30AM, so I was getting close to needing my snack. I had a big Ziploc bag full of almonds, macadamia nuts and Larabars plus a bag full of sliced zucchini. I wanted to save all my prepared snack food for the plane an my arrival in Detroit. I headed over to Camille's to check out their breakfast items. I ended up ordering a vegetarian breakfast wrap. It came with scrambled eggs, mushrooms, tomato and a tomato pesto. I discarded the tortilla of course. It was the perfect snack prior to my flight. Very satisfying.

I landed at 2:25PM. This is about an hour after my normal lunch time. I don't need a watch because I can tell what time it is by when my body gets hungry. Believe me, it was hungry. My husband picked me up at the airport and we ventured to a small suburb where he is currently rotating as a medical student. I was snacking my zucchini and trail mix I picked up at the airport when I landed (dried blueberries, cranberries, almonds, sunflower seeds...no added sugar, I checked the label). We made our way around the hospital talking to other medical students and residents. All the sudden it was 5PM and I had still not really had lunch. I was in desperate need of a protein fix. Protein is the single hardest thing for me to prepare when traveling. Normally I keep hard boiled eggs on hand, but only if I know I will eat it within the hour.

We headed to the hospital cafeteria where we split the meat from a turkey burger. I felt like a new person. When you are traveling, sometimes you don't have the luxury of making sure what you are eating is 100% paleo, but you do the best you can. We made it to a great restaurant about an hour and half later. I had some great gazpacho, a side salad, baked scallops and green beans. Green beans were the vegetable of the day. Again, you do the best you can. Green beans aren't technically a vegetable, they are a legume, but it is green and that works for me when I need a veggie fix and they are the only choice.

Now that we are settled eating is not a problem. Traveling always throws off your eating schedule no matter what kind of food you eat. When I was hungry I didn't go for the Auntie Anne's pretzel because I was stocked with paleo friendly snacks to keep me on track. You may have to make a few compromises here and there (green beans, semi processed turkey burger meat), but do the best you can. Hopefully over the past month you have all learned how to make the best choice possible when it comes to food. Even in the most tempting situations, what you eat is a decision. Make good ones! No excuses!