Sunsets, waves, sand, and shells – our family vacation was a restful and blessed getaway. Returning to reality was not so restful, but that’s okay. I am slowly, but surely easing back into my routine with just a few weeks left before we resume homeschooling.
Vacations are moments when you can take a break from the madness or mundane and set off on an adventure. I’m all for a good long lapse in my busy, everyday schedule, but I’ve learned the hard way that there are some things you just don’t want to break from–time with The Lord is one of those things and my healthy lifestyle is the other.
I’ve worked too hard to flush my progress down the toilet. After being on plan for over 2 years, I’ve also come to recognize those aches, pains, and moments of just not feeling right are usually contributed by a risky and foolish veer off course. My best friend and I both decided that if we were going to alter our THM lifestyle during vacation that it would probably be best just to allow ourselves some crossovers instead of going off plan.
Since I committed to stay on plan during this vacation, before our camping trip to the beach I began planning a menu and a shopping list. Planning ahead and preparing comes naturally to me. I know it isn’t that way for everyone, but anything worthwhile that you purpose to do in life takes some amount of planning. If you expect to keep everything on course without following a path or a map, you’re going to fall apart when the enemy distracts you–and you know he will.
Depending on the location of your trip and the resources available to you, you may be limited but you just have to get creative. Taking a Saturday or an evening or two of your time to plan ahead will make your trip so much more enjoyable. No one wants to return to reality at the end of vacation, but you’ll be able to handle it better if you’ve stayed the course. Returning from vacation feeling sick, bloated, fatigued, or guilty isn’t going to help you.
Here are some things that I don’t leave home without when we go camping:
- My Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook
- My blender with smoothie attachment cups
- Trim Healthy Mama stevia
- Lily’s Chocolate Bars made with stevia
- Coupons
- Quart jars for storage or drinking and their lids and straws
- Cooler or Ice Chest
- Change for ice or Portable ice maker
- Storage bags for all sorts of things (I made ice cream in some but you could use these as well personal ice cream maker)
- Almond milk
- Eggs
- Meat
- Nuts
- Fruits
- Veggies
- Laughing cow cheese or homemade Laughing Mama Cheese recipe from the book
- Nuke Queen Bread
- Nonfat greek yogurt
- Apple cider vinegar (for immunity boosting)
- Zevia soda and/or La Croix (because everyone around me will have sodas)
- Bottled water
EATING OUT
We don’t eat out much whether we are at home or away from home. Between the expense, my children’s food allergies, and my food intolerances, it’s just not something we do often. If we do plan to eat out, I research restaurants before I even leave for the trip so I can scope out the menus for things we can eat.
COOKING
We do a lot of camping, so my sweet husband cooks on the open fire or on a portable grill. I do most of the cooking at home, but when we are on vacation he does most of it. Well, we are a team. I prep and he grills. I usually enjoy cooking, but this does give me a much-needed break.
Breakfasts
For breakfasts I usually make a batch of muffins or coffeecake at home before we leave for the trip. This makes the first morning of vacation chore free so my husband and I can relax. I save at least one serving of these goodies for the last day of our trip as well, which makes the morning we pack much easier and there isn’t much to clean up.
I bring pancake mix or all of the dry THM ingredients in a zipper storage bag rather than bringing all of my separate containers of ingredients. We also eat lots of eggs, bacon, and/or sausage. For our last trip, we also brought cereal and stovetop granola from the THM cookbook. We were able to sprinkle it on our yogurt or eat it with milk. This made a good snack for the beach as well. I also made packets of dry ingredients for the muffin-in-a-bowl recipe. This is a good FP snack, dessert, or breakfast.
Adding all dry ingredients to zipper storage bags is a great way to plan ahead for hot drinks and smoothies. All you have to do is add liquids and/or ice.
Lunch
For lunches, we usually eat leftovers from the dinner before. We also bring sandwich meats, sliced cheese, fruit, veggies, and bread. I make the Nuke Queen bread or Bread in a Mug recipes from the THM cookbook.
Snacks
Snacks are usually packed for the beach pretty quickly by using zipper bags or storage containers. I pack a variety of things like cheese, nuts, raw veggies, greek yogurt, fruit, deli meat. I make THM pudding, gummies, superfood chews from the cookbook before vacation. Of course, I can’t go on vacation without my chocolate! The Skinny Chocolate recipe from the THM cookbook is made from coconut oil, so it melts easily. That isn’t always practical for vacation depending on where you are going and your resources. Even regular chocolate will melt quickly on the beach, so I save my Lily’s chocolate bars for the nights around the campfire when the rest of my family makes s’mores. You could make on-plan s’mores with any THM S cookie recipe, THM marshmallow recipe, and the skinny chocolate. I have done this before, too. I make the cookies ahead of time before I leave for vacation. Josephs pita crackers or any THM cracker recipes from the book are delicious treats as well.
Dinner
Dinners are pretty easy if you stick to meats and veggies on the campfire or grill. We’ve gotten a little more creative and made these yummy meals:
Pulled Pork and Cole Slaw THM recipes – For our first night of vacation, we like to have an easy meal so that we don’t have to cook while we are trying to set up and settle in. On the day before our trip, I put a pork roast in the crockpot and cooked it all day. I packed a prepackaged bag of cole slaw veggies and packed ingredients to make dressing. All we had to do when we were ready to eat that night was mix the dressing and slaw, and warm up the pork in a pan on the grill.
Pizzas on the grill with side salad – We simply use Joseph’s Pitas, tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and our favorite toppings. For my gluten free and soy free children, we used gluten free and soy free tortillas.
Sloppy Joes with veggies – We made the sloppy joe recipe from the THM book by cooking it in a cast iron skillet and had veggies on the side. You could easily make a bun or bread before the trip, but I just had the filling with no bread.
Burgers – I brought a pre-made bun for the burger my husband grilled, and I topped it with a tomato slice, pickles, avocado, and lettuce. Veggies on the side are great, but the burger by itself is pretty filling.
Grilled chicken and veggies – I seasoned chicken with my favorite rub recipe Fiesta Chicken Rub and we had grilled veggies on the side. If you have the room, you could even bring tortillas and your favorite toppings for chicken wraps or tacos.
Salads – If you have refrigeration, you could easily make salads in a jar using Ball jars. Since the jars seal well, the salads stay fresh for days. You could prepare all of this ahead of time or you could simply make salad on a plate while on the trip.
I know this seems like a lot of preparation, and it was, but if you start early and plan ahead you can make it work. A few weeks before your vacation, you could plan to eat a few of the meals you will have on the trip, double them, and freeze them. Or simply prepare it the week before you leave so that they can safely be stored in the fridge for a few days up to a week before you need them. Be sure to research food safety and storage rules for and check expiration dates.
Making good choices is work no matter how you look at it. Sometimes we’re tempted to take the easy way out and give it to cheating. It’s worth it to take a little time to plan ahead. You deserve to treat your body with wholesome and healthy foods that your bodies needs to rest, relax, and enjoy your vacation.
Well, it’s going to be a while before our next trip so I’m off to enjoy some summertime activities with my children. Then I need to start planning for our next school year. If you are getting read to head out on a getaway with your sweet family, I pray it is a safe and blessed trip. I hope this vacation tips help you stay on plan!
