I DID IT!
I survived a week of Whole30 while traveling! My happy report:
My husband has been super supportive, and he went grocery shopping with me and spent nearly an entire day playing sous chef to my head chef as I planned out a week of compliant, satisfying breakfasts, lunches, and most dinners in anticipation of the possibility of not finding compliant places to eat (or time to seek ones out). My schedule was going to be very full, and once my car was parked, I was going to be walking everywhere. I was dancing on and off for 5-6 hours a day; plus I was walking 20 minutes to the intensive in the morning and back to my hostel in the evening. I had to eat a compliant breakfast before I went, have a healthy-but-not-too-heavy lunch packed and ready to bring with me, snacks in case I needed them mid-workout, and have a meal I wasn't too tired to prepare when I got back late in the evening.
I got a medium sized cooler on wheels (an Igloo MaxCool from Target), and it was fully packed! I used mainly Ball jars of various sizes, as well as some ziplock bags and Glad food storage containers, which all nestled together well. I planned to go get ice from the corner store every few days, but the hostel had a big shared fridge where you could label your food and store it there, which was SO helpful.
Snacks included nuts, dried mango (a fave of mine any time of year!), bananas, some of the same lunch stuff (carrots and dippers, applesauce, etc), and a couple RX bars (I only ate half of one on my last day when our session ran long and we didn't eat lunch on time). I brought some "baby food" packets, but still haven't had them. I even had enough of various healthy snacks to share with my study buddies in the evening when we were doing homework, which made me happy to be able to share.
Bonus about Whole30 meals is that the recipes are generally focused around consistent energy and low-inflammation. For dancing hours every day, this was perfect.
Sticky bits: being in a hostel around all the fun social energy, and everyone drinking beer and wine around me, was tough. Not AS hard as I imagined, but yes, still hard. My pal Brittney from Canada would often have one beer and then switch to herbal tea in support of me, and that meant a lot to me. Similarly, we had a lab one night where we were provided popcorn and wine to enjoy while we learned/studied. Popcorn and wine is one of my comfort food combos, so that wasn't the best feeling. But I drank my water and kept my eye on the prize, as it were, while 40 fellow dancers around me drank and munched. *soul crush* LOL Dining out wasn't impossible, but I felt like it created a little hassle, and limiting, for those with me. I felt I had to avoid international restaurants I would normally have loved to have sampled, but with potential language barriers and foreign ingredients I may not recognize, staying on the simple American-fare side of things seemed safest.
The servers were really great and the chefs made my meals colorful and wonderful. The only issue was one where they put corn in with the roast veg, but luckily not much and I was able to push it aside and eat the rest no problem. I did have a case where a group were all heading out to eat and they suddenly decided they HAD to have ramen (Who can blame them? RAMEN, Y'ALL!), so I almost had to go eat alone. But my pal Mandy from CA decided to break off from the group and come eat with me instead, which was really sweet, and we had a delicious simple salmon dish together.
I survived a week of Whole30 while traveling! My happy report:
Just one week into my Whole30, I was given an opportunity to go to Rachel Brice's 8 Elements Initiation. A friend was unfortunately injured and could not longer go and was selling her spot. The trick? It would require I drop everything and leave in 48 hours. The intensive being in Portland means it was driving distance away, so that was going for me. And I got a private room at the awesome Northwest Portland hostel, with a kitchen just down the hall from my room. WOOT! I could not have done it quite this successfully without one or both of these incredibly helpful facets of my trip, but my determination to stay compliant saw me through even hiccups in the week.
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| The Moore Test Kitchen |
I got a medium sized cooler on wheels (an Igloo MaxCool from Target), and it was fully packed! I used mainly Ball jars of various sizes, as well as some ziplock bags and Glad food storage containers, which all nestled together well. I planned to go get ice from the corner store every few days, but the hostel had a big shared fridge where you could label your food and store it there, which was SO helpful.
For breakfasts, I boiled a dozen eggs, made up single serving sizes of chia pudding with different fruit-on-the-bottom, mixed fruit and bananas, and Spanish tortilla with sausage my husband made for me (potatoes, onions, sausage, bound with eggs).
Lunches included a pre-made twice-baked baked potatoes and home made bean-free chili, tuna salad stuffed avocado, spicy chicken patties with "sriracha" dipping sauce, apples and nut butter packets, carrots and cashew hummus, single serving containers of black olives, unsweetened applesauce, and guacamole. I made pumpkin n' walnut "energy balls" which were a big hit with my classmates as a little pick-me-up before the afternoon push.
Dinners in were things like spaghetti squash with homemade pesto sauce and roast chicken, coconut curry chicken meatballs, pork "egg roll in a bowl" with spicy "sriracha" sauce, seared steak with mushroom "cream sauce" over sweet potato "rice" or mashed potatoes.
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| A typical lunch. |
Bonus about Whole30 meals is that the recipes are generally focused around consistent energy and low-inflammation. For dancing hours every day, this was perfect.
Sticky bits: being in a hostel around all the fun social energy, and everyone drinking beer and wine around me, was tough. Not AS hard as I imagined, but yes, still hard. My pal Brittney from Canada would often have one beer and then switch to herbal tea in support of me, and that meant a lot to me. Similarly, we had a lab one night where we were provided popcorn and wine to enjoy while we learned/studied. Popcorn and wine is one of my comfort food combos, so that wasn't the best feeling. But I drank my water and kept my eye on the prize, as it were, while 40 fellow dancers around me drank and munched. *soul crush* LOL Dining out wasn't impossible, but I felt like it created a little hassle, and limiting, for those with me. I felt I had to avoid international restaurants I would normally have loved to have sampled, but with potential language barriers and foreign ingredients I may not recognize, staying on the simple American-fare side of things seemed safest.
Ultimately, my extensive preparation was the key. I spent so much time and effort making sure that if all else failed, I could go back to my room and have something nourishing to eat at any time, it took the pressure off. I was able to "grab and go" with my lunches, and my breakfasts were simple and kept me full without feeling heavy until my next meal (unlike cereals I may have had in the past which wouldn't last, or pastries or something quick to grab that would leave me feeling bloated and then sugar crash later). And I can say that this clean eating kept me fuller longer, kept my energy consistent, and I was able to get through a physically challenging week of dance-and-more-dance-and-then-some without feeling deprived or energetically tapped. I am not sure I could have said that at any other time in my life under similar circumstances.
So that's my happy tale of success. I am now three days into my third week. Sadly, I am now sick with a bad cold, so I feel like some of my cravings are just now coming on stronger as the desire for "comfort food" goes up as my literal physical comfort goes down. Luckily, my husband is fully on board (he stayed compliant the entire times I was gone--I am really proud of him, a guy who said he wasn't "into this fully" when we started!), and he has taken over cooking the last couple nights so I can rest up and heal. I could see how some people could hit an illness or stress in their life, and absent this kind of support system, feel like giving up. So I know how blessed I am.
Over halfway through. I got this!
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