Eating on the road

While the title of this post could easily be about gels and sports drink while cycling it is much more mundane. It is actually about driving. You see this past weekend I took a short trip to my father’s house. He lives in east Texas about 6 and half hours away.

Now I know that I am a snacker when I am bored. So to combat this practice I usually bring a ton of good foods with me for the ride. By good foods I mean baby carrots, fat free refried bean burritos, maybe some granola bars, etc.

I have eaten so many baby carrots while driving that I have even coined a term for it – carrot belly. This is when you have eaten 2 pounds of carrots in as many hours. I swear my skin is an orange tone and I have a slight belly ache.

The problem is that when I am bored I will eat. I eat non-stop. So even though I pack these good nutritious foods they are gone before I hit the highway.

I mean, I will eat the snacks and lunch in the first couple of hours. One time I was travelling to see some friends back in the Midwest. This time I had to fly and the airport is about an hour away. I had a couple of fiber one bars during the drive and another couple while at the airport. Due to some non-act of God the flight ended up being cancelled. By the time I got my airfare refunded I had consumed 12 fiber one bars – 100 + grams of fiber in about 3 hours. I was unpleasant to deal with.

So this time I took a different route. I would be driving for about 6 and half hours on Saturday and the same amount of time returning on Monday. I dug around the refrigerator before I left and I grab a single grilled chicken breast. True to my nature the chicken breast was gone in the first 2 hours. But I had nothing else to eat and I did not stop. This was enough. I did not need all of the snacks.

On the return trip I did not pack anything at all. I had a good breakfast before leaving my father’s house and I was not hungry until several hours later. I did stop and have a subway sandwich. Calorie wise, I did much better than in the past.

Sometimes planning ahead is not the right answer.