Whitney’s Kitchen Blog

Vacation Mode

Posted on July 19th, 2017 by Piccarreto

Beautiful beach. Beach sandals on the sandy coast. Summer holiday and vacation concept. Tropical beach.

We all look forward to time off, right? Time with family and friends. Time to skip the alarm clocks and just… be.

Vacations, as wonderful as they are, also tend to destroy our eating habits.

I thought I had this year under control. We skip the drive thru’s now. I made Chick ‘un’ Salad and placed it on top of greens in disposable containers. I even packed plastic forks! I loaded our cooler with fruit, baby carrots and other easy snacks.

I did really well our first week. I ran to the store for lemons and was making green smoothies at my Dad’s house. Everywhere we went offered hot dogs (which I’m not a fan of) so I basically lived off side-dishes and fruit.

…Then we moved to my father-in-laws.

Week two was not so good. I still had my lemons, but no smoothies. I ran out of salad and we ate out almost every night. I was so hungry I caved and indulged in NY pizza.

I was exhausted…

It is incredible what a difference our eating habits have on other aspects of our lives. I have professed before my love of sleep. I’ve always slept “well”, but plant-based eating made me realize that my old “well” and my new “well” are practically opposites! At our first stop I was still up at 6 am and feeling refreshed. At our second, I didn’t get up once with our dog and left the morning routine to my husband. I even had coffee because the tea I brought wasn’t cutting it.

I never like vacations to end, but I was ready to get back at it. 20 1/2 hours in the car later and my hubby and I were back on track. The first thing I did was run to Sam’s and stock up on greens!

Hugh Jass Salads, green smoothies and lemon water to the rescue!

I want my norm back! I have our menu board for the next 2 weeks up and I have restocked our house. I used to be sad waving goodbye to the delicious indulgences, but this year I was ready. I honestly missed the foods my body and taste-buds have grown accustomed to.

This year was a nice reminder for me. We may fall off track occasionally, it is easy to hop back on the train! Choo-Choo!!