Paleo on tour

[touringpaleo]

Hello

I have rarely if ever posted in a forum before but I'm half way through doing whole 30 and need some encouragement/ advice!

 

I am a touring musician and after a year of drinking/ eating junk on the road I decided it was time to make a change. 

 

I found the first 10 days on whole30 at home pretty easy, I generally eat pretty healthily so it wasn't a huge change just cutting complex carbs/ agave/ milk/ alcohol. However I had to start my tour last week and it has been challenging to say the least. 

I knew I wouldn't be able to stay exactly on track but vowed to try the best I could, in a band of people eating fast food and drinking constantly let me tell you this is a challenge! 

 

Now I am half way through and its really starting to get hard. We have a gruelling schedule with a lot of early flights and drives, and I find myself constantly hungry even though when I started whole 30 I was amazed at how unhungry I felt. I don't know what's changed except the travelling, which infuriatingly mainly consists of sitting still (generally uncomfortably) so I'm eating extra calories and not even burning them off. 

 

I try to be prepared to not have to make a bad choice by carrying fruit/ nuts/ paleo bars with me, but then I find when I get hungry I just eat them all instead of rationing to one or two snacks a day. I am drinking coffee constantly to keep me with it, and feel like keep snacking on fruit and paleo bars is not helping me quit the sugar cravings I felt I was making progress with. Its impossible to carry things like meat or eggs with me as there's no way to keep things cool, a box of warm chicken sat in the bottom of a bus for 5 hours is not appetitizing in the least believe me. I have eaten so much meat and eggs when we get to sit down for a proper meal that I can't actually face much more of it. Getting good quality meat is impossible at some of the service stations/ airports, I got a chicken salad yesterday and the list of additives in the chicken alone made me feel so sick I couldn't eat it. 

I'm trying to hunt things out and prepare in advance but now finding it incredibly difficult and turning down that post gig drink is getting harder every night. I seem to have gone from finding it easy to really quite challenging. 

 

Anyway not sure if anyone has faced a similar situation travelling with work but any tips or encouragement for surviving on the road very much appreciated! 

 

Thanks

[MrsStick]

When you get hungry, eat meat. Can you buy tuna packets (not cans) in oil? Those are easy to carry, easy to open, and usually soy-free. Couple that with some veggies or a salad or whatever and you have a good meal/minimeal/I'mNotEatingThatGrilledCheeseSandwichThankYouVeryMuch/whatever need you have. Plus, if you aren't hungry enough to eat tuna, you probably aren't actually hungry...

 

If I make my first option when I'm snacky things I want (like compliant dried fruit or Larabars) I will eat too much of them. If option one is something less appetizing but more filling, I'll only eat what I need, not what my brain wants due to boredom. I haven't done a ton of long travelling like you on a Whole 30, but I did travel twice during my first one. I went to Faschings at Koln, Germany one weekend and then to Nice during Carnival (by accident) for the second weekend. Technically compliant, although I did have fruit salad in Nice to avoid eating the dessert my friend was having the first afternoon. C'est la vie...

 

Also - one idea for you with gas station food is to pick up sandwiches with veggies, then remove the bread and eat the veggies. You'll probably want to throw out the meat too because it's likely fairly chemistry experiment-filled...

[Guest Andria]

Unfortunately, I have not been in a similar situation and probably don't have anything but sympathy to offer. But, you mentioned traveling by bus, so why can't you bring a cooler for your food? I don't know what to say about your meat and eggs comment because those are the staples of a Whole30 meal, as well as fish.

I think relying on the fruit/nuts/paleo bars as snacks are causing the increased hunger you mentioned, so definitely lay off those. Snacks are not recommended but in an emergency try paleo jerky (have to search for a compliant one) raw carrots/cucumber etc and avocado for your fat, for instance.

Where do your band mates eat their meals? You mentioned fast food joints. Can't you get a burger or chicken sandwich, nix the bun, get a side salad sans dressing and add avocado or nuts (that you packed yourself). Surely, though, they don't eat ALL their meals at fast food places? You can do pretty well at almost any restaurant (dry grilled meat/fish, steamed veggies, oil vinegar salad dressing)

[Guest Andria]

Oh and MrsStick reminded me by mentioning tuna! Canned chicken (not bad), canned salmon, sardines, oysters etc are options that don't need to be kept cold. Many of those options are in pull tab cans so you don't even need a can opener.

[amberino21]

I was also going to suggest canned fish, you could also get jerky as portable protein.

The other ladies have given you great advice and suggestions for ways to be creative with vegies - I'd add that as well as making you feel hungry, constant sugar will probably be contributing to your tiredness and energy levels

Perhaps if you're eating at a restaurant , you could ask for two meals and get one packed up for leftovers? Getting a cooler is a great idea - it'll save your stuff getting warm and going bad.