It’s summer which means hopefully we’ll be camping some! Camping brings about it’s own slew of healthy eating obstacles as it limits you since you don’t have all your usual fixin’s at your fingertips. So, now, more than ever you HAVE to plan ahead. I’m not saying stick to the plan 100% but I think you’ll find information here that will allow you to do that if you want. My other piece of advise is to look at what you normally eat while out camping and decide on some healthy alternatives. I should also note that most of this advise is geared towards car camping, as in you are camping right near your car. If you’re backpacking, you’re going to have to do a bunch of dehydrating of your own meals to make sure you’re getting your allotted containers and it will definitely be a challenge but can be done. So, car camping on the plan:
So, we only went camping for 1 night, 2 days but I decided to plan and give ideas for people if we had gone for longer! First thing I did was sat down and PLANNED my meals/snacks and what I could take! I started with breakfast:
Breakfast Ideas:
- Oatmeal with fruit (1 yellow, 1 purple)
- Yogurt with fruit (1 red, 1 purple)
- Eggs with vegetables and toast (1 red, 1 green, 1 yellow)
- Whole Grain Cereal with milk (2 yellows)
- English muffins with peanut butter (yellow and tsp)
Lunch Ideas:
- Tuna pouches with celery, fruit and carrots (1 red, 1 green)
- PB and sliced strawberry sandwich (tsps, 1 purple, 1-2 yellow)
- Cold pasta salad (premade) (1-2 yellow, 1-2 green, red if add meat)
- You can pre-make some of your favorite meals and home and heat up over the fire!
Dinner Ideas:
- Bunless burgers with campfire potatoes, corn, vegetable (1 red, 1 yellow, 1 green)
- Whole wheat spaghetti with organic no salt/sugar added sauce, vegetable (1-2 yellow, purple)
- Fish/shrimp grilled with campfire potatoes, corn, vegetables (1 red, yellow, green)
- You can basically cook anything ahead of time and bring it if you’re only going for a couple of days and reheat on the fire!
Snacks:
- Make your own trail mix (sunflower seeds, nuts, dried fruit, add chocolate chips if you’re treating yourself during this time
- Pre-measured seeds, nuts, dried fruit
- KIND bars (treat or 1 orange, 1 tsp for any kind bar that does NOT have chocolate drizzled on it)
- Fruit- Apples, oranges, grapes, cherries, pears, bananas
- Vegetables- pre-chop!- Celery, cucumbers, green beans, baby carrots, grape tomatoes
- Hummus!
- Cheese stick, or cubes (pre-measure)
- Beef jerky for the meat eaters in the group!
- Greek yogurt
So, after I created a list I picked the couple I actually would want to eat and that fit into my schedule (we were going hiking over lunch so I needed a to-go lunch that didn’t weigh a lot and was filling).Then I hit the store! Oh, and buy the huge things of water like below, don’t dehydrate yourself! Here’s some of my haul:
Exercise: If you have wifi I guess you could do the workouts on demand or bring a portable DVD player but I suggest planning in some exercising that gets your heart rate up! Go on that hike, a walk, do some swimming, biking anything that gets your moving will help you stay on track! Plan it in to your day and make it a group event so there are no excuses.
What I ate:
Snacks and lunch were on the go since we were traveling to the campsite. So snacks were dried cherries/apricots and sunflower seeds. Lunch was on the trail and was a tuna pouch with a kind bar.
Make sure you stay hydrated yourself! I highly recommend getting a backpack that you can put a bladder of water in, makes it easy to get your water and you don’t have to stop and get your water bottle out every 20 minutes.
Snack back at the campfire after our hike was, of course, shakeology. Easiest way to ensure I have my nutrients for the day! I have to admit I’m not a big fan of it not blended but it gets the job done and it’s only 1 day.
Dinner is super easy if you’re able to grill over the fire or have a camping grill.
Dessert: Yes, you can have a sweet treat while camping… so when everyone else is enjoying s’more go ahead and try a chocolate banana boat. This was surprisingly amazing and is husband and kid approved! I didn’t make these this camping trip but they can be 21 day fix approved, count the chocolate as a treat swap and the banana is either 1-2 purple. If you’re feeling like going crazy… throw a couple mini marshmallows in there! All you need is a banana cut length wise (leave on the peel), stuff your chocolate chips in there and wrap in foil. Throw that foil packet right in the fire for 10 minutes, remove with tongs and let cool for a little while before eating.
Breakfast was eggs both mornings of the trip, it’s simple but effective.
So, what do you think? Can you survive camping without completing unraveling all of your hard work?! What are some ideas that I missed?