My sister and I travel together a couple times each year. Last month, we did our second trip of 2022! We departed on Monday and returned late the following Sunday. The first leg of our trip was a quaint cabin getaway with a friend and her sister in northern Minnesota at The Shire. No, we did not see any Hobbits or Elves, but we did have an amazing time relaxing, hiking, and connecting on the trails, in the cabin, and on our twice daily meditations in the Labyrinth. Thursday morning, we disembarked on the second leg of our trip to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania (15 hour drive) to visit our niece, who is a freshman at Pitt. It was like 2 vacations in 1! We spent 3 days in a very nice hotel in Pittsburgh exploring the city sights and bonding with our niece.
Planning and prepping for an 8 day car trip split between Minnesota and Pittsburgh – a cabin in the woods, and a hotel in the city – without stopping at home is a challenge!
First of all, the weather was very different than the weather folks had predicted 🤦♀️. Instead of 70 degrees and sun in both places, we had the first frost at the cabin and the remnants of Hurricane Ian at the hotel.😮 Knowing the weather can be finicky, I had packed one sweatshirt and one pair of sweatpants, but no long sleeve shirts and no rain gear. My sister packed more clothes than I did; however, her luggage consisted of more warm weather gear. Planning what to wear is not the only challenge we had to surmount.
When I travel, I can experience digestive issues. And believe me, this can also be a challenge for anyone traveling with me if you know what I mean.🤪
❓Anyone else have this happen❓
Eating out for every meal, not knowing what options will be offered, and not having control over the balance of my meals creates a perfect storm of gas, bloating, and constipation. 😳 I don’t know how you feel when this happens, but I get:
👎🏻Cranky
👎🏻Short-tempered
👎🏻Sullen
All I want to do at that point is to lay in my room and beat myself up for making choices that keep me from enjoying my time with people I love. I have spent too many days, weeks, months, and years NOT being present in those precious moments. What I wouldn’t give to have all that time back to be able to focus on the important things, which are:
♥️My family
♥️My friends
♥️Laughter
♥️Hugs
♥️Love
SO, I PLAN and PREP as much of my food as I can while planning for some times when I will be eating out, which makes me able to enjoy ALL the food and ALL the moments.
Prior to leaving Monday morning, I
✅Prepped all my breakfasts (6)
✅Prepped all my lunches (6)
✅Prepped all my dinners (6)
✅Packed a case of water bottles
✅Packed my pillow and ear plugs
✅Packed my supplements
✅Packed a set of utensils, a dish, and a blender bottle
➡️An individual sandwich-sized Ziploc bag stored each meal in order to save space.
➡️I froze my lunches and dinners to help them travel longer.
Guess what? I came home with some meals that were leftover. YES! I didn’t eat all of them–BUT I was prepared if I needed to, based on how my GUT felt.
💪THE MOST IMPORTANT thing for me on this trip was to FEEL GOOD! I wanted to spend EVERY MOMENT enjoying the time with my niece, sister, and friends.
I DID NOT want to feel bloated, gassy, and crabby AT ALL!
I was able to accomplish this BECAUSE I planned and prepped!
NO, I didn’t eat all my meals.
YES, I ate out with my niece and sister whenI wanted to.
NO, I didn’t feel like I missed out on anything!
In fact, I got exactly what I expected, what I planned for:
♥️An amazing trip with my sister where I was present for and enjoyed EVERY MOMENT.
Now THAT is PRICELESS!
If you want more details about HOW I actually accomplished this while being in a hotel and on the road, just click the purple button and schedule a call. I would love to tell you my tricks!
