eating healthy on vacation

I'm packing this morning to take The Best Girl in the World and my mom to Disney World, so trying to eat healthy away from home has been on my mind quite a bit this week.  We're staying on property, so I'm not sure if I will have access to a fresh market (or a wine store, for that matter!!!). 

As I was packing my running shoes in my suitcase, thought "let's be serious... there's no way I'm gonna go for a run at Disney World."  Prime opportunity - a one mile walking/running trail around the hotel AND a built-in babysitter.  Sigh.  Yeah, I know myself, and I'm not gonna go for a run after walking all over creation everyday.  So instead, I'm focusing on my meals, and I've been reading articles about eating well while traveling.  I thought I would share some of that with you before we leave.

This article from 2009 has some great tips for flying, road trips, and for eating out (on vacation or not!).  Some of the highlights:

• Avoid the “special” sauce. At a restaurant, the “special” sauce usually comes on a meal that is loaded with calories of little nutritional value. Also avoid fried or battered foods.   

• Get an appetizer. Appetizers are often smaller than regular meals. Order an appetizer and then ask that it come with the meal. The same is true of a side. Perhaps order a small appetizer and a side salad or soup, instead of getting an entree.

Here's a pretty good wikiHow that has some good tips, too. 


My approach - drink lots of water, avoid fried foods like the plague, and eat salads whenever I can.  One of these days we'll talk about how to build a healthy salad (yes, there's such a thing as an UNhealthy salad), but for now I'm going to enjoy my morning coffee and finish packing our bags.  I hope you have a wonderful week!!!

semantics

A quick thank you to Ray Beeze for the Twitter shout-out!  You should check out his Tweets - I promise you'll either laugh out loud or wonder "do people really think this way??"  Or both.  And the answer is YES - they do.  Well, he does, anyway.  And I should add he's a rather handsome fella... but I digress.

Semantics.  So, when I say "Technically Healthy," you also gotta know that I'm not a t-totaller by any stretch of the imagination.  It's Girl Scout Cookie season - in this house, we eat us some Girl Scout cookies!  We eat pizza, and sometimes we even have a soda (gasp!).  The Best Girl in the World takes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to school for lunch.  She gets to live a kid's life.  BUT - in that sandwich, she has natural peanut butter and "reduced calorie" jelly (not the kind with artificial sweeteners... just literally half the sugar).  And no HFCS (high fructose corn syrup).  A lesson for another day - know your food allergies and intolerances.  We'll revisit that at a later date...   

I'm not saying everyone should eat sprouts... although you probably should because they are crazy nutritious.  ;)  But even kids LOVE nutritious food when that's what they are offered, and the behavior is modeled for them (ahem!  this means you eat your veggies, too!).  How many kids do you know that order sushi in a sushi joint?  I know two - The Best Girl in the World and her best bud Miss D.  These beautiful, bright girls have grown up being offered healthy foods and they enjoy them.  They order hummus at the Greek restaurant and ask for veggies at dinner time.   

You gotta live a little, too.  My work friends think I'm a total health nut.  Trust me - there are some folks out there that are WAY more nutty than I am when it comes to food.  We try to eat healthy, and we also enjoy treats.  It's all about balance.  I've learned that lesson well over the last few years.

Technically Healthy.

So if you're new to this whole "healthy" thing, let's just take it one day at a time.  Here's your first official health tip from your new Technically Healthy friend:

Live.  Laugh.  Love.

Breathe in the spring air (if the sun ever comes back).  The next tip will be a little more involved.  :)

Welcome to My World

Hi.  If you've stumbled across this blog (or if I sent you a shameless plug LOL)... welcome to my world!  The general idea is this... I'm a technical professional and I've been working in software for, what?  10 years or so now?  Sheesh.  Time flies.  Over the last few years, I've started learning bits here and there about natural health, nutrition, etc.  I am preparing to start my education (again - a blog for another day) in the world of natural health to see where it leads.  Until then, I keep my day job.

And there it is - Technically Healthy.

Welcome - stick around!  It could be fun.  At the least, it may be entertaining.