Fueling Snacks to Bring in the Car for Summer Trips

Athletes travel a lot in the summer. Whether it is for a slew of training sessions, races and competitions or just tooling around with family, it is not uncommon to put major miles on your tires. While traveling can be a lot of fun, it can also be quite stressful for athletes trying to keep to a fueling plan that nourishes them, assists with recovery and perhaps aids in body composition changes. Here are some great snacks to keep "on board" during your travels:

**About 2-3 days ahead of your trip, sit down with these options and make a shopping list to take with you to the store so you will be ready to go!

Equipment you need:

Cooler - small and large options, depending on the length of the trip

Ice packs - for shorter trips

Bags of ice - for longer trips

Large tote for storage of shelf-stable food

Sandwich bags - for portioning out bulk snacks into smaller bags

Snack options for the cooler:

Greek yogurt

Cheese sticks

1/2 gallon or individual containers of milk

Lunch meat (uncured is best)

Slices of cheese for sandwiches

Block cheese

Hard boiled eggs

Already "cut" veggies: baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, sugars snap peas, mini sweet peppers

Snack options that are shelf-stable:

Granola bars: both high protein (10-20gm protein per bar) and low protein (less than 10 gm), depending on if you will combine with a protein source

Fresh fruit

Lean jerky

Whole grain crackers

Whole wheat bread

Whole wheat English muffins and/or bagels

Peanut butter, natural

Jelly, jam and/or honey

Dried fruit

Nuts, lightly salted

Seeds, lightly salted

Shelf-stable chocolate, white milk or soy milk (if cooler not an option)

At snacks, combine a source of carbohydrate (fruit, dairy or grains) with a source of protein (nuts, seeds, dairy, meat). Note that some foods, such as dairy, contain a bit of both, while other foods need to be combined with another food to get both nutrients. By using the list above, you will be ready for your travels, fueling in style!

Your Nutrition Coach,

RDKate

Picture source

5 Nutrition Tasks Before Traveling By Air to Races

Traveling across the country for that big race is exciting. However, traveling by air can wreak havoc on athletes' performance when not done right. To be ready to race when you arrive at your destination, here are 4 things you should do BEFORE you travel this summer.

1. Research food vendors at your destination
Nothing is worse than arriving at your destination and realizing there are no good food options in sight. Do a little research in advance. Know where you will eat the night before your race. Locate the closest grocery store to do some shopping for essentials when you arrive. Make a list of what you need to buy, and go shopping first before you do anything else.

2. Pack your favorite foods
If you have a favorite race morning breakfast or preferred snacks, don't take any chances - pack them! Don't forget race day fuel, as this is not something you want to be driving around looking for once you arrive. Remember that any liquid or semi-liquid foods need to go into a checked bag, so plan for this when packing. Call the hotel to see if there is a frig, microwave or even full kitchenette in the room. If not, pack a hot pot (cook pot) that you can easily use to make foods such as rice, oatmeal, pasta or quinoa right in your room. And don't forget plastic plates, bowls and utensils.

How about dinner and a 150 foot jump?

Welcome to part 2 of my amazing adventures in New Zealand! Last week, I introduced breakfast and lunch. Lets move on to dinner and then more exciting activities!

Dinner
As a general rule, Kiwis do not eat dinner until late - typically around 7:30pm. Similar to Europe, dinner is a very relaxed meal that can last a good amount of time in good company. At restaurants, the waitstaff is not pushy and will never make you feel as if you need to "hurry up and leave".
Given that New Zealand is two islands, it won't surprise you that the seafood was delicious. Though prepared quite similar to the States, one could tell it was fresh (see picture of my partially-eaten seafood dinner). I regret to say that I probably could have eaten a bit more seafood during my time in NZ. And what better to go with seafood than wine? I was shocked to discover that there are vineyards in NZ and wine is quite a popular commodity - who knew?! After visiting a couple of wineries, I will say that I was quite impressed with the flavor and quality. For the most part, I observed more wine being drunk with dinner than beer, but breweries are quite plentiful as well, so we never seemed to be lacking multiple micro-brew options.

One more surprising dinner option - Indian food. I could not believe the number of Indian restaurants in every part of NZ we visited. There are likely many reasons for this, but we simply had to give in one night, even though we of course can get this in the states. One order of butter chicken, potato curry and garlic nann later....we were not disappointed.

Calling all adventure-seekers!
If there is one thing NZ will never be called, it's "boring". We could have done one crazy adventure after another and never run out of new things to try. Instead, we chose jet boating, kayaking, hiking, hang gliding, and bungy jumping

Jet Boating
This is very popular all over NZ, but we chose to experience this at the Huka Falls. The idea is you sit in a boat with about 12 people and go flying down a narrow river canyon at unreasonable speeds, while the driver performs 360's and other daring maneuvers. Think of it as being on a group jet ski. While I thought it was a bit over-hyped, they still did a nice job with this. 

Kayaking

We chose to kayak in the beautiful Milford Sound. Located in Fiordland, it is rich with phenomenal views that literally took my breath away. While the trip should have been fairly relaxing, an odd weather pattern creating a change in wind direction. Instead of few minutes of head wind with mainly tail wind otherwise, we had the opposite. Twenty-five minutes into the wind - lets just say it was epic!

Tangariro Alpine Crossing

This 19.4K hike is considered one of the most beautiful one-day hikes in the world. After completing this hike, I wouldn't doubt that! Temperatures ranged from 45 to 70 degrees and at the highest point, we were at 1900 meters! Absolutely amazing and I would recommend it to anyone. Read more about the crossing here. And yes - that IS Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings.

Hang Gliding
This has got to be the closest to flying anyone will experience. I was fortunate enough to fly with the World Champion of Hang Gliding. Therefore, he felt comfortable enough to actually stop the kite a few times during our flight so you were literally hanging in mid-air...crazy! The best parts were taking off (i.e. running off a cliff) and landing (flying at incredibly high speeds toward the ground and rolling along the grass - quite like an airplane!).

Bungy Jumping

While I always said I would NEVER do this, who could go to New Zealand - the birthplace of bungy jumping - and not try it? Not only did we jump in NZ, we jumped at the location of the very first commercial bungy jump. It was a 150 foot jump, and easily the most terrifying moment of my life was standing at the top and looking down. However, contrary to my own beliefs, once I took the leap, it was not painful and in fact my stomach did not even drop - impressive! While I'm not sure I'll ever do it again, I would definitely recommend everyone try this at least once.


Visiting New Zealand left my husband and I wondering - why don't more Americans come here?! I would love to go back, and I hope each of you get the chance to experience this amazing countryside one day too.

Be Extraordinary,

RDKate

Eating in the Land of the Kiwis - NZ!

During my 14-day visit to New Zealand, I was able to try some phenomenal food. However, more than just trying food, my favorite part about traveling is being a food observer - noting the types of foods served at which meals and how that differs from back home.

Breakfast

Breakfast food options were quite similar to the U.S.A., with the exception of a few things. First, muesli was extremely popular and a must at breakfast. Many of you I'm sure have tried this delightful cereal, which is often a mixture of oats, dried fruit, and nuts. Think of it as a dressed-up oatmeal served cold with milk instead of warm. (This was a common attendant at breakfast during my travels through Europe as well.) I really wish we had good, affordable muesli available to us in the states because it is high in fiber, vitamins, minerals, and protein - a phenomenal choice for breakfast! The other entertaining difference was the labels for milk. Instead of skim, 1%, 2%, or whole milk, the milks were labeled trim and standard (with variations of extra trim and such). Finally, the coffee in New Zealand left much to be desired. Coffee must be somewhat of a delicacy there, as one small cup cost 2-3x what we pay here. Also, Kiwis don't drink our drip coffee, but prefer European-style espresso and other strong coffee variations. Instead of having a coffee maker in the hotel rooms, every room provided instant (yes, you read correctly) - instant coffee granules. I love me a good instant cup for camping and such, but 14 days of instant coffee would make any American caffeine-addict zany. I rejoiced when I finally found American-style coffee (i.e. an Americano) in Queenstown at Joe's Garage. Delicious!

Lunch
One of my favorite things to do when I travel is to visit American fast food joints to check out how the menu differs from back home. I may not purchase anything, but if you've never done this, it is quite interesting. McDonalds was my chain of choice this time around - mainly because they were everywhere (though we did enjoy the fact that KFC was also a HUGE hit). Because Kiwis (like Italians, French, and British) enjoy their afternoon coffee and biscuit, every McDonalds had a "McCafe Bistro" that served not only specialty coffee (many more selections than here), but also desserts similar to what you would see at a Starbucks (which was also a common site). The food menu was otherwise quite similar, though more limited than in the states. One additional category of items we tried were wraps. They had a tandoori chicken and a sweet chili chicken wrap (which were 'seared' instead of 'grilled'). While I had great expectations for these wraps, they fell short. The chicken itself was much more authentic than the chicken served in the states (yum), but the wrap itself was falling apart and covered with too much dressing, making it incredibly difficult to eat.

Come back next week when I discuss dinner (wine, seafood, and curry - oh my!) as well as show you why New Zealand is the perfect place for adventure-seekers. Cheers!

Be Extraordinary,

RDKate