Eating right while moving

[Ghost37]

Does anyone have any advice/tips for how to eat healthy while moving? Since I'm shipping out at the end of the month, I've been helping my parents move 60-ish miles to be closer to my dad's job for the past couple of days, and it's just hit me that we've done nothing but eat fast food and other junk that's not good for any of us. Once we get moved in and everything, I'll be able to get back into a routine and everything and making healthy meals for my family. Until then though, all our cooking utensils are packed up and I'm not sure how to make a good meal out of cold pizza and fast food :/

[airen123]

What appliances do you have access to? If you have a toaster oven, you can cook thawed frozen chicken and veggies right into a foil packet.

Fridge? Cooler with ice to keep groceries in for a day...Salad items, fruit, etc.

[msuroo]

A 60 mile move is a 1-2 hour drive right? I'm assuming you aren't staying in hotels or anything and are crashing at either the old or the new place in the meanwhile. Even if all of the cookware is packed up, do you still have access to a microwave and refrigerator? Eating right is tougher on the move for sure, but it can still be done with a little planning. Get ready-to-eat foods from the grocery store (rotisserie chicken and frozen vegetables come to mind) rather than fast food and pizza. If that's not an option, try to make smarter restaurant choices. If you order smart, you can fill up on some pretty healthy foods at places like Panera or Chipotle.

[airen123]

Chick-fil-a has grilled nuggets:victorious:

[morethanjustamom]

Also, some larger grocery stores have large salad bars, or ready to go salads (garden salad with chicken breast strips) in their deli area.

[Jaswandi]

Good luck on the move, I'm also interested to know, since I will be moving in a few weeks.

If you order smart, you can fill up on some pretty healthy foods at places like Panera or Chipotle.

What do you eat at Chipotle?

[msuroo]

What do you eat at Chipotle?

My go-to is a salad bowl with 2x steak or chicken, fajita veggies, pico, hot salsa, and guac. 600 calories of yum.

[Eurydice]

I'm moving in a few weeks too, so I'll be keeping an eye on this. I was wondering about the food thing myself.

[Ghost37]

There's an oven and fridge at both places, and a microwave at one. I've thought about the ready-to-eat things at the grocery store, but I get intimidated by what to pick because I don't feel like I know enough about what to look for. Pretty much all I know is what's specifically spelled out on the website. I think it's just the fact that they're frozen or that I don't know exactly how things are made or something like that, but I'm always wary of microwaveable foods. For some reason, I've never even thought about going over to the part of the store that actually makes food haha.

As for restaurants, house A is in the middle of nowhere, so there's only fast food places really. McDonald's and Subway are the main places we go. At Mickey D's I usually get a fruit and walnut thing or a grilled chicken club with no mayo if I'm really hungry, and at Subway I've been getting the turkey & bacon avocado 6-inch. I used to get all my sandwiches on wheat bread, but after reading Steve's articles about grains being not so good, I'm not really sure which bread to get in general. House B is in a more city area, and I haven't really gotten to look around that much. I do know though, that there's a Chili's, Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, along with pretty much every fast food place I can think of. A lot more choices, basically, which makes my over-analysis induced paralysis even worse.

[morethanjustamom]

You can turn any subway sandwich into a large salad.

[Ghost37]

Do I just say I want it as a salad when I order it?

[airen123]

Chili's-fajitas with no tortillas. Just fork it.

Olive Garden tutorial on Sparkpeople:

"Lean proteins like seafood and chicken are good choices, except when covered in rich alfredo or carbonara sauces. Venetian Apricot Chicken (380 calories, 4 g fat, 1,420 mg sodium), Shrimp Primavera (730 calories, 12 g fat, 1,620 mg sodium), Herb Grilled Salmon (590 calories, 26 g fat, 720 mg sodium) and Shrimp & Asparagus Risotto (620 calories, 30 g fat, 2,530 mg sodium) are lower in calories and fat than other entrees, but still high in sodium"

"Skinny" your subway bread if you do Subway-tear off some of the bread. The 6 under 6 grams of fat is a pretty good program, just not paleo.

[morethanjustamom]

Do I just say I want it as a salad when I order it?

I think salads are on the menu, and you just stand there and tell them what you want in it, just like a sandwich.

Also, olive Garden has a gluten free menu of you ask for it.

[Ghost37]

I think salads are on the menu, and you just stand there and tell them what you want in it, just like a sandwich

Haha, as long as I've gone to Subway and I never knew that. msuroo said something about Panera earlier, and while driving around I spotted one; what's something that I should get and/or suggest to my parents for lunch or dinner as we've yet to go.

[DirtyBird]

This is an awesome thread since I'm leaving for Texas tomorrow from California and will be on the road for three days. Completely terrified of eating on the road...

[chasely]

Haha, as long as I've gone to Subway and I never knew that. msuroo said something about Panera earlier, and while driving around I spotted one; what's something that I should get and/or suggest to my parents for lunch or dinner as we've yet to go.

The nice thing about Panera is they're menu tells you approximately how many calories are in each item.

When I go, I almost exclusively get the Thai Chopped Chicken Salad. I would say that any of their "premium" menu items are good. Panera isn't cheap like fast food though. I also like they're Asiago Roast beef sandwich (be warned, it has horseradish on it).