Most gray nomad, senior travellers are very health conscious these days,  one of the first requirements for many travellers is an adequate size fridge in the caravan  or motor home so they can store sufficient vegetables to allow them to prepare and eat, healthy not too high in calorie or overladen with salt, meals.

If you were striving to slim down and get fitter, before you leave for your trip, are you able to continue towards this goal successfully, while on tour and if so, I would love to have you share your tips to fellow travellers, via the comments  section.

Do you arrive home from your travels wishing you had weight loss supplements, to help recover from having eaten more food and perhaps exercising less than you do when home?

 If so, what is the pit falls you would suggest other travellers might try to avoid?

Here are a few of my travel tips to staying trim and healthy while travelling.

Healthy holiday ideas that also help trim the waistline.

*Holidaying where you can swim and or hike

*Holiday where you can buy fresh vegetables and keep up your 5 serves of vegetables and two fruits even while travelling.

*Continue to eat from all the food groups, and consider portion size of servings.

*Watch the serving sizes of food. A serving size of fruit is one cup, a serving size of beans, pasta or rice, is half a cup. A serving size of salad vegetables is one cup but of starchy vegetables like corn, peas and potatoes, it is half a cup.

*BBQ’s are a part of outdoor life.. Enjoy them while still taking great care of you. It is best to trim off excess fats, limit fatty and highly processed meats as much as possible and limit your protein serving size to around the size of a pack of cards, or your own palm size, a measurement that makes allowance for larger framed people generally being able to consume more calories.  A very high animal protein diet can hinder the absorption of calcium into your bones so if you are wanting more protein food in your diet, can I suggest adding lentils to your stews and serving mixed bean salads with the BBQ’s.  Unless you are exercising vigorously, seniors do not need as high an iron diet as younger people, especially women, do. We do need more bone minerals however..

*Pack an extra travel fridge if the existing one in the caravan is not large enough to hold your fresh vegetable, supplies, between restocking trips to the store.

*Pack a water filter or buy water to encourage you to drink sufficient fresh water rather than calorie-laden beverages.

*Keep up your buddy system, stay in touch with friends who encourage you to live a healthy lifestyle, while you travel.

*Enjoy a healthy, happy hour, try one alcoholic drink and the remaining drinks filtered water.

*When dining out, order wine by the glass instead of by the bottle and don't worry if the food is more calorie laden than what you would cook yourself, enjoy it, eat slowly, and stop when you are satisfied, not stuffed full.

*Low fat yogurt is a great substitute for cream, fruit is a great dessert.

*Inexpensive, powdered non-fat skim milk powder and rolled oats are two lightweight staples we stock up on before we leave home and always make sure we have in stock. Rolled oats is our basic healthy breakfast, at home and on tour, it is high fibre and low salt and sugar.

*Cooking healthy is the way to go, while travelling. Sometimes we pack the thermos cooker and make stews and soups, removing all the fat, before eating, it also cooks a healthy whole grain creamed rice, desert. I use a non stick pan with no more than 2 teaspoons of a good oil, (example olive oil), per day, per person.  I also use a large George Foreman grill and I cook all the vegetables on this, along with the fish, poultry or meat. One appliance cooking is easy and can also be healthy. 

*To cut back further on fats, Reg and I have stopped buying butter and margarine type spread, gives up more space for healthier food in a smaller caravan fridge, as an extra bonus.  We buy the low fat tasty cheese, it’s an easy lunch and with milk, yogurt and a serve of cheese, vegetables like broccoli, and one calcium supplement in the evening, with a few almonds, a senior can get sufficient calcium in their diet to help protect their bone density.

*Holidays are an excellent opportunity to walk. Wear a pedometer and try to get in 1.000 steps. On days when you have long drives, stop and walk every two hours, if not more frequently and do a few press ups agianst the trees or the car bonnet,.

*No need to obsess about your weight or carry bathroom scales, just have at least one pair of tight fitting jeans or a tape measure with you so you can check each week that you are maintaining or achieving your personal weight management goals.

Enjoy your holiday and do not worry excessively about weight, focus on fitness and good health, have heaps of fun and bring back a healthy you and wonderful memories. :-)

 

Do you love a BBQ? 

Do you like to travel light ? 

Meat in a Park is a great facebook compatible service for finding the closest public BBQ.

I can see Reg and myself having fun using this application, if I am ever brave enough to buy the iPhone I want and learn how to use it within my budget allowance. I think that used intelligently the iPhone will be a fantastic aid on our next tour, certainly smaller and lighter than packing a BBQ. 

It is a new service so it currently does not cover all of Australia. Currently the service only contains BBQ locations for Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and various councils across Australia. More will come!
You can email the creator of the Meat in a Park, application at adyster@gmail.com.

Meat in a Park uses Facebook for authentication. Once you set Meat in a Park, up as a facebook, application, you can log in to Facebook and you are also logged into Meat in a Park. You can then use facebook application, Meat in a Park to invite your facebook friends to meet you at a public BBQ site at an appointed time.

My facebook  ID, if you would like to add me as a friend, is Kathy Joy Shell
 

Evening follow up. 

Reg had a medical check up today, we have some medication to help with the symptoms, some follow up tests to have done tomorrow, and I used a wand type blender tonight to make a meat and vegetable puree and served that with mashed potato and he ate the largest meal he has eaten in weeks and enjoyed it.  So a positive management plan ahead for my not so active at the moment, gray nomad, wonderful man.  I told him we are still heading on our 2010 Australian tour even if I do everything.  I said the only allowance we needed to make if either of us was unwell was to not go into the outback, but stay on the main routes where we were never too far from civilization, maybe the East coast of Australia, next year if he hasn't regained a lot of ground.   This made him smile :-).

Avoiding excessive sodium in your diet.

One of the simplest things you can do to protect your health while travelling is to stick to a no added sodium diet as much as is possible. 80% of sodium in our diet comes from adding salt to our food and salt already added in processed foods and while this may be tolerated by many healthy people, it is dangerous to people with high blood pressure and many other health conditions more common amongst seniors.  During our gray nomad, active senior years, most of us become more conscious of how we can maintain our active lifestyle for as long as possible though the simple actions of eating healthy and being active.  As salt is hidden in many food products here are a few tips to minimize excessive intake of sodium (salt), in our diet.

Tips on how to cut back on added sodium in your diet.

Herbs, onion and garlic are ideal for adding flavour instead of commercially prepared soups, sauces and processed stock.

Fresh or frozen vegetables are best, if buying tinned foods, look for low sodium on the label or limit the use of canned food to only when fresh and frozen is not available. I know it’s hard to find fresh food and carry a lot of frozen food while on tour.

Oil and vinegar with or without herbs and lemon juice makes a sodium free salad dressing.

Rolled oats is a sodium free and sugar free healthier and inexpensive alternative to processed breakfast cereal.

Cheese, butter and margarine can be high sodium, look for low sodium versions or limit use.

Eat home cooked as much as possible, you know what you are eating and how it was prepared. 

Avoid anything pickled, marinated, smoked, barbequed, sauce, especially teriyaki and soy sauce, Vegemite, Bonox, stock cubes, broth, miso, commercially made gravy and gravy powders, bacon, and obviously, anything labelled, salted or salty.

Long distance travel requires staying seated for lengthy periods of time, be sure to stop frequently and walk, remember to drink water regularly to stay hydrated and to help eliminate excessive sodium in your body. A high sodium diet increases the risk of fluid retention in the feet and legs, not a pleasant or a healthy combination of health risk factors.

Weight fluctuations may be due to fluid retention.

A lot of the weight people think they put on during the initial phase of a tour is only fluid retention due to a higher sodium diet than they were eating at home. A combination of using more packaged foods and having more road house or restaurant meals usually results in a dramatic increase in sodium from what most people are used to in their diet, and a rapid weight gain is the result.

I know I can gain six kilo in a couple of days if I eat salty foods. Once I get myself back on to my own preferred home cooking with no added sodium, I lose weight and puffiness, like I had been  on a thermogenic fat burner, as I can drop several kilos a day over several days.

 I always feel and look better when I steer clear of a high sodium diet and I recommend no added or low added, sodium, diet, to any senior traveller.

 

While the traditional Spanish Omelette seems to be a Tortilla-de-patatas or Potato Omelette, you can use any vegetables; it works well with leftovers and frozen mixed vegetables or whatever you fancy. 

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons of olive oil per person
• 1 large or  2 medium baking potatoes, per person, peeled, sliced thin or grated for faster cooking time.
• Half a large Spanish onion finely, chopped, per person
• 1 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped, per person
• 2 medium eggs per person.
• Pepper
• Extra vegetables available, to taste.  My meal tonight contained, fresh chopped celery, mushrooms, and mixed frozen vegetables, corn, carrot and peas.

Preparation

Heat the olive oil in a non stick pan and add the potato, stirring regularly. Try to keep the potato from clumping together. Add the onions celery and garlic and cook until the potatoes are tender. Add leftover cooked and frozen vegetables and re heat and cook until the last added vegetables are just cooked.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk the eggs with a little added pepper and a dash of water per 2 egg quantity. Pour over the vegetable mix, gently but quickly stir in, (don’t over stir), the leave to set.   Lower the heat to medium and continue to cook, shaking the pan frequently, until mixture is half set.

If a large pan, cut the omelette into four and lift with an egg slice, each quarter and turn over.  If a small skillet shaped, pan, cover the skillet with a plate and invert the omelette away from the hand holding the plate (so as not to burn your hand with any escaping food). Add 1 tablespoon oil to the pan and slide the omelette back into the skillet, on its uncooked side. Cook until completely set.

This omelette can be served hot or cold, cut into wedges and serve with salad and a glass of wine. Season it with pepper and spring onions, lemon, avocado or hollandaise sauce are options

 

Marinade 300 gram of diced gem fish in 1 teaspoon full of olive oil, the juice of one lemon, chopped basil, and one crushed garlic, for a few minutes while preparing capsicum and mushroom pieces.

 

Earlier in the week I had made two shopping trips with a comprehensive list of pantry restocking items, hunted out my best healthy cook books, planted lots of varieties of herbs and vegetables into the garden and I’m ready to extend my culinary skills.

 I usually work without any recipe, mind you I cook very well, following the know how I learned over 57 years ago in a home where processed food and take away was unknown and my mother having both Scottish heritage, cooking skills and her know how from having completed a diploma course in cookery and having dabbled in Haute Cuisine, yet being a busy professional woman she taught her daughters, my sister and myself,  to prepare  the meals, so I function very well without any recipe book, using  basic cooking skills, what is in season and imagination.  

It’s a new venture for me actually try out someone else’s recipes and I am enjoying the experience.

It’s a long time since my cupboards were so well stocked, and the  dining area set up for the first time in our new renovators dream home, so I’ll be able to send out party invitations to the family, invite them over for meals again and if I go and burn off that delicious food, I just ate, by cleaning up and completing the renovations in the rest of the home, I can invite my friends to visit too.  J.

 

Motivational Art firidge magnet by kathy Shell.
When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live. ~Quote by Greg Anderson.

133 days and counting  down J  to January 28th 2010, the day that marks the completion day for my  three year goal for a total  downsized of excess anything, health rebuilt, lifestyle improved, satisfying life for me and my man.

I’m right on track for my goal of being a size 12 three years from when I began at size 22/24. I still have some downsizing of ‘stuff’ to do and I’ll soon be listing items for sale.

The personal goal remains one of learning how to lose belly fat and following the action plant to achieve this. I am ecstatic that in my first two weeks of attending gym I have been assessed as having lost 1.9 % of my body fat, at the same time I gained a couple of hundred grams, proving I am becoming slimmer without risking my bone density.  This is what I am aiming for, to become fitter, more toned and to have strong bones, not to just focus on weight loss at the risk of losing bone and muscle.  At a mature age it is hard to lose weight without risking bone density, and I am confident that I have a great team of helpers working with me, my dietician and my gym instructors all understand I need to lose excess fat, not lose weight to be at my peek of fitness, this is more important to me than my actual size.

Today marks two weeks from the date when we arrived home from our 2009 Australian tour and I am delighted with all I have got done so far and I am working at my fitness action plan which includes going to gym, going weight training, using the tread mill, swimming, I’ve done a lot of gardening including planting out the vegetable garden today and of course generally being very active as I go  about the total spring clean, necessary because of the pesky field mice invasion while we were away.    

I dug out my CSIRO Healthy Heart Program, book and I plan to loosely base my meals and activities on the 12 week Complete Lifestyle Program (CLIP), if nothing else, Reg will actually get meals made to a recipe, that fills another goal I had, to extend my culinary skills.

 

I cook my stock pots in thermos cookware and save money on gas. 

I own both the Dream Pot (see first pictures) and the Shuttle Chef (last picture) Each has it’s advantages, the Shuttle Chef would no doubt insulate the contents more than the Dream Pot, and I love the curved easy clean shape and polish on the stainless steel internal cooking pots but I also love the design of the Dream pot where there is one large pot that allows me to cook enough food for a few meals for two adults and freeze the leftover food for future servings.  The clever design allows a smaller pot to fit inside the larger pot, giving you the same two small pots that you get with the shuttle chief.    

I am thawing out a two serve meal I cooked up in a stock pot a week ago and divided into multiple meal servings.  The recipe was a chicken, a bunch of celery, red and green capsicums and a small chilli pepper, 5 onions a few cloves of garlic, carrots chopped up, herbs, bay leaves, pepper corns, four different varieties of legumes and some barley, covered with water, and a teaspoon full of vinegar which I have read helps draw the minerals out of the bones into the liquid, simmered until just before the chicken meat was ready to disintegrate. 

I removed the chicken allowed both broth and chicken to cook, removed all the fat from the broth and skin and bone from the chicken, returning the chicken chunks to the mixture, it to cool then returned chunks of skin free chicken meat to the mixture. 

I serve about 2 soup ladles full of this mixture for myself and three for my man, with or without dry toast and additional vegetables.   

I have reheated this with snow peas and tonight I will probably serve it with mushrooms on toast.    

I usually use brown rice rather than barley but the brown rice is still packed into he caravan outside and I've been in the house for a week but haven't completed emptying the caravan pantry yet so I changed.    

A money saving tip is to make a broth like this up when you buy your vegetables because there is a lot of nutritious parts of vegetables that are usually thrown out but would be ideal added to a rich broth.  For instance I trim up my cauliflower and broccoli into flowerets and pack them in the crisper ready to use then chop the stalks up and add them to the broth.  All the leafy parts of my celery go in my broths as do the washed outer leaves of lettuce and cabbage.  I also add outer skins if I think they are suitable and clean, pumpkin, potato, mushroom skins are edible and mushroom stalks also go it my stock pot.   

All left over bones are added to the stock pot, I might as well get the benefit of the minerals in my food and the extra flavour it's more nutritious and cheaper to freeze all left over bones so they are ready to throw into the stock pot when your having a cook up (I do one once a fortnight), than to buy commercial stock. I don't add any salt, there is enough salt in the bones and meat already IMO. 

A further economy measure is to cook this in a thermos stock pot.  You heat the pot on the stove for 10 minutes then place in the thermos cooker where it cooks on in its own generated heat, (no additional power required), for up to 6 hours.  This is cheaper than a slow cooker and more portable, can be cooking dinner in the car while you are driving to your night’s camp site.

The only disadvantage I can see for a traveller is that these thermos cookers take up a far bit of space and this year I travelled for four months and cooked everything in one wide deep lidded non stick saucepan and that and one kettle and leaving all additional cooking paraphernalia behind, allowed me room to shop at the SPC cannery before leaving home and store packaged sugar free fruits, legumes, tinned fish and many other non perishable products at huge savings.  We went through three 250 gram containers of fruit a week at $1.each a total of $3, a week for fruit while we travelled and these would have cost us from $3.50 or $10.50 a week to buy as we went.  Similar huge savings were made on trays of salmon at $1. A tin versus an average $3.50 tin if purchased in rural town supermarkets.  By leaving excess cooking pots behind, I was able to save at least $30. a week on my food shopping bill.    

So strange as it seems these thermos cookers I bought for camp trips will get more use saving me cooking fuel costs, when I am in my summer home, rather than seeing very much service when we go on tour.