I plan to leave for a weekend car trip pretty soon, and I was thinking of all the times in the past that I’ve been on these trips and suffered from my unhealthy eating habits. Usually, I eat terribly unhealthy on trips because I’m most concerned with the ease of fast food and its relatively small expense against my travel budget. I never thought, though, that I could do better otherwise.
Until now.
For this trip, I’ve decided to try to eat much better. I feel like if I eat better on the trip, then I’ll feel better and will be able to drive more alert and safely. I also won’t feel gross after sitting in the car for eight hours.
So, here are my three tips for planning to eat healthy while on the go. I pulled these from my own plans for this trip.
Prepare Your Food
This is the main reason why people don’t eat healthy on trips. They don’t prepare! They eat at the first restaurant they see when they get hungry, and usually that restaurant is of the fast-food variety. If you prepare your food in advance, then you take away that need for efficiency. Package your food in easy-to-open containers. Have enough food selected to cover all of your dietary needs. Fruits can provide you sugar, for example, which will give you energy as you drive.. Vegetables, like broccoli or carrots can give you fiber, which is important for regulating your bathroom breaks. If you want something more complicated, do everything you can in your kitchen so that way you don’t have to deal with the hassle on the road.
Think of Eating and Driving
Next, you want to think about how you’ll eat and drive. One of fast food’s flaws is that the hamburgers are really incredibly messy, and so they are hard to eat while you drive. Instead, you should choose foods that are car-friendly: clean, easy-to-eat, and accessible. Vegetables, such as carrots, make great snacks that aren’t messy or greasy on your hands. Bottles with resealable caps are good for keeping your liquids from spilling, but they might be hard to open while you drive. Consider using a container that has a top that pops open. Any bags that need to be ripped open with two hands are tough; put the snacks in a resealable plastic container with an easy-open lid.
Snack Away!
When driving for long periods of time, it’s probably better to get your nutrition through regular snacking, rather than try to eat three meals in your car while you travel. Regular snacking means you’re constantly getting more food into your system, which will keep you energized. It also helps you regulate how much food goes into your system, so you can avoid the ‘food coma’ that we often experience after eating big meals or fast-food.
These are only three tips; what are some others that you’ve found especially helpful on your own trips?
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This guest post is contributed by Kitty Holman, who writes on the topics of nursing colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: kitty.holman20@gmail.com.
Tags: car trips, food, guest post, healthy eating
Do you drink the water in your house? Are you confident that it’s clean? If you don’t drink it, do you think that not drinking it means it really doesn’t matter all that much whether or not you test it? Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to water quality in your home. It could be dangerous.
Drinking the wrong sort of water isn’t a good idea. Ingesting contaminated water is the fastest way to get sick from it. Some people think they’re safer than most because they drink bottled water instead of untested H20. But just because you drink bottled water doesn’t mean you should neglect to have the water in your house tested. Your household water’s cleanliness is paramount to the health of your home and your family.
Some people drink tap water without worrying about it. Some avoid drinking it with a “better safe than sorry” mentality. Some people filter their drinking water but still don’t test it. Sure, some filters work really well at removing bad tastes but won’t necessarily remove dangerous bacteria and fungi.
We all know that getting adequate hydration is imperative to health and wellness and that water has zero calories and more health benefits than can be listed in a short article. But if your house has dirty water, even avoiding drinking the tap water isn’t enough as the water could still harm you and those you love.
Dirty water will penetrate your body’s largest organ, your skin. Unless, that is, you’re bathing in bottled water. If your water isn’t clean and you’re watering your plants, feeding your pets, cooking with it, washing vegetables and fruits with it, and bathing in it, you’re not doing your health any justice.
There are a lot of excellent water purification systems on the market. Technology has really advanced in this area and not only can you purify your water but you can also soften it. There are even systems that will utilise grey water so that you can re-use bath and dishwater to flush toilets and so on. You can be safe and you can reduce your carbon footprint by being environmentally friendly. When looking at home water safety, be sure you look at more than just softeners and more than just taste improvement.
When did you last test your house’s water?
You can buy spring water for drinking or have a system installed in the house to soften and purify the water, and you can — and should — periodically test the water in your home. Depending on where you live, this might even be a free service offered by your local government.
Finding out your tap water is safe to drink might not enamour you to drink it due to funny tasting water and there are coolers and filters on the market that can help with that. Whether you drink your tap water or not, test it and either rest assured that it’s not harmful or have the information you need to get it to safe levels.
Sharon Hurley Hall writes for Eden Springs, the UK’s No 1. water cooler supplier and the first in the UK to provide certified carbon neutral water.
Tags: water, water safety, water testing
A guest post by Eric Stevenson
Most of us carefully protect ourselves from bacteria and viruses, washing our hands assiduously and steering clear of friends with the flu. However, germs are not the only things that can cause illness – there are non-living environmental factors that can make you sick, as well. For many of these factors, the risk of sickness increases along with time of exposure, so knowing what to look for may go a long way toward protecting your health.
One deadly environmental toxin is asbestos, a thread-like mineral once popularly used for its heat-resistant properties. This made it ideal for use in insulation, pipes and ductwork, brake pads, household appliances, and even protective clothing. As long as these products remain intact, the asbestos is not harmful. However, as soon as they are damaged or broken – as commonly happens during home renovation – tiny fibers can be released into the air, and once breathed in, can cause a variety of respiratory problems, including mesothelioma cancer. Mesothelioma symptoms are similar to those of other, less serious lung problems, and thus the cancer often goes undiagnosed until it is beyond the scope of treatment. Any possible sources of asbestos should be handled with extreme care if they are intact, or removed by a licensed professional if they are not.
Another cancer-causing substance that can find its way into your house is radon gas, a product of the breakdown of uranium in the Earth’s crust. Thus, the concentration of the gas varies widely by geographical area depending on the composition of the soil. Because radon gas is radioactive, it is known to cause cancer. In fact, behind smoking, it is the second largest cause of lung cancer in the world. The gas is colorless and odorless, so the only way to detect it is with a home testing kit. These are usually inexpensive and can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to show results. If your home does test positive for radon gas, you will need to upgrade your ventilation system, usually in the basement or ground floor, to prevent a dangerous build-up of the gas.
The health consequences of these toxic substances are dire – lung cancer can be deadly, and mesothelioma life expectancy is only about 10% after five years. However, being aware of the dangers of asbestos and radon gas is the first important step in protecting yourself and your family. If you have reason to believe either of these substances may be present in your home, look into testing or call a professional. Reducing or eliminating exposure early on greatly reduces the risks posed by environmental toxins.
Eric Stevenson is a health and safety advocate and fitness fanatic who writes for MesotheliomaSymptoms.com.
Tags: Asbestos, environmental illness, Mesothelioma symptoms, radon gas, smoking
