Junk Food Not An Option

Some Facebook friends commented, regarding yesterday's blog post, that I stuck to my low carb plan really well on the road. Lori Morrell-Thomas mentioned that she thinks of travel as being hard on the diet, but I made it so easy; Laurie Rosen said I "really know my road trips." I appreciate the kudos, but truly, it's just second nature, has been for years now.

It never occurs to me that since I'm traveling I may as well just grab a burger complete with bun and fries, or a Cinnabon, or whatever other junk appears at the highway interchanges. I don't even think of it.

Much of it doesn't even register as "food" anymore*. I'd as soon eat typing paper, or kitty litter, or Legos. I'm not walking past it thinking "Oh, gosh, I shouldn't have that." I'm not thinking thinking of it at all, I'm thinking "Do they have a grilled chicken salad here, or do I need to get a bunless burger?" or "Do I want an omelet, or fried eggs? Bacon or sausage?" or "Since I'm at Kentaco Hut, do I want to have the KFC grilled, or a chicken taco salad hold the beans, double chicken?"

I know what's out there. I know what's available. I'm pretty clear on which fast food places have something that does fit into what I consider the "food" category, and which don't -- I won't even stop at a White Castle, for instance, because there's nothing there. Arby's has some okay grilled chicken salads; I like 'em better than McD's or BKs. I know that I like McD's Angus burgers pretty well -- without the bun, of course -- but I also know that McD's doesn't do super-sized beverages anymore, and I want a lot of iced tea. I know that just about any diner-style restaurant can serve me a decent plate of eggs and some sort of meat -- indeed, one of my favorite places to stop on the road is Waffle House, because I can get a cheap "breakfast" twenty four hours a day.

I know what's available at most mini-marts and truck stops, too. It's a very rare gas stop when I can't find some sort of nuts, and most of these places have pumpkin seeds and/or sunflower seeds, too. There's usually beef jerky, though I'm not a fan, and virtually always there are pork rinds. Down South I can get cracklin's, yum. Every now and then I've bought a couple of hot dogs and used the buns as holders, sliding the frank forward as I bite off the end.

I always have tea with me, either a jar of instant or a baggie of tea bags, or both, the result of a lifetime of being a tea drinker in a coffee-drinking country. I dislike most bottled iced tea, and anyway, many places only stock the sweetened variety, which again, doesn't register on my radar as anything I'd ever consume. (Not even the artificially sweetened kind. I just don't like it.)

So, yeah, there's some preparation involved. There's a lot of just knowing what's available where, and the knowledge that yeah, there is decent food out there, you just have to choose among the options that present themselves. But the biggest thing is this mind-set I've had for ages now, that the carby, processed junk just isn't food, and eating it isn't an option. I don't struggle with it at all. I just look for whatever edible items present themselves, and go with it.

* For all too many Americans (and folks of other nations, for all I know), "food" is defined as "Anything that isn't lethal within twenty minutes."