Snack Smarter

Tonight Kyle and I are heading into Orlando. We booked a room at a hotel near the airport to make tomorrow morning a little less heinous. Our flight leaves at 6:30a, which means even staying close to the airport, I'm going to have to wake up at a quarter til way too freaking early. One of the (many) things I hate about waking up early is that it throws off my eating for most of the day. I have to eat breakfast early, which then means I'm ready for lunch at about 8:00a, which then makes me sad because I know lunch is still four hours away... And when traveling that means I probably eat fast food for breakfast, and then I'll eat whatever the stewardesses toss at me on the plane (gross peanuts, pretzels, weird cookie-biscuit things, SkyMall magazine...) and I'll probably still buy a snack at our destination. All before lunch. Not really a good plan.

I decided this time to think ahead and get some healthy snacks to bring in my carry-on. I got enough for the plane, but also for our sightseeing day in Dodge City (so excited! Eeep!) so I won't have to rely on the stewardesses, gas stations and vending machines for nourishment.
I bought:

• Maple brown sugar organic instant oatmeal. (about all that's open at the airport as early as we're going is McDonald's and Starbucks. I figure I can get a soy latte and a cup of hot water at Starbucks and make the oatmeal for breakfast. That and an apple should be a good start.)
• 1oz bags of almonds (Kyle hates it when we get pretzels instead of peanuts on the plane, but the peanuts are always greasy and icky, I think. This will be a much better on-plane snack option if he gets hungry. It's also easy to carry in my purse for sightseeing.)
• Dried cherries
• Apples (The easiest and sturdiest fresh fruit option I could think of.)
• Kashi granola bars (These I actually had in the pantry already- look! Pumkin Spice ones!)
• Cheddar Mini Rice Cakes (in case we get in the mood for something a little more junk-food-esque.)
• True lime packets (I love these- it's dehydrated lime juice in a little packet. I like to add these to bottled water. I find it encourages me to consume more water, and everyone knows how dehydrating airplane air can be.)
• Tea bags
  

I'll be portioning out the dried cherries and rice cakes into smaller baggies for ease and convienience. I really think this "emergency food kit" will help me avoid my regular travel downfalls. It gives me a healthy breakfast, as well as filling, nutritious snacks to hold me over until lunch or dinner.

On a non-food note, I also am bringing my ipod, to which I downloaded some cardio workout videos from www.exercisetv.com, in case I have time/feel inclined to exercise on vacation. We'll see if that happens.

My next post will be from Kansas!