Ummmmm...Road Trip???

When I think of Road Trips, a few fun items come to mind:

1. Rocking out to hours of great music.
2. Napping
3. Chatting with the husband about life's many mysteries
4. Iphone games
5. Car games
6. JUNK FOOD!!!

We recently took a trip to visit my parents, who live a mere 8 hours from our house. Ugh. It's a looooooooooong drive. I look forward to the trips to my parents' house for a few reasons:



1. Two giant Golden Retrievers - Murphy and Shannon, respectively
2. Lots of relaxation
3. Swimming a the local gym with dad
4. Hitting the fruit orchards in their little rural town
5. Spending time with mom and dad
6. MOM'S COOKING!!!

I'm a pretty healthy eater in real-life, but road trips are like a hall pass from reality, right? They are a brief escape from life's responsibilities and a GREAT excuse for burgers and fries, right? Those neatly packaged, uniformly proportioned, dripping-in-grease meals call my name while on road trips. I usually look forward to chowing down on a nice Big Mac, Fries and a Coke as the wind flows through my hair and Prince songs leave my mouth at high volumes.

However, training for a Bikini Fitness Contest is not real-life. End of Story.

In preparation for the trip, I had to accomplish the following tasks:

1. Let Mom know that I will not be eating her elaborate, Thanksgiving-ish meals.
2. Cook, weigh and pack meals for 4 days.
3. Apologize to mom.
4. Arrange everything in the car so I can eat every 2-3 hours.
5. Pack tons of water.
6. Use my Starbucks App along the way to find non-grody restrooms (thanks water).
7. Apologize to mom, again.

I woke up early with Dad to cook my own breakfast, politely declined the constant offer of fresh fruits and other goodies and packed Protein Shakes in my purse in case we were away from the house for a prolonged period of time.

Yes, it took A LOT of planning. Yes, it was slightly annoying. Yes, I wanted to eat the McDonald's that my hubby had the way there AND the way back. And yes, I REALLY wanted to eat mom's yummy dinners. But, there is a method to the madness and that madness ends on:

DECEMBER 4th, 2010!!