How to Succeed on a Road Trip

The biggest personal challenge I've ever had has been eating gluten-free on a road trip. This wasn't just any road trip, this was the 2007 One Lap of America. It was 10 days of full-on intensity. It's basically a giant race to various parts of the country with stops everyday at various tracks around the country. We started and ended at The Tire Rack in Indiana. It was 24-hrs-a-day and there was very little time to stop for food along the way. This involved driving overnight regardless of what the weather conditions were like. We had several tornadoes, heat waves, and snow over the Rockies.

I had to pack enough food to last me until the 1/2 way point in Salt Lake City, Utah. This was my personal challenge, but I survived and here's how:

Fresh fruits and veggies -- Bananas, apples, grapes, and carrots are all healthy.
I lived on bags of nuts for protein -- walnuts and almonds.
I took a smaller backpacker's stove to heat water to make thai noodles, soup, and tea.
I lived on gluten-free beef jerky.
Breakfast bars were a staple for all different times of the day.
Gluten-free pretzels were a great snack.
If I could stop for cheese at store, I did.

Honestly, I ate better than most of the racers or members of the media crew. I never got sick, I had a lot of energy despite getting 0-3 hrs of sleep each night. There were times when we checked into a hotel to SHOWER (not sleep) and then we were off to the next track. Oh..and we did stop at Outback (twice)! Funny thing is, we were so delirious, we didn't realize it was the SAME Outback in Ohio!

It can be done! Pre-planning really helped me, as did talking to my friends who were vegetarian and vegan. As long as I kept up my protein intake (any way that I could), I would do fine and I did.

-KAGFG