This was our most successful beach trip yet! Those of you with children know what I am talking about. Some vacations are more work than they are relaxation. Not this one! We had extra help from my amazing in laws, a beautiful place to stay, great food and happy kids. The girls went three days without their regular three hour nap and did great. Happy girls with tons of energy all three days! They navigated the sand and waves like little pros and kept pace with their brothers building sand castles. We even attempted an afternoon put put game in 150F temps, 18 holes in twelve minutes! I would say that’s a record. According to William, he scored 37 under par…amazing! Typically, we plan all of our proteins ahead of time and carry them down in a cooler. But, this time we decided to take advantage of the beautiful NC seafood and waited until we got to the beach. GREAT IDEA!! More on this in a minute…
I got a great workout in the morning we left…essential for family travel! I had the kids breakfasts all packed up the night before so they would be ready to go for our morning departure. Even though I had plenty packed for breakfast and the drive is only about three hours, I knew that there would be the inevitable starving cries during the last thirty minutes of the trip. So, I also planned a snack for the girls which was carefully hidden until the staring moment arrived. Below is the girls’ breakfast: black olives, cucumber with olive oil and chives, baked sweet potato, a seeds and fruit granola bar, pork liverwurst and a hard boiled egg. Their secret snack was raw cashews and blueberries.
The boys had everything packed together in their breakfast box with the big boy privilege of portioning it out for themselves. It was a surprising success! They had similar “menu” wishes….steamed carrots or baked sweet potato, cucumber with olive oil and chives or steamed broccoli with real salt, black olives, pork liver wurst, hard boiled egg, dates stuffed with pecans and cashews and blueberries.
Everyone was happy and fed the whole trip!
After we arrived and unpacked, it was time to get dressed for the beach and make lunch.
I found some great organic, reduced sugar blueberry jelly at Trader Joe’s as a treat that went nicely with our almond butter on the seed bread. I used leftovers from the breakfast boxes and snack bowls: olives, carrots, sweet potato, broccoli, cashews and blueberries and paired it with some avocado and tomato.
We went out to eat on our first night! It was a fabulous restaurant with plenty of fresh grilled fish and a good selection of sides.
We had flounder, scallops, grouper, and shrimp, steamed fresh veggies, baked potato and sweet potato.
We accepted the kids’ menu for its most appropriate use…coloring.
We came home to enjoy a simple treat of coconut flour carob brownies (recipe to come soon), bananas and raw milk yogurt.
After a quick evening walk out to the beach with my trusty partner, Cameron, we were all ready for bed. We, as in me! The girls slept with me and the boy slept in bunk beds in another room.
I had a great workout the next morning! More on the exercise portion of the vacation in another post! But, can you really separate the two? Not for me…I absolutely love it! I always have! There is nothing more soothing to me than moving my body! Ok, on to breakfast…
Breakfast was pretty simple for our first full day at the beach! I had various combinations of the following: blueberries and green apple, cantaloupe, pineapple, pastured pork liverwurst, scrambled pastured eggs in olive oil, baked sweet potato, marinated beets, steamed carrots, and a banana apple muffin with quinoa and pumpkin seed flour. I used coconut manna on the muffin and sweet potato. Just as it is important to vary your fruit and vegetables, it is also important to vary your fat sources. So, I swap out the grass fed butter for coconut manna every once in a while.
After breakfast, it was time to hit the beach. I packed a quick snack for the 10:30 hungry time.
I wanted to have enough to satisfy their hunger without filling them up too much and spoiling their lunch. It is amazing how just the right combination of carbohydrate, nourishing fats and a touch of protein fuels them up! Here I combined fresh blueberries (can you tell I scored big on organic blueberries at Trader Joe’s?), green apple, raw pumpkin seeds and organic raisins.
We had a great morning at the beach and everyone safely navigated the walk to and from the beach house to the beach. Then it was time to wash up two babies and make lunch.
Cameron had the first plate of bristling sardines in olive oil, raw cottage cheese with olive oil and real salt, red cabbage sauerkraut with caraway seeds, cucumber, tomato, cantaloupe, black olives and Mary’s Gone Cracker seed crackers. The girls had the same except they swapped the cottage cheese for seed bread almond butter and jelly sandwich. William had the same as Cameron except he swapped smoked oysters in olive oil for the cottage cheese and sardines.
Cameron and I headed back out to the beach while the girls hung out with Mimi and Pop. William and Kevin went to play put put and get some fishing bait. We stopped and picked up some fresh seafood on the way home from dinner the night before. After a great first day at the beach, it was time to enjoy an amazing dinner together!
We had fresh NC steamed shrimp, baked red snapper and baked grouper. Can I please say this? It was delicious!!! Shell fish and fresh wild caught fish is a great source of omega 3.
I paired the fish with white and orange sweet potato, beets, avocado, apple and cauliflower. A treat for sure!!
After another great morning workout, it was time for breakfast. I had much hungrier kiddos on our second full morning at the beach. So, as you can see their plates show it. Cameron swapped cottage cheese for eggs. The girls and William had pork liverwurst, eggs, muffin with coconut manna, a slice of raw cheddar cheese and a fruit salad.
I packed up the travel boxes for the car ride home after breakfast before we hit the beach. This time we would be traveling after breakfast so the food strategy was to make stave off the cries of starvation until right before lunch. That way it would be a smooth transition to nap time for the girls and off to run errands for me and the boys. Cameron had cottage cheese (I know it’s risky in the car, but he is pretty neat), black olives, a seed bread sandwich and fruit salad. William and the girls had a seed bread sandwich, sliced apple, dates stuffed with pecans, black olives, and blueberries.
Snack for the beach was the same as the day before. We had another great day on the beach!!
Then it was time for lunch!
Lunch was a combination of little servings of veggies, left over beach snack and a protein. The girls had a seed bread, almond butter and jelly sandwich with cucumber, tomato, broccoli, carrots, avocado, raw sharp cheddar cheese and apples. The boys both had left over grass fed cheese burger from dinner a couple nights before, along with the same veggies. Cameron did not want a sandwich again so he swapped for cottage cheese.
After a great lunch on we all headed out to play put put. Fastest game ever!!
Eighteen holes in about twelve minutes! Amazing!
Our last dinner was again centered around some amazing NC shrimp, flounder and snapper.
Then it was time to celebrate Kevin’s birthday! He turned 39!!
Can you believe I married someone fourteen years older than me…what a lucky guy. My mother in laws threw a fun little party. Then the boys went off to get some homemade birthday ice cream and more put put!
The next morning was our last day on the beach. After a great morning run, the boys and I went down to the beach to watch an amazing sunrise, do some mobility training with ViPR and do a little sand drawing.
Breakfast was a combination of yogurt with bananas, toasted coconut chips with cinnamon, watermelon, scrambled pastured eggs, muffin with coconut manna and pork liverwurst.
What is the point of this post? I want you all to know that it is possible to enjoy a great vacation and stick to your real food framework. The meals were simple. I brought a couple bags of frozen organic broccoli, some steamed carrots and cauliflower, a couple avocados and tomatoes from the garden. I know what my kids like and how to combine the foods in the portions that they need to be satisfied. A really awesome practitioner, Chantel Gough wrote today, “start with one meal and then work your way up to two or three meals.” Find what works for you and your kids. Then put your plan into action. If you are going to eat out, ask your server if the fish is wild caught. Find out what oils they use. If they cook in canola or other vegetable oils, ask if they can swap to olive oil or butter if tolerated. Every once in a while, go out and have a treat….in the context of a consistently nourishing diet rich in noninflammatory foods treats are all good. The question to ask yourself is, how do my kids look, feel and act after having the treats? If something is not as it should be, find a substitute thats ok too. I’m going to say this, there is NOTHING that tastes as good as feeling good. Your kids don’t know how to make that educated decision, but you do! You can show them how they can still enjoy some pretty amazing food, treats too and feel awesome at the same time.
How are you enjoying your real food vacation?
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