For ten days this month we traveled across the country with my family to Michigan. It was an opportunity to spend time with my mom and step-dad as well as my niece as we traveled back home, but also an opportunity for my husband to get to know my family better since we rarely see them. And, it was my 30th High School reunion! 🙂
We had an incredible time, stopping along the way at places like Lava Hot Springs, Jackson Hole, Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Sioux Falls, Green Bay, and my favorite, Mackinac Island. Since I was young, our family would go to Mackinac Island during the summer. Biking around the island (motorized vehicles are not allowed) was one of my favorite vacation activities. This time my husband and I chose to take the horse-drawn carriage around the island. The guided tour was wonderful and we enjoyed everything about the trip…especially the world famous fudge!
Now I don’t know about you, but I find locating nutrient dense, whole, real foods while you’re traveling to be rather difficult. Not many restaurants serve it and finding raw milk here in Utah is difficult enough, but finding it as you’re traveling is nearly impossible! So, what do you do?
Well, my personal beliefs are that the relationship is more important. So as my parents would stop at a restaurant, I didn’t question or comment about the food selection, but merely did the best with what I was given.
In addition to that, through my studies, I’ve learned that stress is going to be a bigger detriment to my health than NOT drinking raw milk for 10 days. So instead of stressing about what we were going to eat, and where we were going to find “good” food, and what effect was this going to have on our health, I enjoyed the day and the time with my family.
BUT, now that I’m home, what can I do to help bring my body back into balance?
To start, the first thing I did was put both my husband and myself on The Brew. The Brew is great for eliminating problems with yeast which is what usually builds up when you’ve been indulging in too many sweets and refined foods (like during the holidays and on vacations).
Of course, while you’re gone you can still continue with Redmond Clay and Garlic, but hauling kefir grains across the country and then taking them through airport security wasn’t something that I wanted to go through, so we started our kefir as soon as we got home. While we were gone, we placed the milk kefir grains in a little more than twice as much milk as we would usually use and then placed the container in the refrigerator. When we got home, we had a whole gallon of kefir waiting for us, which has come in handy for the smoothies and purple cows we’ve been drinking. 🙂
And that’s it! Eating healthy most of the time keeps our system in good health, so we’re better able to handle the occasional times when raw, organic food isn’t available. When we have to go without our preferred food choices for an extended period, there’s always The Brew, and I find that our body rebounds rather quickly.
Some of you may be wondering if I noticed any effects as a result of the altered diet. Truthfully, no. Our bodies are amazing machines that are designed to heal themselves. When the machine is in good condition to begin with, short durations of “neglect” can be handled rather efficiently. But I still want to clean the “engine” when I know the the fuel hasn’t been the highest grade. So, between The Brew, The Perfect Trifecta, and plenty of fresh, clean water I think we’ll be in good shape. 🙂
(Of course our garden continued to produce while we were gone, so we came home to perfect salad fixin’s. The picture above is of the salad I made for our first meal at home. It contained beet greens, from thinnings, red cherry tomatoes and yellow pear tomatoes, fresh basil, kefir cheese with garlic, and chia seeds. Mmmm! And here’s the recipe for our favorite Chia Seed Salad Dressing too.)
I’d really like to hear about your vacation experiences with food and what you do when your “engine” needs a little “tune-up.” 🙂
This post was shared with The Healthy Home Economist and The Prairie Homestead and Cooking Traditional Foods and Whole New Mom and Kelly the Kitchen Kop and day2day joys and Gnowfglins and the Nourishing Gourmet.
