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I Should Have Done a Healthy Travel Series

Another weekend, another cross-country trip.

I really should have turned all these weekend trips into some kind of “healthy travel” series. Seriously. This weekend’s destination? The Boston area.

Because I’m gone SO much, I’m really trying to fit workouts in where I can, and maintain healthy eating habits (because if I don’t I will not feel too good…).

My flight Saturday morning left at a very sane time, so I didn’t have to leave for the airport until 9am. There were no Crossfit/spin classes early enough, so I went to the gym to do my own thing. I actually really like these workouts. I actually love the no-cardio lifting workouts, where there is no time pressure and I just work on what needs work. Because I deadlifted at Crossfit the previous night, I did squat day. I want to spend more time focusing on my power lifts (squats, deadlifts, bench). We’ve been doing sets of 20 reps for squats at Crossfit, but only at 60-75%. I wanted to try to work a little heavier than that. I worked by way up to 165# for doubles, which is heavier than I’ve been lifting lately, but still not that great for me. I did 4 sets of 2 at 165. I need more time with some heavier weight on the bar, that’s for sure! Then I did some accessory arm work: 3 sets of 8 single arm press (while kneeling on a knee) with 25# and 10 tricep dips. I finished it all off with abs via a Blogilates video. Abs, another thing that has been neglected lately!

A side note: I think my body is starting to feel the 3 teaching spin classes a week because I feel like I’ve been WAY hungrier than normal. Friday night, right as Crossfit was starting I got hit with that intense hunger despite eating normally all day. Huh.

I made myself a quick protein smoothie+Cheerios post-workout. I always try to squeeze in nutrients where I can because you never know what you’re going to end up with! Smoothie: frozen cherries, milk, cocoa powder, chocolate protein powder. Current fav (plus we’re out of frozen bananas).

I always pack plenty of snacks for the trip. I packed lettuce+hummus+a hard boiled egg to eat on the plane, as well as a few leftover roasted carrots. I was going to have that with crackers, but ended up passing a place at the airport with lots of delicious looking vegetables, so I picked up so butternut squash and brussels sprouts salad.

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We were lucky enough to get a nonstop (FINALLY), and arrived in Boston around 8:00pm. I’ve been anxiously monitoring the weather, and was happy to realize my 2 jackets from the plane were sufficient!

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On the way to the hotel, we stopped at Panera, where I had my usual half Fuji Apple Chicken salad, plus some gluten free crackers that I brought.

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We stayed at a Doubletree, as Doubletrees give you free, warm, delicious chocolate chip cookies. Sadly, I’m allergic to them (nuts) so I ate a granola bar in a sad attempt to replicate what I was smelling.

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Sunday morning, my dad and I both started the day with a 3 mile treadmill run. After that, we headed to the hotel’s breakfast buffet, which was a nice one. I had a few bites of egg and potato, and then had Chobani yogurt with Cheerios and fruit.

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Then, it was time to explore! The temperature was definitely manageable.

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We stopped in the nearby town of Worcester. The pronunciation of that is so silly to be. Apparently about half of the letters are dropped!

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We stopped at Wormtown Brewery to sample some local craft beer. We both tried Pumpkin Ale and Pilsner.

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Afterward, we drove into Boston, to Quincy Market in search of Wicked Good cupcakes.

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Lunch first though! There was tons of lobster and crab! I ended up getting lentil soup, a Greek salad, and rice pilaf. Sadly, it was far more food than expected so I didn’t finish most of the salad or rice.

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Sadly, the cupcake place was out of gluten free. My dad tried a chocolate sea salt caramel cupcake though, and said it was pretty good.

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Cupcakes in a jar—isn’t that fun?

Then, we were off on the streets of Boston.

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We went to the Boston Tea Party ship and museum. I saw it on the map on the way in and it looked interesting.

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We were all given feathers and backstories, and I thought my dad’s was hilarious:

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We started with a “town meeting” for some historical background, and then went out to the ship to learn more and toss some “tea” into the water.

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After, we headed into the museum to see some reenactment videos, more history, and part of one of the original tea boxes that was salvaged.

It was an interesting tour, and a fun way to kill an hour in Boston. Upon exiting, we found ourselves in the bakery/cafe, with the most amazing smell of chocolate chip cookies. Imagine my delight when I saw this:
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Finally, what I had been craving all trip! I got some with tea (of course).

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The sun was going down and the temperature was dropping, so we made the trek back to our hotel and had dinner at the restaurant there. I had a kale salad with roasted butternut squash, chickpeas, and chicken.

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And then got to enjoy leftovers from my pack of cookies!

Monday morning hotel breakfast was similar: yogurt with cheerios and fruit, plus a bit of eggs.

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Lunch was a catered Chipotle burrito bowl, with plenty of guac.

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The best part of the day?

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Obviously.

Finally, it was time to head for the airport. We grabbed some food to eat on the plane. I got a salad with goat cheese and some kombucha, and ate it with crackers.

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Other plane snacks included a protein bar, smoked salmon jerky, cheerios, and an apple. When we arrived home around 10:30, my mom had some vegetable soup waiting for us.

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But more importantly, she made a mini gooey butter cake! If you recall my St. Louis adventures, gooey butter cake is a St. Louis classic. She made a version with GF flour. This was a little different than what I had in St. Louis, a little less gooey and more custardy than sweet, but was still delicious!

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And now my friends, it is back to temporary reality. I’m home for a whole 2 days, which includes teaching a spin class and taking a final, before I’m off on my last (albeit long) adventure! My final trip takes me to 3 eastern locations, and lasts 10 days. Stay tuned as I freeze my face off!

Healthy Travel+Coldest Temp EVER

Happy mid-week! After a couple of short holiday weeks plus travel, I’ve admittedly had trouble keeping track of what day it is!

First things first, I feel like I should mention some big news. I’M OFFICIALLY GOING TO VET SCHOOL NEXT YEAR! I got the call while at the library and immediately packed up, headed up, and we opened the best bottle of champagne we had.

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My weekend was a whirlwind, and it didn’t really hit me until I was cuddling/studying with a purry Charlie and realized how incredible it is that I get to spend my life working with animals.

Now, on to the main topic of this post. I had a super quick trip to Kansas this past weekend. My travel schedule for January and February is insane: Tennessee, Boston, Philadelphia, Alabama, New York, Hawaii. That’s a whole lot of plane trips. It got me thinking, how do I stay healthy with my travel? In the past, I would always feel gross and sluggish after a day on an airplane, full of junky airplane/airport food. With such a quick turnaround on a lot of these trips, I don’t really have time to recover from a day of travel. I thought I would go through my weekend, highlighting some healthy travel tips.

My day accompanied me. Our flight left early Saturday morning, so I packed a granola bar and apple to eat while waiting at the gate. When traveling, I try my best to keep somewhat of a normal eating schedule (which can definitely be hard given changing timezones). I try to at least keep the manner that I’m eating constant. I also packed a sunbutter and jam sandwich on GF bread, plus sugar snap peas, in case I couldn’t find any good options at the airport. I find it’s nice to have a veggie option when traveling, and carrots or snap peas are easy and durable choices. Plus, I figured if I didn’t need the sandwich, it would keep until my next day’s travel.

We landed to find snow! I haven’t seen snow in 3 years, so that was exciting!

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We actually really lucked out with the weather there. The previous day and week, the temperature was in the single digits!

I ended up eating my packed sandwich for dinner, since we had a pizza party to go to that likely wouldn’t have any options for me. So it came in handy to have it!

By the time we walked out of the pizza party at 8pm, I found myself in the coldest temperature I’ve ever been in!

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I’ve been in snow before in the mountains in CA, but the temperatures usually aren’t too low. I think MAYBE I’ve been in 19 degrees? The funny thing is that I borrowed my mom’s big puffy jacket that she wears for baseball games in San Francisco in the summer. And I was warm enough. I don’t know how it’s possible, but those ballgames are icy.

Sunday we had plenty of time to explore. My dad and I were considering running to explore, but we ran out of time before the hotel checkout, and the temperature with windchill was in the single digits. No thank you.

Instead, we explored by foot. The snow was so pretty!

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It was a windy 20 degrees, and after walking for a while, my California toes in my California boots (I had ski socks though) were a little cold, so we moved on to the next event.

The craft beer in St. Louis is awesome. The craft beer in California is hoppy. St. Louis beer does not come to California, and since Kansas was as close as I was going to get to St. Louis, I was hoping to find some. While we didn’t find any, we found the next best thing. Tallgrass Taphouse  was compared to 4Hands, which had my favorite Chocolate Milk Stout. My dad and I decided to head there for lunch for some delicious local beer!

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My dad and I split a flight to try lots of different things.

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The clear winner was called Reindeer Sweat, which was an Oatmeal Milk Stout with notes of chocolate and cherry. It was awesome. It reminded me a LOT of chocolate milk stout. It was so good, we actually got 2 growlers of it to take home. (On the plane…wrapped in numerous puffy jackets.)

For my meal, I had a delicious salad.

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We walked around downtown a bit before heading to the airport, with plenty of time before the flight. The airport was tiny; flights only went to Dallas and Chicago, and security only opened 15 minutes before each flight. I was happy to have some extra time to get through a lot of lectures of Microbiology!

And then….

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Since I’m becoming exceedingly familiar with the Dallas/Ft Worth airport at this point, I knew where I wanted to stop for dinner during our long layover. We got dinner at Au Bon Pain, and I got a salad which I ate with the crumbs that were formerly crackers, until they were smushed into a small carryon.

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I also got a brown butter sea salt rice crispy treat for dessert. It was between that and a GF brownie, but I knew all that chocolate wouldn’t make me feel great so I took the other option. Still delicious!

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We had a 2 hour layover, and then our flight got delayed. And then delayed again. And again. There have been crazy storms (rain and wind) in Northern California for the past couple of weeks.

Another thing you may need to realize is that during travel, you may be hungrier than normal. And that’s ok. While waiting, I grabbed a banana (and watched lectures…lots of lectures.)

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And a new book. This girl only can handle so much Microbiology after being awake for so long! Plus, it’s great to read about airborne diseases while on a plane…

We didn’t get in bed until 2am, but it was a good weekend!