MEALS, HEALTH & EXERCISE

FOOD AND MEALS

We eat really well while travelling and nothing has changed since we left home and embarked on our travels. We eat the same foods and prepare the same meals as if we were living back in our home. Moving into our caravan hasn’t been a hindrance at all as we have all the comforts of home right in our van!

Travelling can be closely associated with happy hours, chips, dips and a snag on the barbie, however, for us being it our lifestyle we eat healthy most days!

If you’ve got a decent size freezer you’re sorted! Being able to bulk freeze pre prepared meals is so important. You’re able to pull a meal out of the freezer and have the kids fed in minutes. Having ready prepared meals to pop into the microwave after a big day exploring, definitely makes for a stress free dinner. This way you’re not boiling u some water to cook the kids 2 minute noodles.

“It’s a must to have a Barbie on board and it keeps your husband busy while enjoying a beer.”

We like to make up a big batch of Pasta bake, Zucchini Slice, Tuna Bake or Spaghetti Bol and pop it into the freezer. It’s a total winner in our household as the kids love it and devour it in seconds. We pack meals into zip lock bags so they lay flat and this maximizes room in the freezer. This saves on bulky containers stacked in your freezer. Due to limited storage, containers isn’t really an option for your caravan size freezer.

Overall we eat very healthy, so storing fruit and vegetables is essential. We have never have a drama with this as most towns you go through will have a supermarket.

While driving long distances, food is key! We make up a snack and lunch bag for all. This eliminates the urge to buy garbage food at the servo and swinging through McDonalds. It’s expensive to eat takeaway while travelling and you wouldn’t believe the money some family’s spend in a month doing so. This can be avoided by making your own lunch on the road. So, stick with a sanga and some fruit. After all, your home is right behind you and making lunch has never been so convenient.

Our BBQ gets a good workout. We cook fish, roast meat, steak, snags, homemade chips and even vegetables. It’s a must to have a Barbie on board and it keeps the husband busy while enjoying a beer. Our BBQ sits on slides that fit in the front hatch of our caravan, making it very accessible and easy to use.

GROCERIES & MEALS ON THE ROAD BLOG

HEALTH

Keeping healthy while travelling is extremely important! No one wants to pick up a vomiting bug and have it go through your whole family (trust me, we’ve been there)!

Drinking bottled water in remote areas is vital as there is many water borne bacteria about. A 24 pack of bottled water from Woolworths is as little as $6, so we recommend keeping this on hand AND getting a water filter fitted to your caravan. We can speak from experience, having picked up a nasty bug that had us unwell for 4 weeks, it wasn’t pleasant! If you find you do become unwell and need a doctor, you can always hit up the local hospital. They are very accomodating with travellers as they know its near impossible to get into a doctor as a ‘new patient’. Not to mention the fee…

Talking of fees, we are all on a travellers budget. Trying to find an affordable doctor can be an arduous task. I stumbled across a website called 1800bulkbill.com.au you can pop in your current suburb and it will list all the bulk billing doctors in your area, or free call 1800bulkbill.

We keep a box of medications on hand as well as a first aid kit and snake bite kit. An absolute must when travelling in remote areas.

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Be mindful of what you eat and drink and get into a doctor if you’re feeling under the weather. Most Importantly make sure you have AMBULANCE COVER and if it covers you Australia wide. It’s very affordable and you can pay a yearly upfront fee with your state )or if you’re a QLDer all you need is a QLD licence and you’re covered). Alternatively if you have health cover, most include ambulance cover too but please double check.

We had an incident where Justin had an appendicitis while in Byron Bay. We were so thankful to the ambulance service and the doctors and nurses at Tweed Hospital, thankfully we were covered and it cost us nothing.

EXERCISE

We are often asked how we manage to maintain our fitness and be active while we travel. It is really important for us to keep fit, healthy and happy for ourselves mentally and physically.

Keeping up with 3 kids, hiking, swimming, snorkelling, bike riding and our general lifestyle has us very active! It is still very important for us to workout and we feel at our absolute best when keeping to this routine.

We love to take time out to go for a run or do some stairs, as we always come back fresher! It’s always a great escape from the kids too plus, it’s teaching them the importance of exercise! We do enjoy attending a gym and our most favourite workout is F45. When we can, we sign up for a week at F45 when in the area (I wouldn’t recommend this if sticking to a tight budget as it is expensive).

If you feel more motivated going to a gym, there are plenty of options and a gym in most towns you pass through. Alternatively, at home (or van in your case) workouts are an affordable and convenient option. There are so many to choose from, such as Centre Fit, Sweat by Kayla Itstines or F45 have launched at home workouts also! Justin and I aim to do a HIIT 20 minute workout every second day. It means we are accountable and can motivate each other. On our other days, we jog, go for a walk or have a rest day, but do remember, you will always be active with your kids and the lifestyle in general, so do what you feel comfortable with.
Find something you love and stick to it.

We LOVE to workout and we mostly do it for our minds. To have that 20 minutes away from the kids together (or an hour for a solo walk), you always come back feeling so much better, mentally and physically.

When a gym is available we make do by setting up a workout under our awning – lunges, sit ups, dips, bicep curls, and skipping. We use resistance bands for strength and conditioning as this mimics the free weight exercises we’d be doing in a gym. PLUS they’re lightweight and take up no room in our van. Oh and can’t forget the booty band that burns!

I hope this gives you and insight into exercising on the road.