Sugar Free Traveling
Alex and I went to Southern Ohio this past weekend for a family reunion. It was so much fun spending time with my parents plus my extended family! It was also a great excuse to test out my selfie stick for the first time. 
Maybe a little blurry but I’d call it a success.
Alex and I decided to keep up our little sugar free experiment through the weekend and I definitely learned a few things about traveling sugar free:
Nuts were my new best friend. We packed almonds, pistachios, cashews, and peanut butter with us and we ate these often. They’re portable, tasty, and actually kept us full. (They were also one of the few healthy snacks that didn’t require refrigeration.)
It’s easy to eat too much salt. Any snack that isn’t sweet is probably pretty salty. We ate a lot of popcorn. We also snacked on pretzels… which are basically empty carbs and probably not much better than sugar. Whoops! We did eat a few clementines and things like that, but we were trying to keep our fructose low so it meant we ate lots of salty snacks.
Eating out is impossible. Ok, not impossible. If we were in Brooklyn or San Fransisco, they’d probably have some paleo cafe with quinoa, kale, and no added sugar but when you’re in the middle of no where in Ohio, your options are limited. Sometimes pizza was our only vegetarian option and there was probably a bit of sugar in the dough and sauce but I wasn’t about to interrogate the server. We had to make some unintentional compromises but we avoided sugar when possible.
I turned down a lot of sugar. Cookies, cake, milkshakes, chocolate, crackers…. And I also realized that I don’t even care for things like french fries if I can’t have ketchup, so I ended up making healthier choices because of that, too. It made me realize how often we’re offered sugar!
I think we’re going to keep this sugar free experiment up a little longer but we’ve already learned a lot about sugar free grocery shopping and sugar free cooking!
Sugar or no sugar, this weekend was awesome! Not only did we have fun catching up with family, but one of my cousins had a surprise wedding! They set up a simple ceremony and my great uncle performed the wedding. It was awesome! Definitely a fun weekend! 
For more sugar free posts, check out these:
- The documentary that inspired our sugar free experiment
- Our sugar free grocery list
- A day of sugar free meals part 1
- A day of sugar free meals part 2
Good for you to sticking with it on traveling! I try to stay away from added sugar, but what exactly is “added sugar?” Would honey be an added sugar even thought it’s a whole food and there are plenty of medicinal benefits from it? Obviously cane sugar would be an added one… but where to draw the line?!
Yeah, we’re cutting out honey for now (basically anything that’s not in fruit or naturally in dairy products, etc) not because I think honey is bad, but because we want to retrain our bodies to stop craving so much sweetness!
Go you! I’m so impressed. I have a very large sweet tooth so this would be hard for me! AND I love ketchuo. like, A LOT.
Great post! And good on you for passing up those sweets! I travel a lot for work and when I visit back home, and it is SO hard to stick with your original plan. Especially when others aren’t on the same page as you.
Love this! We try to eat a low sugar diet, but it is definitely a challenge while traveling. I often feel like I am bringing the entire contents of my kitchen along with us.
I actually think that ketchup is one of the hardest things for me to give up. I’m glad it’s working out so well for you, that’s awesome!
You called in on the nuts! I am a healthy eater, but naturally overdo it on nuts, trail mix and other easy to eat foods when traveling. Eating well on a vacation is not easy!
Eating well while traveling can be so hard. That’s awesome you were able to keep it up!
xo,
Angela
love that sweet picture of you two!
Well done for sticking to the challenge, even while away! Have you noticed any differences physically or mentally? I’m sure the sweet cravings have lessened?
I stick to a refined/added sugar-free lifestyle and when I first started I was so strict. I never ate out, turned down food at parties, and only trusted what I had made. It took a long time for me to relax and realize I can’t live my life like that! It’s great to see that you already realize that and were able to enjoy your weekend!