Doubled over and gasping for breath by the side of the road, I didn’t recognize the guttural noise coming from my body. I willed myself to stand up straight. That’s where the air is, I told myself. I looked at the kettlebell on the gravel beneath me, a friend-turned-torture-device at an elevation of more than 8,000 feet. Stand up and breathe. I hoisted myself upright, and took a deep breath.
At this altitude, a breath doesn’t go as far as it would back home in Minneapolis. The view, however, more than makes up for it.
“Wow,” I said, taking in the vista of Wyoming’s Beartooth Mountains from a lakeside rest stop where my friend, photographer TJ Turner, and I had stopped to “stretch our legs.”
Ten minutes earlier, we’d been driving through Beartooth Pass, an agreed-upon must-see on our western road trip. The kettlebell diversion was just part of an experiment: Could we make this a healthy road trip? Would avoiding fast food and taking opportunities to stay active along the way help us better appreciate the journey, the sites, and each other?
Two days into our six-day, 1,900-mile drive, the bugs splattered on the windshield of TJ’s Jeep, and my road weariness had diminished any appreciation of the snow-capped peaks and the green valley below. But after the brief rest-stop sweat session, which drew stares from passing motorists, I wasn’t just looking. I could finally see.
The Experiment
Road trips are the quintessential American vacation. What feels more liberating than packing up the car, setting off on the highway, and just driving? Jack Kerouac summed it up in On the Road: “Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.”
Each year between Memorial Day and Labor Day, millions of Americans embark on wheeled adventures. A 2015 survey found that 89 percent of Americans opt for summer road trips, with an average distance of 660 miles.
Vehicular vacations are apparently a passion for many. But not for me.
My childhood road trips consisted of traffic-bound weekend excursions from my parents’ house in New Jersey to visit relatives in northern Virginia. Sitting in the back of our gray Oldsmobile, I was bored and carsick.
I eventually grew out of my motion sickness, but this shift didn’t inspire much love for the road trip. I just didn’t get the appeal of spending countless hours crammed in a car with other people, stuck in a seat, eating junk food, swilling coffee, and losing sleep for days on end. Ugh. It all conjured images of weight gain, breakouts, a sore butt, and broken friendships.
But I’ve spent the past year stretching a bit beyond my comfort zone. I survived — and thrived — during a rigorous, high-altitude hike to Peru’s Machu Picchu. A road trip felt like the next challenge to tackle. TJ was slated to hit a dozen cities between Minneapolis and Bozeman, Mont. I couldn’t not do it.
We plotted our route and Googled the traditional tourist sites in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana, including the Badlands, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, and Wall Drug, as well as some less common attractions like breweries, ghost towns, and the Patagonia clothing outlet.
We also made an unconventional pact for our adventure: We would eat well, stay active, and avoid sleeping in the car. My goal was to avoid feeling physically miserable for an entire week, which I knew would make me a crabby traveling companion and detract from the trip itself.
By prioritizing healthy choices, I hoped we could fend off stomachaches, backaches, sleepiness, and general grumpiness — all of which would have been certain downers. (What’s the point of fighting the crowds to see Old Faithful erupt if you’re also fighting off a migraine?)
If we felt good — or, fingers crossed, if we felt amazing — that would only enhance the sightseeing experience. Or so I hoped.
The Plan
Before we even left Minneapolis, this road trip opened up my world. In general, I love travel planning — and the health-conscious theme gave me much more to happily consider.
Once we took care of basic safety needs — car tune-up, bear spray, etc. — we turned our attention to food, which we agreed could make or break the trip. Instead of relying on cheap eats procured at gas stations and burger drive-throughs, we brought a portion of our food with us.
A large plastic bin served as our pantry; we filled it with jerky, dried fruit, protein bars, and freeze-dried meals that we could easily pack into isolated campsites. We stocked a cooler with enough fresh produce and eggs to last us two days. By then, according to our route, we’d be in a city with a food co-op where we could replenish our supplies. We also anticipated we’d run across farm stands and farmers’ markets along the way. In each town, we would try to find food that was unique to the locale.
To build in movement, we knew we’d have to get creative. Most of our destinations would involve some physical activity — traipsing through the Badlands, wandering around Mount Rushmore, hiking in the Beartooth Mountains and Grand Tetons, and exploring cities like Jackson, Red Lodge, Helena, and Bozeman on foot.
But the intervals between these active destinations — the estimated 34 hours we’d be driving throughout Big Sky Country seated inside TJ’s rattling Jeep — would far outweigh the time spent on our feet. To periodically unravel our bodies along the way, we packed a fitness “go bag” with a speed rope, resistance band, lacrosse ball, sliders, and two lightish kettlebells.
Finally, the matter of sleep. We planned to camp most nights, with room in our schedule and budgets to crash with friends in Jackson or find an inexpensive hotel room. We predicted that we might crave clean sheets and proper mattresses — a week in a Jeep, we learned, can be a bone-jarring experience.
The Reality
I frankly wasn’t able to imagine the toll those long hours on the road would take on our bodies. Sitting all day, as any desk-dweller can attest, makes your body cave inward — the back rounds, shoulders hunch forward, and hips tighten. No matter how often we stopped, stretched, and swung, it felt like we really just couldn’t get the kinks out before having to get back into the car.
The key to our recovery was building in a two-day stop in Jackson; we predicted that we’d want to spend time exploring the city and its environs, including a fish hatchery, an elk reserve, and the Grand Tetons. We balanced movement (hiking) with rest (an afternoon spent napping and playing at picturesque Jenny Lake, located at the base of Mt. Moran).
Finding healthy food, on the other hand, proved to be no problem. Our portable pantry got us through long stretches of highway, and each town we passed through had a co-op or natural-foods store, and we were able to stock up on our supplies and grab a green juice for a hydrating phytonutrient kick. Thanks to our camping stove, we had the option to cook each day.
We also sought out local cafés and restaurants that offered whole foods and unique offerings. We learned that local, grassfed bison burgers are an incomparable delight, and we sampled the wares of small-batch breweries and distilleries, food trucks, and hometown bakeries.
None of this was as easy as stopping at gas stations or fast-food joints. It required a certain level of care, planning, and commitment before the trip, plus a willingness to be mindful and patient on the road. Going out of our way to feel our best necessitated slowing down.
This, in turn, allowed us to take in views and enjoy interactions we otherwise might have missed. In each town, we struck up conversations with locals who led us to off-the-beaten-path discoveries. During one stretching break, we noticed a stray kitten on a freeway exit ramp — Addie the Adventure Cat rode with us and shared my tent for two nights before we found a shelter.
We had set out with what was, in hindsight, a really simple goal: to maintain our well-being during vacation so we wouldn’t miss out on the fun. In reality, the practices we put in place enhanced the trip in a way we hadn’t anticipated.
By engaging with the environment, the people we met, and even the food we ate, we were able to experience the whole trip more fully. And, at journey’s end, I was able to admit something I’d never imagined possible during those long hours on the New Jersey Turnpike: Road trips, done right, can be an adventure, moveable feast, and workout all in one.
Healthy Road Trip Tips
Healthy Eating
- Invest in a good cooler and fill it with fresh fruits, veggies, and other perishables that might be hard to find on the road. Consider bringing a small camp stove, too, even if you don’t plan to camp, so you can whip up simple, healthy skillet meals when decent restaurants are scarce.
- Stay hydrated by keeping a bottle of water by your side and sipping throughout your trip. This will keep your energy up and encourage rest stops, which will also provide a chance to stretch and reset your focus.
- Pack bottled kombucha and cold-pressed coffee as alternatives to sodas and energy drinks.
- Fill a “pantry” box with nonperishables such as jerky, nuts, bars, and dried fruit.
- When possible, grab fresh-pressed veggie juice, which will help keep you hydrated and nourished when produce is in short supply.
- Seek out local food co-ops ahead of time via the web and scout for farm stands along the way to replenish supplies.
- Seek out local eateries and unique food options.
Healthy Movement
- When you stop for gas or a bathroom break, take advantage of time out of the car. Plan to do a mini-workout every time you stop (ideally, every two hours).
- Do some squat jumps, walking lunges, or other body-weight exercises.
- Take along a kettlebell, resistance band, and yoga mat, and cycle through upper-body, lower-body, and core exercises and stretches throughout the day.
- Aim for five to 20 minutes per session.
- Stop at playgrounds and parks.
Try This 10-Minute Kettlebell Circuit
- Complete 10 reps per side of each exercise in a circuit format, resting as little as necessary between sets.
- Use a medium-weight kettlebell, choosing a load that you can handle while maintaining good form.
- Repeat the entire circuit for a total of five rounds, or about 10 minutes.
One-Arm Swing
- Stand with feet slightly wider than shoulder width and the kettlebell on the floor in front of you. With your weight in your heels, hinge at your hips and reach down to grab the kettlebell in one hand with an overhand grip.
- Quickly “hike” the kettlebell back and between your legs.
- Extend your hips, straighten your legs and squeeze your glutes to reverse the movement and propel the kettlebell forward until it reaches about chest height.
- Guide the kettlebell back, keeping the bell high between your legs.
- Repeat for 10 reps per side. To switch sides, either hand off the kettlebell in mid-air, or gently return it to the floor and reset.
One-Arm Clean
- Begin with the same set-up as the kettlebell swing. Hike the kettlebell high between your legs, then use the power of your hips to propel the kettlebell forward.
- But instead of allowing the kettlebell to swing out in front of you, gently pull the kettlebell to guide it up in of your body, as if pulling on a zipper.
- Catch the kettlebell in the front rack position, with your wrist straight and the kettlebell resting on your forearm.
- From the rack position, hike the kettlebell behind you, between your legs, then reverse the motion to re-clean.
- Repeat for 10 reps per side. To switch sides, either hand off the kettlebell in mid-air, or gently return it to the floor and reset.
Kettlebell Snatch
- Begin with the same set-up as the kettlebell swing. Hike the kettlebell high between your legs, then use the power of your hips to propel the kettlebell forward.
- But instead of swinging the kettlebell in front of you, quickly stand up and pop the kettlebell up and over head.
- After the kettlebell passes your face, punch the weight toward the ceiling and full extend your arm. The kettlebell should gently come to rest on your forearm.
- Reverse the movement by lightly flicking the kettlebell up and away, then hiking it high between your legs.
- Repeat for 10 reps per side. To switch sides, either hand off the kettlebell in mid-air, or gently return it to the floor and reset. (See “BREAK IT DOWN: The Kettlebell Snatch” for a detailed look at this technique.)
Emergency Kit
- First-aid kit
- Two roadside flares
- Quart of oil
- Extra fuses
- Flashlight
- Multipurpose tool commonly containing pliers, wire cutters, a saw, a bottle opener, screwdrivers, files, and an awl
- Tire inflator
- Rags
- Paper towels
- Pocket knife
- Bear-proof canister to store food
- Bear spray
- Bottled water
- Non-perishable food items like trail mix and protein bars
Campsite Breakfast Recipe
One of the best ways we found to take control of what we ate was to bring along a small camping stove and basic cooking gear, including a small skillet. With that, we were able to cook at least one meal a day on the road. Here’s the simple recipe for our first breakfast on the road, eaten at a campsite near Devils Tower, a 1,200-foot geologic wonder in Wyoming’s Black Hills.
Serves two to three
Ingredients
- 2 tbs. cooking oil
- 1/4 yellow onion, chopped
- 6 eggs
- 6 ozs. ground breakfast sausage
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Avocado
Directions
- Heat the cooking oil in the skillet. Add the onion, cooking it until translucent. Add the sausage, breaking it up and cooking until brown.
- Add the chopped peppers and stir to combine until they soften slightly. Add the eggs and stir to combine, cooking until the eggs have set according to your preference.
- Serve with avocado slices.
This article originally appeared as “On the Road” in the January/February 2016 issue.
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