Today I finally had a chance to share this wonderful post about camping while on the ketogenic diet. Lindsay’s daughter had only been on the diet for not even a full month when they decided they were going to attempt camping! As a bonus she was kind enough to share her method of packing an entire weekend’s worth of food for Lainey. They are equipped with a camper & full kitchen, however all of the prep work was done before hand so the time during camping can be spent on fun and relaxation! Even if you prefer “roughing it” style camping, having meals prepped and pre-weighed can be extremely helpful when you are without the convenience of a full kitchen. A few things I want you to notice from this post are: ORGANIZATION! I have personally noticed that more mistakes are made when you are out of your home environment. Having meals weighed and labeled clearly will help prevent mishaps. Repetitive meals: not only does this make meal preparation easier, kids often do not mind eating the same thing for a few days. Don’t stress over creating a menu if you don’t have to! And lastly, but most important… Don’t stop doing fun things! Keto is not a reason to stop doing things your family enjoys, keto really can go anywhere!
Thank you Lindsay for sharing your experience! You can read more about Lainey HERE
Now, here is what Lindsay has to say about her packing methods…
Not even a month into initiating the ketogenic diet, we get the urge to go camping. I was a little hesitant in the beginning, especially after reading about other families being anxious to even go out to dinner. We had already gone out to eat with Lainey, bringing her food with us. So we got bold and planned a three-day camping vacation to Mammoth Cave which is about 2 hours away from our home. We have a travel trailer with a full kitchen so I wasn’t really concerned about preparing her meals. The week before I batch cooked some Keto blueberry waffles and Mac and Cheese (recipe on keto calculator). The day before I took individual containers and weighed each meal. In the keto calculator I chose three meals and two snacks and just repeated those for three days. Lainey doesn’t mind repetition in her meals. I chose meals that I thought were pretty easy and that I could easily incorporate her meds. Breakfast was waffles and yogurt, lunch was mac and cheese and applesauce, dinner was egg salad, strawberries and cream. Her snack was yogurt and cream and keto blueberry muffins I had made and frozen. I also brought extra cream and peanut butter to make a snack if anything should arise that was unplanned.
And all my planning couldn’t prepare me for what happened. We arrive at our campsite and go inside the camper to unload all the food. I notice that the refrigerator is still hot inside. It should have been cooling off on the way down. My husband assures me that it will just take a while to cool down and then we can unpack the food. I get a bad feeling and the panic sets in. Why did I think this was a good idea, maybe we weren’t ready for a trip and other doubts. When several hours go by and it is late and the fridge is still hot, I jump into action. Well I actually just jump in the Suburban and head to the nearest Wal-Mart for a big cooler and lots of ice. I unload all her food in it and figure if I keep the ice full then her food will be all right. Whatever it takes. The next morning I get up and go out to the cooler and start getting her breakfast together and just have a whim to see what the fridge is like and to my delight it is cold!!!! Hooray!!! I move all her food into the fridge and the weekend was absolutely fabulous! I would definitely feel comfortable going on another trip. Especially if there is wi-fi and I can get on ketocalculator.com in case something happens to her prepared food.
