One of the hardest parts of life on the road has got to be eating healthy meals. When we first started team driving over 5 years ago, we said that there was no way we would end up like those “other truck drivers,” over weight and out of shape. I even was determined to continue my daily yoga exercises somehow. Unfortunately I did not fully understand the tolls that OTR driving would take on my time and energy levels day after day and month after month, turning into years.
At first we had a slow cooker and skillet to prepare meals at rest stops or cooking while going down the road. That lasted about a year or two until our favorite meal ingredients were no longer carried by Wal-Mart and the prep and clean-up got to be too much. In the last year the thing that has helped the most is the information we got from “Eat This Not That.” Here is a recent quote from their web-site that hits home. (By the way, I love eating out! It is one of the BEST parts of being on the road, in my opinion.)
‘The simplest law of lean eating reads, “Prepare your own meals.” Think of it this way: As your proportion of home-cooked meals increases, your number of fast food visits decreases. That’s key, since USDA scientists found that people eat 500 calories more on days they consume fast food compared to days they don’t. What’s more, University of Minnesota researchers determined that consuming more ready-to-eat meals and more meals away from home may have a negative impact on overall health’.
What is a trucker to do? There is just no way to get around eating at fast food joints – that is what there is at truck stops – and that is all that you have time for if you are on a fast track which is most of the time. Anyway, I bought several different of the “Eat This Not That” books and we read them continually for inspiration on making the best food choices possible. I love Wendy’s side salads, chili, and meals under 500 calories! Another meal that we love and live on is the senior’s Tilapia dinner at Denny’s, especially if you get it without the lemon sauce with spinach, broccoli and salad as side dishes.
As for exercise, I became just too tired to do my exercising pretty early on. Toward the end of the fifth year if I wasn’t trying to catch up on my sleep, it was too much trouble to turn off my computer and get out at the rest stop to walk. (Another thing you need to stay healthy and loose weight is to get enough sleep) Besides, the weather was too hot, too cold, too buggy or humid; just too much trouble. I was weighed down with fat I had around the middle, in spite of efforts to eat right I found I had gained 60 lbs. That is only 2 extra pounds a month but over 5 years, well it adds up.
The trucking companies try to encourage a healthy life style – because they know that they will loose many good drivers due to health issues – as long as it doesn’t interfere with their bottom line or the next load that has to be delivered tomorrow at 3:00am. It is true what the health articles say, it is your choice what you eat on the road but for most drivers the situation and the temptation of fast, high calorie, comfort foods is just too much. That is reality.
For myself I had to take two months off and focus all my energy into loosing weight and getting my health and energy back. I hope that others facing life on the road are having better luck staying healthy than I did. Anyway, remember that your health is important and that the job is not worth risking your health no matter what the short term benefits are. Stay healthy out there.
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