Hello,
I'm moving home to Los Angeles from St. Louis from October 4th-9th and will be driving a moving truck with my car towed behind.

I've been a raw vegan for about 1 month and I drink green smoothies and eat lots of salads and such.

I'm feeling a bit of manic panic about how I'm going to eat raw on my journey home. Any thoughts or experience?

I know I can bring my blender and chopping board and go to the grocery store and buy stuff but it seems so cumbersome. I'm not sure if there are Trader Joes along my route (taking 44).

Please help share your experiences in traveling raw~

Thank you

I'd be inclined to Water Fast a couple of those days. When I was eating, it would be easy-to-eat Fruit, like Peaches, and Bananas.
Keep it simple......WY

Hi rad gal-

Well, if it were me traveling on the road for a few days, this is what I'd do:

I would keep my meals really simple for starters, and I'd decide that no matter what, I'm keeping with the program. I'd also bring as many things as I could with me. If you dehydrate, you can prepare some things ahead of time. Some things like raw crackers don't need refridgeration.

I'd get myself a good cooler and have a couple of days (or more) worth of already prepared greens and whatever you like for salads. If you freeze a few water bottles full of water, they work like ice and don't drip at all. I do this all the time when I travel, and food stays cold for a couple of days.

I'd also bring fruits that keep well, like bananas, apples, etc. Maybe some nuts. Smoothies might be tricky while on the road, unless you're planning to stay in a hotel. If that's the case, then I think that would be no problem. Just blend up what you like and then rinse out the blender. Easy.

I don't know the route you're taking, but grocery stores should be easy enough to find. If you don't want to bring any food from the start, then just gather the produce you need as you go along. That's the beauty of eating raw! Just get hold of simple fruits and veggies and eat them- there's no cooking or elaborate preparation really required.

Remember, this is just a temporary one week creative way of eating. Soon you'll be settled in your new place, and be able to get back into a routine that works for you. One other thing is that I would make sure that I don't skip meals or get too hungry. Don't temp yourself to eat something you really don't want just because nothing else is available.

There's a silly saying that goes something like this:
"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." There's probably a bit of truth to that...

Good luck to you!

Here are some videos you may find informative:

[www.youtube.com]

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[www.youtube.com]

Eat lots of fruits, drink lots of water, take tetrapacked coconut water with you(not totally raw, but close). There will be plenty of gas station ice with which you will be able to refill a large Coleman cooler on the way. Get lots of carryout salads wherever you go, even if they're from McDonald's--the animal-free ones, obviously. Bring along raw dates and nuts to snack on while driving. Stay hydrated and stay energized--you'll need it for the trip and for the arrival.

Calm sea and prosperous voyage, as they used to say in the old days

I've done three road trips across america. Two of them were while raw...

It was way easier than you'd think. We stopped at Wal Marts along the way *you can buy road atlas at wal mart for america, and it has directions to every wal mart in every city from the major freeway to the store (and a lot of them are by freeways anyway). You'll probably be taking the 40 a lot of the way and there are plenty along there. Wal Mart supercenters all have organic greens, some veggies and a ton of conventional produce.

Basically we got two big coolers. And I made a huge salad in one of those plastic mixed greens containers and had that ready. I also brought tons of fruit that didn't need to be in the cooler, and all my sprouting jars. I found it easy to keep them in the back window of my car so my sprouting process didn't get interrupted along the way at all... (although the guy at the border when entering into California was like, wtf is that?? lol)

I made a few bottles of dressing and sauces before I left as well. Basically my meals would be bananas in the morning, half of the big salad for lunch and another big salad for dinner. I'm only high raw so we also brought our camp stove and heated up some rice or pasta for dinner in our hotel room each night. It was winter on this particular trip, had it been summer we likely would have just camped out each night and it would have been easier and more fun.

But yeah, basics are dressings (it took us 4 days to make the trip from North Carolina to California, and it's pretty easy to make enough dressing and sauce to provide for that amount of time before you go), snacks, breakfast fruits, sprouts and nuts and stuff to add to the salads, or whatever else you like. I think it would have been even easier if both my partner and I ate mostly raw, because at the time he wasn't raw at all and it was much more of a pain for him to find food than me, since he doesn't eat out either and we're gluten free as well...

Oh, and I forgot to mention that yes I brought knives, plates, cutting boards, all of that. I just kept it in a big box in the back seat so if I wanted an avocado while on the road all I had to do was reach back and get out the board, knife and spoon.

I would not worry about it too much.

Life is about EXCITEMENT, right?

Go where the good emotions are - whether that is Raw Foods, a "home-made" meal with your family, etc.

If you are in a paniced frenzy to prepare Raw Foods for yourself along the way, I would be worried.

Remember that it is the care and energy that goes INTO the food that COUNTS as well. This one is really easy to forget.

Excitement and Good healthy emotions can come from a well-presented "fine-dining" experience than Raw Foods, I sometimes think. As a side note, I think that is why Chef Sal is so awesome. Check out his Award-Winning History in Fine-Dining.

Information on how an Award-Winning Chef Stays Young (Looking at Least in his early 50's) at Age 73

For information on that, see ...

[www.evolvewithflavor.com]

For more specific Weight Loss Information, see ...

[www.evolvewithflavor.com]

For more specific Raw Food for Dogs Information, see ...

[www.evolvewithflavor.com]