Good Eats at the Relay for Life

Hello friends.. just finished up my bee pollen-laced oatmeal breakfast and am ready to get my busy day going.  This weekend should be fun and very active - I'm a Team Captain (should I capitalize that?  ... I'm going to.. it makes me feel special.) in the Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society.  I'll be coordinating my small but mighty team in this 24-hour walk to raise some money (and have some fun while we're at it.)  My team includes myself, my brother, my Mom (who's flying in from Ohio to offer up some laps and help us out), and my friend Nancy from an ex-jobsite of mine from days gone by.  At this point, with the Relay starting tomorrow, I have an afternoon crammed with last-minute preparations and organization.

Apart from the fact that the weather report for the entirety of the 24 hours is 90 degrees F and 40% chance thunderstorms (eek.) my first priority was... FOOD!  Of course.  Though we'll be walking our butts off (at least one representative from the team needs to be walking the track at all times) and burning some extra calories, I didn't want us to use that as an excuse to go overboard and be cramming a bunch of junk into our systems all weekend.  So here's the general food list we have going..



This is kind of an oddball weekend, camping out at a high school football field - I don't think I'll be eating entirely clean the whole time, because I'm trying to think on behalf of 4 other people.  If I wasn't the Captain, I might have packed my own individual meals to bring, but to not isolate myself and to maintain the team feeling, this weekend I'm just bringing medium-to-good healthy foods and winging it on portion sizes throughout the 24 hours.

First of all - hydration!  With that weather report looming, we need to be making sure we are taking in plenty of fluids.  We have water, Powerade 0, Gatorade mix, and instant coffee.

Snacks?  We have quite the arsenal: organic tortilla chips, organic pretzels, whole wheat crackers, popcorn, (we are going to need our carbs to keep the energy high), roasted edamame, natural almonds and walnuts, 2% string cheese, hummus, all-natural salsa, and just for fun so I don't impose my will on my team entirely: M&Ms and Blow-Pops.  I like to think that I won't be eating too many of those M&Ms!

Meals!  These might be a challenge because really we're eating a breakfast, lunch, dinner, and breakfast all told.  We are definitely bringing a variety of simple sandwiches (low-sodium turkey, lean roast beef, etc. on light whole wheat) because the event coordinators said the only food available for purchase will be Chick-fil-A (barf!) and hamburgers and hot dogs.  Um... no thank you.  Not to be snobby, but unless I can read the ingredient label for myself and cook it myself, I don't eat hamburgers and hot dogs.  Even then, it's a rarity - just too much potential for food safety issues and random chemicals.  We may be doing sandwiches and/or protein shakes for all 3 meals when it comes down to ease and stressfree eating.  Clean protein on-the-go can be a toughie, as I've said before.  I am just endlessly thankful that we get to bring a cooler.  That broadens our options considerably.

The point is that we are fighting the good fight (against cancer!) and against the cop-out that 'we can't eat healthy - it's too complicated, we're too busy, we'll burn everything of, etc.'  Yes, we'll burn some extra calories, but we're being smart about it and giving our body some good fuel.  We'll leave the track on Sunday feeling proud and strong (well, we will be very tired I imagine, but we won't have eaten 8 hoagies and 2 bags of Doritos in the past 24-hours).  I think it's going to be an awe-inspiring event with the Survivor and caregiver laps, memorial luminarias burning at night, and the atmosphere in general.  I would highly suggest searching for and joining a Relay for Life in your area.  Check out http://www.relayforlife.org/.  Wish us luck and have a great weekend!