Dana Cushing Health

Carbs allowed in my cooler.
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Packing a cooler is the reason I am not standing in line at McDonald’s at 2 PM.
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Whether you are actively losing weight or just trying to maintain it, the real threat on a road trip is not carbs or fast food. It is arriving hungry with nothing else in the car.⁣
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Blood sugar and your exhausted brain donot care that you are on vacation. When it drops in a moving car with no snacks in reach, you are going to eat whatever is closest.
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This matters even more after 40. Hormonal weight gain and the swings that come with the menopause transition already make blood sugar less forgiving than it used to be.

Add a long car ride, irregular meal timing, and a gas station on every exit, and you have a perfect setup for a weight loss plateau that has nothing to do with effort.⁣
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I have been a nurse for 25 years. I have watched women white knuckle their way through every road trip, terrified of carbs, and still end up at the drive thru because fear is not a food plan.⁣
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So this trip, I packed by category instead of by fear. Protein. Protein and fat. Carbs. Carb and fat. One from each, the cooler fed us the whole way to Memphis.⁣
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This is not about cutting carbs to lose weight after 40. Sustainable weight loss was never about elimination.

It is about building a plate, or in this case a cooler, that keeps blood sugar steady so you are not making decisions from a place of panic.

Protein for women over 40 is the anchor. Carbs are not the enemy. An empty cooler is.⁣
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Swipe through to see exactly what is in mine, four categories, protein, protein and fat, carbs, and carb and fat, plus what I forgot and am adding next time. I still forget something every single trip😁
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If you are working on weight loss after 40, or just trying to hold steady through a season of travel, the plan is the same. Protein first. Carbs included. Plan before you are hungry, not after.⁣
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Save and share this with a friend for your next road trip.⁣
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💜 xx,⁣
Dana⁣
Diet Different™⁣