Camping Well

03 Jul Camping Well

Camping season is in full swing and if you’re excited about your next adventure in the great outdoors, take a peek at these tips for a fun and healthy camping trip this summer.

The food situation

• Certain camping essentials are givens and without them, your camping experience would suffer. While the food on a camping trip can go a myriad of ways (including many high sodium and processed foods), planning and prepping ahead of time can make sure you fuel well for outdoor activities. Write out your menu along with all of the utensils and tools you’ll need to cook and eat your food items.
• Fruits and veggies are friends. If you’re able to camp with a cooler, pre-washing your fruits and veggies will make reaching for these guys a no-brainer. Go a step further and chop and prep foil packets with veggies to throw on a grill or campfire grate. Check out this week’s recipes for foil packet and grilling recipes.
• Follow the protein, carb, veggie template. Think through breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack ideas throughout each day that you’re camping and consider each of these food categories.
• If applicable, find out if your campground provides drinkable water. Ensuring that you have enough water for each person daily is a top priority. If you’ll be hiking for longer than an hour, consider electrolyte replacement options as well.

Your boot “camp” workout

While camping requires plenty of up, down, over, and back with packing, set up, and clean up, you might find yourself with plenty of free time to sit still and enjoy nature. Soak it all up! If you’re considering a hike or long walk to a great fishing spot, you’ll likely get your fair share of cardio. 

Another way to kick things up a notch is a workout at your campsite. Some fun exercises include, a shuttle run with rocks or firewood, step ups on the picnic table, pushups and dips on your picnic table, burpees on a tarp, squats with a hop over a log, etc.

• Build a ladder workout. Choose a handful of exercises (upper body, lower body, and core) then perform each exercise starting with 1 rep climbing all the way up to 10 reps then back down the ladder to 1. 
• AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible). Choose your exercises, set a timer for 12 minutes or whatever you can talk your camping company to join in on, then run through your circuit as many times as possible within your allotted time.

By Victoria Emmitt RD