After falling so deeply in love with my first Fit Mark bag, I couldn’t help but get another one. When I picked out my first bag, I was so torn because there were so many great choices! Since I desperately needed a new bag for the gym AND I didn’t have any travel plans on the horizon, I opted for the one I would get the most use out of at the time. However, as the summer progressed and new plans for the family continued to emerge (seemingly week to week), I knew I would eventually need to invest in another bag to ensure I had BOTH my gym bag AND food with me at ALL times (hungry girl problems). I’m not a patient girl so jumped right in and grabbed the other bag that initially kept pulling at my heart strings. Let me introduce you to the newest member of my Fit Mark family of bags:
Isn’t it purty??? I wish the camera, lighting, editing could do this color justice, but it’s the most beautiful shade of pink ever. Not too hot pink, not too light pink, not too dark pink… just right in the middle pink and perfect.
When I went to the site to order, I already knew I would be getting the ‘Shield’ BUT was going back and forth between the small and large. SO happy I decided to go with the larger one. Now that I have it here with me, the small would only work if I needed it as a lunch box type bag for work or school (if I were 20 years younger LOL). The small would NOT be large enough for long trips or traveling. The large will have me set for an entire day away from the house or even a couple of days if I figure in eating out 1-2 times over a weekend period of time.
Thankfully, Fit Mark has extra fast shipping (I’m located in Cali where their headquarters is which also helps), so my bag arrived just in time for road trip to Los Angeles to visit my family! I knew I would be gone for at least 1-2 days and would need to bring 3-4 meals, my vitamins & supplements, snacks, protein bars, and I’m never too far away from nut butter so those would need to be packed as well!!!
Everything I needed was prepped, packed, and perfectly stored!
Main compartment:
- 5 FitMark meal containers (included with the purchase of the bag)
- 1 FitMark powdered supplement dispenser (included with the purchase of the bag)
- 1 “stacker bottle” which my husband bought for me YEARS ago on Groupon
Everything in the main storage compartment stayed nice and cool for my drive with the FitMark ice packs (these come included with the purchase of the bag, but you can also buy additional ones if you need)! I will definitely be purchasing another set of these!
Before I share what I actually packed in terms of food, let me give a little overview of my thought process regarding nutrition & traveling. First and foremost, I am a flexible eater: I don’t label foods as good/bad, I don’t restrict certain foods or food groups, and I don’t eat according to a meal plan. For me, it all comes down to the balance of my macros/calories. When I look at any food, all I see is protein, carbs, and fat. That being said, I do still have goals and being in a building phase (caloric surplus), I need to make sure I am always eating enough.
For the most part, carbs and fat are always going to be easy to hit ESPECIALLY while on the road traveling. When traveling, it’s easy to run into a convenience store or gas station for calorically dense things like chips, cookies, etc. but you can’t exactly run into these places and grab a nice source of protein like a chicken breast or fresh veggies. Protein will always be a bit harder to come by, so when I’m on the go that’s usually what I try to load up on for prepping. I also like to bring along nutrient dense snacks to help reach daily fiber & micronutrient goals which means you will always see me munching on veggies and fruit.
Let’s take a closer peek at my food for the weekend…
Hard boiled eggs. This is a regular Costco purchase for me. I like having a super portable option for protein & fat. I usually only eat the whites (I rather save my fat macros for other things… like peanut butter, duh), but if I feel like I’m low on fat for the day then I will just eat the whole egg.
We happened to have a fresh pick of strawberries & cherries while I was prepping for the trip, so that’s what I brought. I also prepared one of my FAVORITE meals ever: Cinnamon Caramel Apple Pancake Roll Ups. This recipe (found HERE), is one I ate nearly every single day of my last cut/dieting phase. So delicious, so filling, packed with protein & fiber, can easily adjust the amount of fat with more/less nuts/cook in coconut oil/just use non stick spray/etc., and it travels beautifully. I like eating it warm and knew I could reheat it in the microwave, but it’s great cold as well if push comes to shove! Seriously, I still crave this meal regularly. SO so good.
Another typical breakfast meal for me is a HUGE serving of scrambled eggs & veggies. There was a period recently where I was eating this particular meal every single day for at least 2 months. Seriously. I love it because it has SO much volume, super filling, and FULL of all things nutrient dense and good for. I like having something like this as my first meal so I can get a nice serving of my micros in for the day. Then I know I can eat more “fun” stuff as the day goes on. Since I knew I would have access to a stove when I arrived in L.A., I just packed my ingredients VS making the meal though.
Layers shown include: power greens, asparagus, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, riced cauliflower, and a veggie sausage patty. When I’m ready to cook this, I throw everything in a sauté pan until softened, then add in 1 cup of egg whites.
I usually eat my veggie egg scrambles with salsa and 2 slices of toast with sun butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon. SO much food!!! Roughly ends up being around 600-700 calories. I’m a fan of a few BIG meals each day VS. a bunch of smaller meals. Personally, having meals that are 200-300 calories just annoys me because I will ALWAYS end up still being hungry. Having meals that actually fill me up prevents me from constantly snacking.
Next up would be an option for lunch or afternoon snack. Power greens, chicken breast, and sweet potato. Simple, straight forward, and I can eat this warm or cold. This is something I would also bring to an amusement park or the beach! It’s just so easy and travels great!
And now onto the snacks… this is what was in my Stacker Bottle (carrots, snap peas, cucumber).
Compartment in the top of the bottle held my daily supplements: multivitamin, fish oil, probiotics, PEScience SHIFT & my ‘magic’ pill Norcodrene (I actually don’t believe in magic pills, but I can’t say enough great things about Norcodrene. Need a boost of energy, appetite suppressant, and mood adjustment all rolled into one? This is where it’s at. Thank GOD for my 30% off PEScience products because I would go broke. Seriously.).
Then in my FitMark dispenser:
I brought 1 serving of PEScience Amino IV’s (BCAA’s), 1 serving of my favorite pre workout PEScience ‘strawberry pina colada’, and 1 serving of PEScience Peanut Butter Cup protein. Amino’s I drink daily, protein powder usually just gets mixed in with Greek yogurt (purchased a 6oz container once I got to L.A.) or I have a ‘green’ smoothie, and I knew I would be working out at least one of my two days so Alphamine is a must!
Top pouch of the LG SHIELD:
This thing holds SO much! I kept my favorite protein bars & sweet tooth snacks in here and still had a ton of room left over.
- SquareBar- ‘Cocoa Almond‘ (**20% off using code CORINA**)
- The Cookie Department- ‘TOUGH‘ peanut butter cookie (**10% off using code CORINA**)
- Detour bar- ‘Chocolate Chip Caramel‘ Simple Bar’s are easily one of my favorite snacks, tastes just like a candy bar
- Quest bar- ‘Mint Chocolate‘, one of my favorite new flavors, great option to help hit fiber & protein
- NoGii bar- ‘Cookies & Cream’ Dream‘ new addiction, taste and texture are amazing
and like I stated earlier…
I’m NEVER too far away from nut butter! These new BuffBake single serving travel packets are a LIFE SAVER! So genius. As much as I hate to admit it, I keep one in my purse at all times LOL! BuffBake is hands down my favorite, go to nut butter of all time. Texture and flavors are absolutely amazing! (** 10% off using coupon code corinabuffbake **)
Last but not least, the side pockets on the LG Shield:
These actually expand quite a bit if you need them to which is nice if you need the extra space. I just kept my small necessities in them though: hand sanitizer, lotion, lip balm, my wallet, and my phone! Since I didn’t know if I would need to bring my bag to the beach, park, or elsewhere, I just transferred these things from my purse when I needed!
Other pocket just held some protein cookies I made and my go to Sweet Leaf Stevia for eating out, ‘Lemon Drop‘! If you scroll through my Instagram feed, you will see me post about my ‘free’ free lemonade that I ALWAYS make at restaurants. Nothing better than a nice tall refreshing glass of delicious, FREE, sugar free lemonade! Since I knew we would be eating at least 1-2 dinners out, my drops were a must to bring!
All in all, this was one successful trip!
Spending quality time with family and loved ones will ALWAYS be the most important aspect of your life. Those moments should be enjoyed thoroughly, completely, and lived to the fullest without constantly feeling fear or anxiety about getting “off track”. One should never feel guilt about having a foods that aren’t necessarily nutrient dense and they should be eaten in moderation (key word here is MODERATION folks). Your eyes and mind may tell you that eating six s’mores is what you should do, but eating one or two will satisfy the craving and allow you to eat like everyone else around you. Feeling isolated because you are so focused on not eating this, that, and the other thing is a recipe for disaster.
In most cases, if you keep telling yourself you CAN’T have something, not only will you probably want it more, but in many cases this will end in a huge binge of eating anything and everything around you. From what I have seen, people will get in the mind set of “Oh well, I’m already off track. YOLO. Let’s go all in and eat anything and everything around me.” Then the feelings of guilt set in, you restrict more, you feel more deprived, you binge again, and the cycle just keeps going.
** Flexibility. Moderation. Balance. **
The absolute keys in having a healthy relationship with food and making this a long term lifestyle.
I enjoyed all of the regular 4th of July festivities & food (hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, s’mores, cookies, and even a donut or two), but was still able to get all of my body, mind, & muscle fueling food in as well thanks to a little planning, meal prep, and my new snazzy bag! Having some key meals prepped and ready to go saved me from going crazy with the other food that was around me and from being overly hungry at any given point.
This isn’t the last time you will see this bag!
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