Breast Healthy Summer Ever On The Vans Warped Tour
Hi I'm Courtney Swan! Self proclaimed REAL food advocate with a strong passion for nutrition and living a chemical free lifestyle. I am an organic food loving, quinoa and kale infatuated, gluten free 28 year old currently working towards my masters in nutrition to eventually become a Registered Dietician. I have made it my life goal to change the way America eats. This summer I was fortunate enough to take all the fun practices I talk about on my site working for Keep A Breast and put it to the Warped Tour test. If any of you are familiar with me and my blog Real Foodology, you know I enjoy eating healthy and working out and on a tour like the Vans Warped Tour with long hours and not any access to grocery stores it can be hard to stay healthy! It takes a little more effort than normal but it can certainly be done! Here's how I managed to stay healthy this summer out on the Warped Tour on the road with Keep A Breast this summer.
TIP 1: To begin any tour, vacation or long trip you have to start with the basics.
You will never go to a magical world where there will always be enough healthy options fit for you. Due to a wheat allergy I was forced to go gluten free 4 years ago, which complicates things a bit further, I always start with a few store bought groceries as a backup on days when catering didn't offer enough gluten free options!
Everyday I always packed a snack to keep me from getting too hungry and binge eating. A typical afternoon snack for me consists of a handful of almonds, a green juice and some dark chocolate. My stash always came in handy for this.
TIP 2: Drink your multi vitamin.
When I am home I try to drink an organic green veggie juice every day as I see it as my daily vitamin and mineral "supplement" as well as cancer preventer. By drinking a veggie juice you get a much higher amount of nutrients and phytonutrients than you normally would by just simply consuming them because you are drinking them in higher quantities. When you drink a veggie juice you are essentially flooding your body with high amounts of vitamins, minerals and disease fighting nutrients.
Thankfully I was able to keep up my daily green juice addiction due to the incredible generosity of others. Seems every major city has a place that sells green juices and thanks to a bit of a following I have built up on Twitter and Instagram, people are aware of my love for green veggie juices and I was blessed to receive more green juices this summer than I could ever repay.
I highly recommend Blueprint or Suja (both of which are carried in Whole Foods) and Starbucks carries Evolution juices. If you know you will not be at a city that is as forward thinking I suggest filling a cooler with enough for a few days *but always check the expiration date on them.
I was overwhelmed by the generosity many showed me this summer! You can read more about my thoughts on juicing here.
Then on the days I didn't receive a veggie juice I had these vitamins to take as a backup. Just remember, if fresh is available, it is always always preferred to bottled supplements.
TIP 3: You are what you eat.
Catering also played a huge role in keeping me healthy on the road. But realistically your choices are always what literally keeps you on track. Catering was extra healthy this year (this is my 4th year on Warped) and they always had some sort of salad and a huge salad bar at least once if not twice a day. To be healthy you have to choose to do so. I don’t eat much meat but when I do I treat it like a side dish and only eat it if it’s organic. Traditional non-organic meat is filled with antibotics, hormones, and fed arsenic! Veggies and whole grains are always the main focus of my meal.
This year I was pleasantly surprised that there was kale and quinoa as options! I love kale because it is a powerhouse of essential vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients (essential in helping your body fight off cancer), is a great source of iron and it is also a great detox food.
In addition to catering I also made overnight oats every night before bed and put them in a cup in the fridge so they were ready to be eaten in the morning as I was getting ready for the day! If you are like me and always in a rush in the morning. You can make it the night before, leave it in your fridge overnight then just run out the door with it in the morning and eat it on your way! It tastes delicious, is full of fiber and has almost endless flavor possibilities. You can use steel cut oats or regular oats. Steel cut oats take much longer to cook than regular oatmeal so soaking them overnight softens them up and gives them a nice chewy texture.
Check out some recipes on my blog here.
TIP 4: Get your sweat on
While staying healthy is about 80% diet, 20% of that is exercise so I did my best to maintain a steady workout routine while out on the road. Brittany (the KAB assistant Tour Manager) and I would meet up with Jeff Pereira (Red Bull Records) and Josh James (Stick To Your Guns) (who I referred to as our personal trainers) and they would give us various cross fit and high intensity workouts to do each day! On the days we weren't able to meet up with them, we would usually try to get a run in or just take the day off. I preferred the workout routines Josh and Jeff gave us because they were generally pretty quick (didn't take longer than 20 minutes ever, and some were closer to 10 minutes) and they really worked up a sweat! I started seeing results within about a week from starting them! Below are 2 pictures of different workouts we did this summer.
Me and Josh and one of the workout routines we did:
Me and Jeff and a different workout routine:
On days off I would hit the hotel gym and do my typical interval run that I love to do when I am home.
TIP 5: If you choose to drink do so smarter and in moderation
After breaking down the tent and my nightly workout, I would hit the showers (or sometimes use a solar shower outside) and finally head back to the bus or the BBQ for hangs with friends before bus call. The BBQs generally involved some sort of drinking and while alcohol is not generally associated with staying healthy, I also believe in a healthy mind and sometimes you just have to have a drink with your friends for sanity's sake! and thats okay (if you are 21 of course)! With carcinogenic, high caloric, super sugary mixers you can very easily ruin your healthy eating that you worked hard all day for so you have to be careful! I don't drink sodas, ever, so I have been forced to find other mixers in place of them! The majority of the summer if I drank I mixed organic tequila or vodka with coconut water (the best for mixing in my opinion is the pineapple coconut water). This also helped keep me hydrated and therefore hangover free all summer! Another option are these stevia sodas (found at Whole Foods) that have no sugar, no preservatives, no calories and are sweetened with non-carcinogenic stevia instead of aspartame!
Also, when I had more time on my hands, I whipped up some of my "healthy" margaritas on the bus with a magic bullet!
Despite the long hours and sometimes insanely crazy weather I speak on behalf of all of the KAB crew in saying that it was an absolute blast and we wouldn't take it back for anything. Thank you to Kevin Lyman, Kate Truscott, all of the Warped Tour production and of course all of the fans for coming out and making this the breast summer ever! We love you all!