A few tips for commercial drivers to help you lose kilos even when out on the road
The festive season has started and the roads are even busier with trucks, road trains, freighters and delivery drivers all doing long hours to make sure this fantastic country of ours keeps running smoothly.
The long hours on the road can have a toll on the body and the waistline, however. Over time as the waistline increases so does our risk of developing type 2 diabetes, sleep apnoea and back injuries.
Based in my hometown of Moree, the crossroads of transport between north, south, east and west, I have seen many clients in the trucking industry, all wanting to reduce their waistline and pass the medical to keep their heavy vehicle licence.
Reducing your waistline reduces insulin resistance and improves blood glucose levels. If blood glucose levels go too high it can cause sleepiness, while maintaining a steady supply of glucose to the brain ensures concentration levels are at their highest while driving. Three things every truck driver seems to have in common in regards to food are:
1. Over generous roadhouse staff
Most roadhouses like to look after the regular clients. Based on the attitude of a well-fed customer must be a well-loved customer, the serve sizes are over-generous. I recently ordered pork chops and vegetables in a country roadhouse for dinner. When the meal arrived it was three pork loin chops, one cup of mash potato and about two cups of steamed vegetables. The portion of mash and vegetable made the dietitian inside smile with delight. The 600g protein serve contained 5,500kJ of energy and 168g of protein. The average Australian needs to only eat 8,700kJ/day of energy a day.
Protein is fantastic for building and repairing muscle. The catch is, 30g of protein from about 100g of meat is the maximum per meal the body can digest and convert to muscle. The rest goes into the liver and gets converted to uric acid, which can cause gout, or is stored in the reserve fuel tank (aka the waistline) as fat for later.
TIP: Reducing your protein portion to a quarter of the plate can make a big difference in reducing the waistline. By consuming 600kJ of energy less a day you can lose up to seven kilograms in a year. One chop is 1,800kJ. Reducing your portion of protein down to two chops instead of three will result in a 20 kilogram weight loss in one year.
2. Waiting time
Waiting to load. Waiting to unload. Waiting at the border check points. Waiting in traffic. There is a lot of time wasted just sitting and waiting. Your hands and mind are no longer focused on the road and boredom sets in.
People sometimes use food to help make the time go by. Snacking on roadhouse snacks are going to add extra energy to your daily intake. These snacks are high in energy (kilojoules) and low in nutrients. All those excess kilojoules become stored fat around the waistline. This increases insulin resistance and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
TIP: Take an esky in the cabin and fill up with low energy and high nutrient snacks. Eskies these days can keep food frozen for a week and can come in all sizes. Ensure you choose a good quality esky that claims to keep ice frozen for seven days.
• Vegetables are a great snack while driving. They are not sticky and don’t make a mess. Pre-cut carrots, capsicums, celery and cucumbers into sticks, snack on cherry tomatoes or cauliflower and broccoli – they are delicious raw. You can even purchase baby vegetables that are already in easy-to-eat sizes
• If you have a portable freezer you can store peas. Frozen peas are like eating little bursts of sweetness
• Unsalted popcorn. A 2/3 cup of popcorn is equivalent to 10 potato crisps
• Flavoured water. Use mint, lemon juice, slice oranges, cucumber and strawberries to add interest. Tea infusion bags for water are now also available – you’ll find these in the tea section at the supermarket
• Fruit. One punnet of strawberries is equal to an apple. A punnet of strawberries takes a lot longer to eat than one apple. Apples are still a healthy choice. A small chocolate bar is equillivant to two apples in energy but with a lot less nutrition.
• Packaged fruit. While having a rest snack on some Two Fruits in natural juice.
3. Limited healthy options on the road
Healthy home-cooked meals can be hard to find when on the road. Sometimes distance between towns means that the kitchen is closed by the time you arrive at the roadhouse. To ensure healthy choices are easy, pack an esky and a 12-volt portable oven. Portable ovens can cost as little as $50. Put one-person meal packs in your esky.
When it is time to cook add ingredients to your portable oven. Dinner will be served in one to four hours. For recipes, look for slow cooker meal ideas. If the recipe makes four meals then divide the recipe by four. Add all wet ingredients in a zip lock bag and freeze. Put dry ingredients in another zip lock bag. When it is time to cook add wet ingredients in portable oven and cook for two to five hours. Add dry ingredients when required.
TIP:
• Baked beans. Cold or heated are a healthy snack or meal
• Keep frozen dinners in the portable freezer and reheat while driving in
the oven
• Cook a baked potato or sweet potato in the portable oven. Takes about one to two hours. When you stop to eat, load it with tinned tuna or left-over roast meat and add a salad
• Apple and steel cut porridge. Porridge will cook in a portable oven. Add oats, low fat milk, one to two tablespoons of apple sauce and a cut up apple. It will take about one hour to cook. Half a cup of oats will make one cup of cooked porridge
• Spaghetti. Add lean mince, vegetables and pasta sauce. Cook while driving for about two to three hours. Add pasta to sauce. It will be cooked in about 30 minutes
• Swap cream in recipes for canned evaporated skim milk. This reduces the kilojoules and saturated fat in the meal. Freeze evaporated skim milk in ice block trays. Then store in freezer. Add about four cubes to a meal for a creamier sauce
• It takes time to learn how to prepare meals with a portable oven. Have a can of baked beans or a sandwich as a back-up in case the meal is a disaster.
Make one small change each week or two. After a couple of months these changes will become habits. These healthy changes can assist in waistline reduction and improve insulin resistance and overall health.
Happy trucking!
*POLLY ANTEES is an accredited practising dietitian and credentialled diabetes educator with Diabetes NSW & ACT. For more information on diabetes or to talk to a dietitian, call the Diabetes NSW & ACT Helpline on 1300 342 238.