CALLING ALL TRUCK DRIVERS! Post your questions, tips & tricks here

(mary6aros) #9

Oh. My. Good…:nauseated_face: I can’t even imagine! Lol

(TJ Borden) #10

I’m home every day now, but I was on the road when I started. I was a service tech for a patio door company, so I drove a full size ford transit van and logged about 2500 miles a week, on average.

I would be on the road for 3 weeks a month and then home for 1. When on the road it was a generally a different city/town and different hotel every night. Since I wasn’t a CDL I wasn’t bound by the 14 hour rule so after working during the day, I’d spend the afternoon and evening driving to the next town. By the time I got there, it would often be late and most restaurant options were closed. Or, the town would be small enough they just didn’t have many options at all.

At one point I tried just eating breakfast (the hotels the company put me up in usually had a hot breakfast because then they could justify a smaller per diem since I’d only need to buy lunch and dinner). That didn’t work for me because I quickly realized that eating breakfast, even LCHF, tended to make me hungry the rest of the day.

I ended up just focusing on dinner and the fallback was a salad, but most diners I could get a steak and veggies (Black Bear diner actually has a pretty good ribeye for a diner). Denny’s is always decent for meat and eggs. There were some hiccups along the way. I remember pulling into Biloxi around 11pm one night while heading back to Houston from Florida, and the ONLY thing I could find open was a Waffle House. Admittedly, I wasn’t too upset since we don’t have them on the West Coast. I don’t remember exactly what I had, but I know I had two rounds of meals for less than $20, and figured I had eaten about a months worth of carbs in one meal.

Long story/post short, keto on the road can be challenging, especially starting out. Once you’re into it and especially if your IF, it’s easier. I always kept a shopping bag full of pork rinds and pepperoni sticks with me. Most truck stops and many gas stations with decent markets have cheese, hard boiled eggs, and/or salads. I’d also hit be condiemt bar for mayo packets.

Smearing mayo on pepperoni and cheese may sound crazy to someone cooking at home, but on the road it can be a gourmet feast. As mentioned in previous posts, if you’re far enough in your journey to not get tempted by carbage, casino buffets can be a keto travelers best friend. Most of my trips started with a drive from home (about 30 miles north of Seattle) to San Francisco, and I would fast all day until I got to Rolling Hills casino in Corning, CA (about an hour south of Redding), have an awesome LCHF dinner (they ALWAYS have prime rib) then finish the drive to the Bay Area.

(TJ Borden) #11

Another fall back on the road; Dickies BBQ. A pound of fatty brisket and a small side of creamed spinach. :yum:

(Candy Lind) #12

And they have truck parking! YAY! Next time we’re up there … :grin:

(Dustin) #13

I have followed this woe for atleast a year and a half.
When I started out I did get keto flu… had a headache so bad I was nauseated and found a decent pole to lean on in the parking lot as I made a good mess on the ground. lol. I remember at first I would really NEED a nap in the middle of the day…(maybe just a half hour…but I would practily die in those 30 minutes, and then feel great when I woke up. Speaking of energy I have much more of it now. I drive a team expedite straight truck with my wife, and i used to struggle in the middle of the night to stay awake…would not leave the truck stop without my bag of corn nuts to munch on in case I got tired. Aside from losing 60+ pounds it feels GREAT not being sleepy! It also feels greaat not being hungry. I remember when I kinda wanted to get pills from a doctor to kill hunger…(my wife would never allowed that though)… but now I know pills can’t compete with my appetite control now. I can even go for days without eating… my longest stretch is 7 days.
I have the luxury of a 96 inch sleeper. So I have a decent fridge/freezer, and a nice counter to use my electric skillet on. Cleaning is easy… I just use paper towel and orange cleaner (available at truck stops). When I drove solo, and had a 70" sleeper I still used a skillet… even if I had to go in the closet and cut a hole in the floor to run cable to the batterys of the truck to operate my store bought inverter. For the most part I hate restaurants… When I do go it’s a place where I can order steak and broccoli. I have to tell them that I want 4 to 6 sides of broccoli, and a big bowl of whipped butter…I usually have to repeat myself about the broccoli, and send them back for more butter…“I said a BIG bowl of butter”. lol

At Wal-Mart I want fatty meat… deli pepporoni, bacon, the fatest beef I can get, butter, lard, cheese, heavy whipping cream, avocados (I fry them in butter emm emm good), broccoli (usually in a bag…I fork the bag 10 times and throw it in microwave…it may kill me because of the hot plastic, but my God it comes out at the perfect color, and texture. The baking aisle has a bag of walnuts I get often. I only buy early California brand olives. Natural peanut butter…finally broke my habit of eating hydrogenated Jif. (not easy to do) lol
Ok… are you tired of reading? cause I’m tired of writing. lol

(Jay AM) #14

Yay! Trucker party! Except, we can’t attend because all our 14s would start driving to it. :thinking:

I drive a lightweight on a dedicated account and live on the truck with my beagle, Simon. Who loves keto because he’s a snack stealer and his mom forgets snacks on the floor all the time. My truck is so small that, if my legs and arms were long enough, I could probably drive from the sleeper. So, not a lot of room for cooking. I did have my passenger seat removed and managed to stuff a 1.7cu dorm fridge there and a truck freezer sits on top of that. I had dreams of cooking on the truck, managed to do it a couple of times. I find that I hate doing it in such a small space. And, I hate doing dishes on the truck too.

My Wal-Mart go tos are precooked bacon, huge pepperoni sticks, cheese, butter, heavy cream, better than bouillon chicken flavor, Duke’s sausages, shredded meats, olives, and eggs.

If I haven’t gotten shopping in a while, my truck stop finds are pepperoni and cheese snack cups, hard boiled eggs, dill pickles, bacon or pepperoni jerky (goes great with the buy a drink get 1 bag free with jerky purchase that Flying j and Pilot offer sometimes), truck stop pizza with crust removed, pot roast (higher carb but, fatty meat and you can remove the potatoes and carrots if you want to avoid a lot of the carbs.)

I have a short list of things I order from each fast food place. It’s usually a burger with cheese and bacon. Or, I’ll get meat and cheese at Arby’s. Or breakfast from McDonald’s with the biscuit removed. And, I usually love Denny’s when I can spend a bit more because they have a decent sirloin steak. I’ll get that with squash and zucchini or broccoli and a side of 4 eggs and cheese.

I don’t have a microwave in the truck so, I use truck stop ones. I like to make scrambled eggs with cheese, butter, and meat in the microwave. If you watch it, it comes out decently. I do have an electric kettle on the truck but, my inverter doesn’t appreciate it. I usually get hot water from the truck stop for my chicken broth drink.

I am looking to move to another company where I’ll be driving a full size truck and might actually have more off truck time. So, I can hopefully get back to cooking more. My go to cooking tool is the instant pot. It can saute, steam, stew, bake. It really does everything if you can get creative and I can’t wait to use it again. I miss curry.

My starts with keto on the truck were horrendous. I had this grand plan to use this meal replacement shake thing formulated for keto. I’d mapped out every added ingredient to get enough fat in and calories for 1800. Well, it didn’t work. The shakes tasted fine until you looked at the daunting task of drinking 2 liters of them. Half of one liter was enough to make you hate the flavor. And then the worst keto flu ever happened. I was 100 miles from my delivery and had to stop in a rest area and go to sleep. I had a splitting headache and all the feelings of the worst flu ever with shivering, cramping, nausea, fatigue, aching. I woke up feeling slightly better and immediately ate out of the vending machines at the rest area. Pepsi, cinnamon roll, ice cream. It fixed me right up. After that I dropped the shakes and just ate food. The company refunded me thankfully because I’d bought enough for 2 months. I still have 8 bags of coconut milk powder, 4 jars of coconut manna, and 4 lbs of coconut oil that I bought for add ins. I use them with not enough frequency because, besides the oil, they have more carbs than I’d want for how much I’d have to use to achieve anything.

Drivers and Keto
On the road, eat or fast?
(mary6aros) #15

I have noticed my husband fasting more while driving. According to him, it’s so easy, and he gets more loads of material delivered than to the other drivers since he doesn’t have to stop for sodas, etc. constantly. If ever he does choose to stop, at a grocery store deli in our area there’s usually something smoked, and at convenience stores, the hot dogs or sausages on the rollers are a quick hunger fix. Those helped him in the beginning.
Water has become a staple, but sometimes becomes mundane, so he will use Crystal Light or Mio drops. I buy the drops sweetened with stevia.
We’re fortunate enough to get him home every night, (pay cut, but we think it is worth it) so he’ll get supper usually every night, either before or after working out.

(mary6aros) #16

Another idea, if you have to choose something from a fast food restaurant: order a salad and something like grilled chicken or a cheeseburger. (Take bread off) and put meat on top of the greens. Dressing could even just be mayo packets. Or butter.
*Thought of this cause last night I ate a GREAT bacon cheeseburger salad. :grin:

(Candy Lind) #17

Come back and keep spewing the great info! I’m going to start a Wiki, maybe two, that I can copy all the good info into, in consolidated form. Restaurant tips and a Walmart shopping list would be a great start for any driver, and maybe we’ll add in OTR cooking hints as well. :grin:

(Candy Lind) #18

I love my IP, too! If you can get to where you have more off-truck time, maybe you can cook up a bunch of freezer food when you’re off, or figure out a way to actually use it on the truck. That’s what I’m working on.

(Candy Lind) #19

Pay cut is right! Not only do they think you’re worth less, but you lose the per diem for meals that you get OTR. Double whammy. :angry: But I bet you’re certainly glad to have him there.

(Jay AM) #20

Cleaning the thing was my real issue. Between prepping, cooking, and cleanup, I was spending an hour of my meager extra 2 out of 10 hours to make a couple of experimental meals. And storage is my biggest battle in such a small truck. I look like a weird hoarder but, I live in a closet.

(Candy Lind) #21

My hubby’s cousin used to be a driver, and she told us when we were considering teaming that if we wanted to see what it was like, to move in to our bathroom together for a couple of weeks! :rofl:

(Jay AM) #22

I did the team thing for a year. It wasn’t as bad even storing stuff for 2 people. The other person was definitely the issue. Though, I’d argue that the dog takes more space than he’s worth some days. But, he’s cute so he stays.

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(Ellie Baum) #23

Not a trucker, but for some reason, this thread has been one of the more interesting threads on here. :grinning:

(Candy Lind) #24

Getting an inside look at the hell we go through to bring you your steaks and Kerrygold, eh? :wink:

(Ellie Baum) #25

Ha something like that. To be honest, being a trucker has always interested me. Getting to have plenty of alone time. My own (tiny) space. I’d assume I’d feel accomplished at the end of my day since I would have something very tangible that got done (I drove X number of miles today).

Plus it’s great to hear all the ways you can do keto on the road. It applies to me when I go on road trips.

(mary6aros) #26

Great ideas for moms and dads with little ones, instead of the Cheetos, gummies and juice boxes!

(TJ Borden) #27

Yeah, I miss being out on the road. If my wife ever comes to her senses and kicks my ass to the curb, I’m getting my CDL and going long haul.

It really is about the road though. To this day, my wife is jealous of some of the places I went because in her mind I was actually “in” the places playing tourist. In fact most of the places I drove through, I literally “drove through”. I only saw the skyline, I often didn’t even get off the highway.

Shit… this thread is making me miss it even more. Damn you @CandyLindTX :joy:

(Robert) #28

I have one of those lunch box ovens from the truck stop and use the meatloaf tins. The clean up is pretty easy if the grease doesn’t spill over. I cook chicken, bacon, 2 pound roast and more.