Soon we will be leaving for a week in the mountains. I can hardly wait!! Right now I'm starting to pack. On vacation, our family picnics two meals a day. We always eat breakfast in our room, unless our motel has a healthy complementary continental breakfast. We always have one meal in a restaurant. That's when we eat salads, cooked meat, and other things that are difficult to picnic. We have one meal out of the ice chest and food box.

Last year on vacation I had been on the Type O diet for less than two months. How, I asked myself, would I picnic without bread? I bought small cans of vegetables - spinach, peas, lima beans. Every day I opened one can of vegetables and mixed it in a bowl with tuna or sardines. I ate that while the rest of the family ate sandwiches. I'm planning similar meals for myself this year.

The rest of the family is following the BTD a little more closely this year. I've already packed soy milk, and my daughter will take the portable blender she bought for last spring's mission trip. She will have her morning soy shake. My husband has requested soy cheese for his sandwiches. I'll be taking two packages in the ice chest in case we can't buy it locally.

Before the BTD, I took several varieties of trail mix. This year I think it will be better if I pack walnuts, almonds, peanuts, and several dried fruits separately. I'll take zipper sandwich bags, and let everyone create their own trail mix day to day. I'm also taking soy protein bars for backpacks.

There is a nice grocery store near where we will be staying so I can buy fruit and carrots locally. Three years ago there was also a small, but nice health food store. Businesses come and go in resort villages, so I can't assume it will still be there.

Packing clothes is easy: shorts for daytime hiking, jeans for horseback riding, a light jacket for mountain thunderstorms. It's the food that takes the planning.