I just returned from one of the best vacations I’ve ever taken—and there’s a lesson here for Bright Lifers. It was with my daughter Zoe. I take each of my three kids on a trip each year. We’ve been doing these for six or seven years now.
We don’t usually do something as extravagant as going to Maui. But we did it economically: paying for the flights with points, staying with a friend, and doing lots of free things.
On the plane, we came up with a list of things we wanted to do. Here’s what we planned:
- Go to a sweat lodge
- Hike
- Cliff jumping
- See lots of waterfalls
- Drive the road to Hana, on the back side of Maui, which takes more than three hours on a winding, narrow road
- Pick flowers
- Go snorkeling
- Experience a hot tub or hot springs
- Shop for bathing suits
- Swim with giant turtles
- Go to the beach at sunrise, sunset, and when the stars are out
That was our list—and we did everything on it!
We went to the grocery store as soon as we arrived, and I got all the food I needed to be Bright. I bought yogurt, chia seeds, and oatmeal for breakfast—Dina, our host, didn’t have a microwave so I just mixed them together as “overnight oats” and weighed them the night before, and they were ready for me in the morning.
Apples and clementines were my fruit; frozen peas, corn, and green beans were my cooked vegetables; and frozen shelled edamame and cheese were my proteins for lunch and dinner. And raw vegetables: baby carrots, peppers, radishes, organic lettuce, a big head of purple cabbage, a red onion—much of it grown right on the island.
Since we were out in nature most of the time, there weren’t many restaurants. I brought containers from home, and we washed those out and reused them.
We ended up not eating out once. We didn’t plan that, but that’s what happened. We stopped at one restaurant, but the menu didn’t suit us so we didn’t stay, and went back to our food in the car.
For me, it was a stark example of keeping my food black and white so I can live my life in vibrant color. We soaked up the soul of Maui, and our food was fuel. We ate simply, and that was a fine complement to the extraordinary time we were having.
When people ask me how I can do Bright Line Eating when I travel, I think about how there’s so much art and architecture and nature and people in the world—and there’s only so much attention we can give to any single thing. During this trip, we focused on what we wanted to accomplish, and keeping food as a one percent share of it was fine.
I offer that as a lived experience. We didn’t intend it to be this way, and I’m not saying you need to avoid eating out when traveling. But if the food stays simple, there’s a lot of room for abundant life left over. That can be well worth it!
