The No Drive Through Family Plan: Pack a Cooler in One Minute

Pack a cooler?  How long will that take?  One minute, once you create the habit.  This is something I did when I started in sales years ago (let’s leave it at that). Texas summers get hot, and I needed cold water on hand when I was driving around in my car office all day.  

I continued this habit with my children. I did this more so when they were small and in need of frequent snacks.  Packing a cooler enabled me to create the good habits I wanted us to have, provided them the choices I wanted to give them, and prevented the urgent drive through stop due to hungry children.  This helped us get home to a healthier meal.

You can pack a cooler in one minute or less.  I am talking about the tiny cooler that you pack a lunch in or the next size up.  The scenario is “We need to leave in ten minutes!!!  is everybody ready to go?”  This is a healthy snack and water cooler.  This is a get us home for a healthy meal cooler.  This is a save you money, save you time and save your health cooler.  This might be the simple solution you have been looking for.

For now, let’s pack a cooler.

When should you pack a cooler?

• When you are picking your kids up from school
• When you are leaving for any sport, practice or game
• When you are leaving your house for any length of time for errands
• When your kids are young, especially
• When you are going to work or spend time time driving in your car during the day

Why should you pack a cooler?

• To get more fruits and veggies in you and your child's body
• To prevent you from stopping at a convenience store or driving through the drive through
• To have that healthy snack that gets you home for a healthy meal
• To prevent fatigue and grumpiness in you or your children
• To always have water available
• To save you money and time
• To provide the right choices within your control 

What should go in your drive through prevention cooler?

• Water- always
• Healthy snacks such as:
• Nuts
• Yogurt
• Cheese sticks
• Easy to eat fruit, either already cut up in a container or whole fruit such as bananas, apples, pears, for example
• Choice of healthy granola bars (as compared to less healthy granola bars) Think green package Nature Valley Oats and Honey Granola Bars, Kashi bars, ......bars, and small organic cliff bars for example
• Veggies such as baby carrots, cut up cucumbers, bell peppers, celery, etc.
• Plain or pretzel Goldfish as a reasonable alternative to less healthy cracker snacks
• Jar of real peanut butter (I like organic roasted peanuts, salt)
• Hummus

You get the picture...

What supplies should you have on hand for your cooler?

• Ice packs
• Water bottled and ready to pack
• Plastic utensils you can pack in a hurry
• Toothpicks for fruit that is cut up and packed in a container
• Snacks listed above to throw in the cooler quickly
• Paper napkins

Scenario: You are racing out the door and know you are going to be gone for a few hours...

• Grab your cooler
• Throw in ice pack(s) 
• Grab utensil sets
• Grab waters 
• Grab yogurts 
• Grab apples 
• Next time, grab nuts and fruit
• Next time grab any of these you can get your hands on fast

Most importantly, know that whatever you grab is what will get eaten when someone is hungry.  This is why having healthy snack choices available is important.  Another option is to keep a container in your car full of nonperishable healthy snacks, such as prepackaged nuts or healthy granola bars for example.  

How fast can you pack a cooler?
Set your timer.
On your mark, get set, go!

---