Big Rig Cookbook is a health and wellness app for over-the-road truck drivers. The lifestyle of a truck driver is unique in that they live by their hours of duty, have inconsistent schedules, and are seated at the wheel for the majority of the day. They have no or limited access to kitchen appliances and plumbing. As such, it's easy for their health to degrade over time by not exercising and eating fast food from truck stops.
This app aims to change this and improve the lives of truck drivers. At its core, Big Rig Cookbook ("BRC" for short) will contain an easily accessibly repository of recipes written by truckers that can be prepared and enjoyed in a semi-truck using appliances like pressure cookers, microwaves, and air fryers. Truckers will be able to create and share their favourite road recipes, as well as save recipes to a cookbook on their personal profile.
In addition to this, BRC will feature a fitness section where truckers can explore various stretches and exercises that can be done inside or using their truck, in a short amount of time, so they can be done while seated or during breaks.
The mission is to improve the welfare of America's truckers, who are the lifeblood of the country.
I lived in a semi-truck with my husband for several years, with extremely limited access to cooking appliances and no plumbing inside the truck. I had to learn to cook in a cramped space using a 3-in-1 microwave/oven/air fryer and a Ninja Foodi pressure cooker. Health and wellness has been important to me since childhood, so I made it my goal to maintain my health during my trucking journey. I discovered techniques to cook and clean efficiently in the truck, and exercised using weights and bands six days a week.
I believe that health and fitness doesn't have to be a chore, and it can be accessible to truck drivers if they have access to the support and resources they need. I hope to help them retake power over their health and their lives, and to show them that the world cares about them.
The project is in its early stages of development. The plan is to make it easily accessible on mobile devices (as most truckers have limited access to computers), with a simple and intuitive interface. The styling is a work in progress. Many components are styled using TailwindCSS and DaisyUI.
Milestones accomplished:
- User athentication using Passport local strategy
- Create, edit, delete, and save recipes
- User profiles including created and saved recipes, and saved stretches
- SVG icons for major ingredients in recipes (to allow users to easily view recipe components)
- Profile achievement badges
- Admin dashboard (to allow admins to easily modify the database)
- Stretch database, and the ability to save stretches
- Daily stretch tracker
- Users can edit their profile descriptions
- Users can create stretch routines
- Hosting on Vercel
Next steps are outlined here, for easy reference. This is not an exhaustive list; only a list of the immediate next steps for the project. This list will be updated as needed.
- Enhance user profiles
- Enable users to change their username, e-mail, and password
- Layout styling improvements
- Achievement badge enhancements
Want to check out the app for yourself? Check it out here!