How to Eat Healthy While Traveling
For many families (mine included) the holidays mean lots of time outside our kitchen. Traveling during the holidays can pose a significant challenge when it comes to sticking with your healthy eating plan.
Truth: Travel doesn’t have to be the death of your diet.
How?
4 Easy Tips for How to Eat Healthy While Traveling
1. Avoid the Blood Sugar Roller-Coaster: First and foremost, I always make sure that the meals and snacks that I choose are NOT going to send my blood sugar on an all out tail spin. Think: protein, fiber & water filled snacks. It’s important to keep blood sugar stable and to balance your hunger, energy and cravings so that you don’t put yourself in a situation where you are starving and tempted to chow down on anything you see (soda, candy bars, etc). We’ve all been there, when one sugary treat leads to insatiable cravings for two..three..and maybe even four more. At this point, you no longer make educated decisions about your food choices and find yourself at the mercy of your stomach and raging hunger hormones. Blood sugar drops not only causing you to overeat but to want to over eat the WRONG foods.
2. Prepare & Pack: If you can, it’s great to pack your own snacks for traveling. This helps you follow tip #1 (remember: focus on protein, fiber & water filled snacks) and doesn’t leave you at the mercy of the 7-11 or airport food stand.
A few of my standard healthy travel snacks include:
- Almonds or other unsalted nuts
- Apple and peanut or almond butter
- Protein bar (click here to learn how to choose the right protein bar)
- Celery and peanut or almond butter
- Greek yogurt with berries
- Sugar-free gum
- Water
- Hard-boiled eggs.
3. Use the Gas Station Guide: When you don’t have time to pack snacks, or may run out of what you need, don’t be afraid to hit the gas station. Some gas stations actually offer fresh fruit, nuts, or even hardboiled eggs.
But if you’re limited to something that’s processed and packaged, here’s a simple way to know what how it ranks:
- Find the Total Carbohydrate grams.
- Subtract any fiber grams.
- Subtract total protein grams.
The number you are left with should be low. For fat loss, the lower the better. Negative numbers are best.
4. Order PFW: If your travel plans allow you to stop at more than just a gas station and you find yourself at a restaurant, think back to tip #1 and order PFW (protein, fiber, water)! Whether you’re at a sit down restaurant or a quick drive through, now’s your time to fill up on protein, fiber & water! Skip the bread or fries and load up on a salad with variety of fibrous veggies and plenty of protein. Look for things like grilled chicken, steak and fish. If you’re at a drive through, opt for grilled chicken sandwiches (ditch the bun) and look for the veggies that are steamed, grilled, or on a salad. Lastly, don’t forget to drink plenty of water. (Yes, you’ll have to make a few extra bathroom stops along the way…tell your husband it’s my fault!).
Traveling doesn’t have to be the death of your diet.
Enjoy the holidays and remember, fat loss happens anywhere, and this is a LIFESTYLE. Don’t be discouraged or use travel as an excuse to fall off the wagon. Instead, use this time to figure out how to make the fat loss lifestyle work for you, even during the hustle and bustle of the season.
You are now armed with the tools you need eat healthy anywhere, even while traveling.
Going away? Here’s a bodyweight workout to keep you on track without lugging your weights around.