Eating Well on the Road: For Vacation and Work-Related Travel
Often one of the most difficult tasks for clients tracking their nutrition is eating well on the road. With spring break upon us, you might think reason it’s a fine time to toss the good habits out the window, and head straight for the all- inclusive buffet. That might be fun for a few meals, but too much indulging might make you wish you had other options.
Here are some steps I’ve taken to make sure that I can enjoy a vacation/road trip without packing on (too many) pounds.
Travel tips
1) Call ahead and make sure your hotel room will provide you with a mini-fridge for your snacks. Some hotels may charge you, but I’ve never had that happen.
If you’re traveling with a small infant/toddler you’ll probably need to have this for milk anyway. Nursing moms will need a place to refrigerate milk if they pump, so if you manage to score a fridge (besides the mini bar fridge!) that means you will also have room for healthy snacks that need refrigeration, like string cheese, yogurt, and even fruits and veggies if you’re able to get those in there.
2) Along the same lines as calling ahead to make sure you got your bases covered, try to stay in a hotel with a gym, or safe access to walking/running/biking trails. If you’re traveling someplace unique, make sure you try out as many fun, new group fitness workouts if they’re offered.
If you’re already a member of a franchised gym, you can always look up your gym’s location near your hotel and see if could train there, or pay a guest fee in another gym.
Or, if you have WiFi where you are, get on FitnessBlender.Com or a similar free online workout site. And if that doesn’t work, bring your GymBoss for timed bodyweight interval workouts, bring resistance bands and do my free workout here, or download an app for your for mobile phone like SworkIt before you go.
There are many, many ways to move!
3) Pack lightly so that you can include some healthy options, or ship some items to yourself ahead of time. If you know where you’re staying, you can always ship to yourself some items that don’t require refrigeration, like your small pouches water packed tuna, nuts/seeds, whey protein, or instant brown rice and oatmeal (and the latter two clean carbs cook up fine with the hot water from the hotel’s coffee maker.) Or ship your gym clothes, just in case you plan to forget those 🙂
4) Get a mini travel cooler if you don’t have one already, and some ice small ice packs. Check first with the airline to see if the actual ice packs are allowed on board, if not, you’ll be forced to ditch them if you’re traveling by air. That won’t be an issue for road trips- so make sure you have enough ice packs in that case.
5) For me, the most important thing to pack has been a protein source. At airports or on the road, you might have to deal with battered, fried, or otherwise heavily salted mystery meat. Gas station beef jerky can only go so far. For the most part, it’s pretty easy to get whole fruit and bags of nuts at rest stops and airports, and food courts usually have salads. Small pouches of tuna weigh very little and so do single portion scoops of whey protein in zip lock baggies. If you can’t do without carbs, fruit, packets of oatmeal, grits, cream of wheat, etc will work for carb sources that can be easily cooked. Pack that shaker cup!
Eating Well at Business Meetings/Social Events
If you find that your week is packed with non-stop business and social events, and you struggle to make healthy choices, consider the following:
1) Eat before your event. If you’ve packed some healthy options, as described above, you’ll probably be less likely to be tempted by the danishes and bagels served at breakfast meetings and coffee breaks. You’ll still be eating normally with the others of course, provided that there are at least some reasonable options like fruits and veggies that get served at work events. Generally, try your best to make sure protein is covered, as it tends to keeps you full.
2) Entertaining clients at restaurants? Ditch the sauces and dressing. More and more people are being diagnosed with food allergies these days (e.g., gluten allergies) so restaurants are getting in the habit of leaving sauces and dressings off of salads, especially if you tell them so.
3) During the endless receptions you’re attending, limit or avoid alcohol. Sip sparkling water with lemon, drink tea, or firmly limit yourself to 1 drink. When you’re small framed like me, even one drink could be a bad idea anyway. You’re more likely to make poor nutrition choices if your judgment is wrecked from too much alcohol.
Hopefully, these tips for eating well on the road aren’t too cumbersome. Remember to congratulate yourself on your decision to be healthier. It doesn’t take super-human discipline nor willpower to navigate through tricky situations on travel, just a little bit of planning and preparation. At the end of the day, you’ll be better off for making those healthier choices.
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