Quick Summary
- Travelling often comes with limited healthy food choices that could derail your healthy lifestyle
- A little planning ahead and being prepared can be simple, and help keep your health goals on track even when you’re out and about while saving you time for enjoying your trip
Traveling soon? Visiting Family? Perhaps a long-awaited vacation? Business trip? Something completely different?
No matter where you’re going, here are some quick and easy healthy food ideas. These can help you stay on track and help you bring, and find real food. While these tips can all be used right here at home while you’re out and about, this is extra-important when you’re traveling. Traveling can throw your regular healthy habits off when you’re skipping time zones or even just being in a different place. As a health coach, I have such a sense of pride when my clients skip junky convenience foods, and continue to get real nutrition, and feel good while traveling. Let me give you some great strategies that can help you do this while you’re “on the road.” Pro Tip: When booking your hotel room, ask if you can have one with a mini-fridge. This will help you store some of your healthy snacks and groceries or any supplements that need to be cold such as your probiotics while you’re there.BRINGING YOUR OWN HEALTHY SNACKS
Well, this is important because not only will it keep you from making bad choices while desperate and starving, but it can also hold you off until you’re able to stop at a proper grocery store for say…actual real food!Here are a bunch of my favorite on-the-go snacks to have on hand in your bag and/or cooler:
- Unsalted raw nuts and seeds and sprouted nuts and seeds are even better (I love macadamia nuts and pumpkin seeds myself). You can order at bluemountainorganics.com or nuts.com.
- Nut butters, coconut oil, or coconut butter in single service packs
- Dried or even freeze-dried fruit. (Dried mango slices and apricots are my favorite. Look for sulfur free brands and check the farmers market.)
- Sliced veggies (celery, cucumber, carrots, broccoli, grape tomatoes, etc.) with a dip (guacamole, hummus salad dressing, etc.). You can even buy single-serving organic guacamole packs at Costco that are awesome.
- Single serving organic olive oil and balsamic vinegar to avoid unhealthy rancid vegetable oil salad dressing (Order on Amazon.)
- If you’re going to have a cooler or cooler bag bring organic wild blue berries, raspberries, watermelon, organic juices, smoothies or chia puddings (don’t forget the ice packs).
- Find good quality protein bars, or make your own before heading out. (I like Dr. Schulze’s SuperFood Bars (herbdoc.com) dalesrawproteinbars.com and JERFbars.com.)
- Good quality gluten-free cereal like grain-free granola or Qia (good with full fat coconut milk).
- High-quality protein powder, green or red powder to make your own smoothies. Be sure to also pack a mini blender, like a Magic Bullet, or a shaker cup if needed. I like Organifi Go Packs (organify.com) or Gundry MD Vital Reds (gundrymd.com).
- Sardines or canned wild caught salmon in bpa free cans. It’s a great choice on top of a fresh salad bar salad. (Try it! You might like it. I heard about how easy it was to travel with sardines for a long time, and waited to finally give them a try. To my surprise I really liked them. You can get them in water and boneless for mild flavor. They taste like smoked fish. They are a great source of protein and Omega 3’s and easy to carry with no refrigeration or cooking needed! Look for easy open and bpa-free cans. I like Harry and Lisa’s (Available on Amazon.com.)
- And don’t forget your drinks. Bring some water with you. (I double plastic bag them in my suitcase.) Look for sparkling or still water in glass bottles such as The Mountain Valley Spring Water, Voss, Perrier or San Pellegrino. Or if you’re flying, choose water in the airport and on the plane. If my only choices at the airport are plastic water bottles, I get Fuji or Perrier and try to avoid Aquafina or Dasani that are owned by Pepsi and Coca-Cola.
HOW TO FIND HEALTHY FOOD AT YOUR DESTINATION
Of course, you can always Google your destination and search for natural grocery stores or healthy restaurants. But here are a couple of websites and apps that may be helpful for you.- FindMeGlutenFree – A website and free app that searches for gluten-free restaurants around the US.
- HealthyOut – An app that helps you find restaurants that cater to your dietary preferences, be they gluten-free, lactose-free, etc.
- Yelp – Search your destination in advance for gluten-free and organic restaurants, and natural grocery stores near your hotel. (I’ve found some of my favorite restaurants this way.)