Eating Healthy While Traveling
So you’ve been consistent with your workouts and clean eating but now you need to travel for work or for fun and you’re worried that you’ll undo months of hard work? The secret to maintaining results when you’re away from your regular routine is creating a healthy meal plan based on your goals and available options. Having most of your meals and snacks planned out will make it much easier to eat healthy and avoid the travel weight gain that so many struggle to lose. Here are 5 simple steps to follow:
Step 1: Write Out A List of Foods You Want to Avoid
What foods make you feel tired, bloated, or possibly give you stomach troubles. Everyone has different trigger foods that cause side effects that you don’t want to deal with when you’re travelling for work or fun. If you consciously think about what foods you don’t want to eat ahead of time, it will be much easier to avoid them. This can really help you prevent food related health issues and maintain calorie intake under control too.
Step 2: Research What Restaurants and Stores Are Nearby
Scout out what healthy restaurants you can eat at that are not fast food, and what stores are nearby where you can buy food to cook or take with you on day trips. Bringing healthy snacks on your trip is also so important because stopping to grab any food that is quick and easy is so tempting but often not the healthiest option.
Packing some healthy travel snacks to take with you before you leave is always a good idea but having backup options for healthy foods where you’ll be staying is key for sticking with your healthy eating while travelling goals.
Step 3 Assess The Cooking Space In Your Accommodations
If you can stay at a place where you can cook some of your meals, that would be extremely helpful for eating healthy and also great if you’re on a budget. Eating at healthy restaurants several times a day can get expensive, especially in an unfamiliar place so figuring out what you can bring to make healthy meals in your accommodations will save you calories, digestion issues, time and money!
Even if you are staying in a hotel that only has a fridge, you can pack a mini blender, some greens and proteins and then buy fruits and veggies when you arrive so that you can make smoothies every day for breakfast or to go.
If you’re staying in a place with a mini kitchen or a full kitchen then you probably won’t need to bring mini appliances but you can still bring containers for overnight oats, chia seeds, nuts, dried fruit, protein chips or thermalock mugs for greens juices, soups or any other foods that will help you stick with your healthy eating goals.
Step 4: Use All Your Options to Create Your Healthy Eating Plan
Build a meal plan around your lists and the restaurants and stores in the area. Having an eating plan that you can stick with throughout the whole trip is very important, so you can find a balance between healthy foods and occasional treats while sticking to your goals.
When your body is getting nutrition you may still crave a decadent food or dessert fix but you won’t constantly have huge cravings that you will give in to whenever you are near a greasy food place, a bakery or ice cream shop.
Step 5: Do One Final Internet Search or Ask Friends for Ideas
The internet is full of ideas, restaurant reviews, and menus. In most places, you can even set up a grocery pickup ahead of time so all you need to do is swing into the parking lot and pick up the food you already ordered. If you know someone who lives where you are traveling to, or who has been before and knows the area well, talking to them is a great idea to get some more tips that you might not find online.
It might take some time to research where you want to stay and what you will eat, but if you take that time now, you will be able to stick with your healthy meal plan, avoid travel weight gain, plus save time and money too.
