Eating Healthy While on Vacation
Eating healthy at home is a lot easier than it is to do it while you’re on vacation, but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. The most important thing to do when you go on vacation is to plan ahead. Here are a few tips to help you eat healthy while on vacation.
1. Restaurants
When you decide where you’re going to go on vacation, go to the Internet to find restaurants in the area. Most restaurants have websites now so you’ll have the ability to see what their menu is and what the prices will be. This will help you to decide what you can have to eat. Sit-down restaurants will be better than fast food places, so you’ll want to look for those places; most hotels have them in their location so you’ll want to check with them as well.
2. Cook for yourself
If you get a room with a kitchen you can use that to your advantage. You can go to the store when you arrive at your destination and find things you can eat that are healthy for you. You’ll want to do meals that are easy since you’re on vacation. You don’t want to spend hours at a time cooking. Some rooms don’t have a full kitchen, but they have partial ones and you can still make it work. Come up with meals that don’t require cooking or if they have a microwave, come up with things you can cook in there.
3. Grocery Store
If you don’t have the ability to eat at restaurants and you can’t cook for yourself, you can make things work by shopping at the grocery store each day. You can purchase things you can eat without warming them up and that will help you to eat healthy. Before you travel come up with meals you can eat without the need for an oven, range, or microwave. This may include fruit salads, fresh salad, sandwiches, and other meals that can be made using items from the store.
4. Bring your own food
If you are traveling by car you can use a cooler to bring your own food. Planning ahead so you have enough room in your cooler may require a trip or two to the grocery store, but starting out with food will help. You should consider bringing things that don’t require being cold which will help with room in your cooler and preventing money being spent at the store.
Just because you eat healthy doesn’t mean you can’t travel. There are many ways to handle your meals including the four mentioned in this article. The most important thing to remember is you can make it happen with a little work and preparation.
How to Maintain Healthy Eating While Traveling
It’s the time of year when spring break and summer travel plans are being made. You might be flying to grandma’s house or to the beach for a week. Maybe you are planning a two week family road trip to the mountains this summer or a getaway to a north woods lodge.
Traveling upsets our schedules enough, especially when traveling with children. How does one maintain a healthy level of eating while traveling to and fro? Don’t road trips mean stopping at all the local dives and doesn’t flying mean eating whatever is served you on the plane?
Instead of packing the cooler full of the junk food on sale in bulk at the big box grocery store, think about how you want to feel while traveling and how you might feed yourself to get there. If you know you’ll be spending hours (or goodness knows, perhaps days) in the car, it’s important to keep your digestion in sync with a normal day. That might be tough to come by considering your body will not be moving-at all.
For road trips and travelling by car, stocking your cooler with premade sandwiches or mini homemade “lunchables” such as crackers, cheese, grapes, grape tomatoes and a little dip are easy to pull off when you purchase the lunch containers with all of the slots such as bento boxes or the ones made by large retailers for food storage. Single serve yogurt containers go over well, especially when kids have small lap desks to rest them on. Or make your own with yogurt and a spoonful of fruit jam or compote at the bottom in a small clear mason jar. It’s both a delight to the eye and to the belly when sprinkled with a small handful of granola, which could also be packed in a mason jar. Milk, juice or rice milk now comes in small juice box sized containers and everyone should have their own designated water bottle for the trip. Purchasing water by the gallon or having a large water cooler in the back will assure everyone has fresh water to drink (and it’s available for the cleanup that may need to happen along the way). Sliced veggies such as carrots, jicama and celery make for easy munching, as well as nitrate free deli meats.
Think about the activities you’re hoping to take on once you reach your destination. Are you up for adventure such as hiking and camping, or are you going to snooze on a beach and take a leisurely walk in the afternoons? What you eat will affect how you feel, and with liquor and soda being the only items stocked in that hotel refrigerator of yours, you’ll want to have exactly what you desire packed with you.
If you’re traveling with kids, specifically in a hotel, you may pack your favorite dry goods, such as gluten free crackers, rice cakes, cereals or protein powder to make your own quick shakes. If you’re flying and staying in a hotel, chances are you will have a rental car. As in the example above where you’ve driven your car, having mobility is a huge bonus. Find the nearest grocery store and stock up on what you need. Keeping yogurt and pre-sliced fruits and vegetables in your mini fridge is easy. You can even request an extra mini fridge, which hotels are great about, especially when traveling with children. Purchasing simple sandwich making materials is easy as well and doesn’t take up much room, considering the loaf of bread doesn’t need to stay cool. Purchase only goodies you’ll need for around two days at a time. Between munching in between meals or taking little picnics to the beach, you will dine out once or twice per day, so you’ll also save money on the third meal by taking it on the go or crashing in your room.
If you’re flying to a destination, renting a car and staying in a condo, you could grocery shop (with meals planned ahead of time for quick shopping and saving money ) for the entire stay in one fell swoop and visit the local market for fresh fruits and veggies as needed. This allows you the ultimate flexibility, then dining out becomes a treat that happens when you feel like it versus it being the only option for a full meal.
Mostly what eating healthy while traveling takes is a little more organization and planning. There are healthy alternatives to grabbing a quick fix, though it’s not at every intersection that you see a fresh smoothie joint or a gluten free bakery. If in a pinch, while putting gas in your car, grab a stick of cheese or a container of yogurt and a protein bar to buy you a bit of time. Considering you could grab a back of Cheetos and a package of Nerds with a soda, the first option is just as easy and will have you feeling better in the long run, making your travels more enjoyable.
Getting Enough Healthy Fats and Oils, Is it Really That Important?
Growing up in the phase of low fat, where the fad was that we should only eat items with “low fat” or “nonfat” on the label, it might be confusing to understand why people are talking about the benefit of full fat and healthy oils. The odd thing is that generation has also seen a huge increase in obesity.
What happens when an item is labeled “low fat” or “nonfat”? Something has to replace the fat in the processed food and that item is typically sugar. This leads to the body’s increased feeling of hunger and the consequent storage of fat. If you are eating a diet with healthy fats, you feel full faster as the product is less processed, or not at all, and you’re more able to control what you eat. Obviously this means you will make healthier food choices.
The concern is over the saturated fats in meats and cheese. As a whole our society gets too many Omega 6 fatty acids (again, think meat and cheese), and not enough high quality fats. The health promoting fats help your body maintain its blood sugar level. Blood sugar that is out of control may lead to illness and disease. So it’s simple, really. Eat high quality foods, in particular, the oils and fats we need. You’ll feel better and will weigh less.
Foods we need to avoid include:
- Fried foods
- shortening
- partially hydrogenated oils
- margarine
- palm oils
- lard
- ease up on the hard cheese, baked goods and red meat.
Foods we want to choose more often include:
- Nuts
- seeds
- tuna
- salmon
- nut butters
- avocados
Oils to specifically implement into your diet include:
- Sesame oil
- olive oil
- safflower oil
The fatty acids we need for optimal functioning of the cells in our bodies, such as EPA and DHA aren’t hard to come by when you eat the foods mentioned above. These foods fight inflammation and maintain healthy skin. Your nails and hair will grow faster and more smoothly. Your nervous system will function more optimally and your vision will also benefit.
How much of these foods and oils do we need every day?
For oils the average serving size is 1 tsp and 4-7 servings per day is sufficient. That looks like a handful of olives, a quarter of an avocado and putting mayonnaise on your sandwich for lunch. Using walnut oil in your baking is a good idea and lends a great taste, and sautéing foods in coconut and olive oil.
For nuts and seeds, again, think in terms of a small handful. For nut butters, whatever you smear on your bread or rice cake or scoop into a small dish for dipping will be sufficient. You’ll want up to two servings per day of nuts and seeds.
What’s all this talk about supplementation? Here’s the thing: we get too many Omega 6 fatty acids from our meat and dairy consumption and not enough Omega 3 fatty acids. Try as we might, our lives (mostly) aren’t conducive to eating the foods we need all the time, so we will require supplementation. To choose a fish oil means finding a cold, dark water fish oil that is certified and without contaminants.