Making Healthy(ish) Choices While Traveling
Time for me to act like a dietitian so here you go!
Good news- I remembered that you follow me for health and wellness tips and not just to read articles of me screaming into the void.
I am traveling this weekend for a wedding so I thought it was the perfect time to share some of my healthy eating tips while traveling. This is something that I discuss A LOT with clients. When you are looking to make changes to your overall health and wellness, you need to be realistic.
Life is going to happen. You’re going to travel, there will be long weekends, you’ll have friends birthday dinners- and that is EXACTLY how it should be. Your eating patterns should not be dictating the way you live your life (say it with me now).
So today, I thought I would throw in some tips for those times that life comes at you fast. You do NOT have to implement all of these when traveling but you can mull this over and decide what works for you.
Healthy(ish) While Traveling Check List:
Make three choices that you wouldn’t normally make.
This is my age old favorite trick for my clients (and myself). This can be applied to long trips or just a weekend where you have over-committed yourself to a lot of plans. This one basically breaks down to a rule of three: Make three choices during your trip or weekend that you wouldn’t normally make.
Here is a list examples:
If you are going out to several dinners throughout the trip, maybe one night you opt to order a salad as your side dish instead of the fries.
When choosing an airport snack you can go for some fruit instead of your usual chips and candy.
If you are a drinker, you can choose a simpler drink such as a tequila or vodka soda instead of the cocktails that contain extra sugar at brunch.
If you have been going out to eat for several meals, maybe you opt for more protein forward dish one night like a chicken or a salmon rather than your usual red meat or pasta dish (just one night- not all. We love burgers and pasta here- moderation is key).
Maybe one day you set a goal to drink one glass of water per every cocktail you have by the pool at your all-inclusive.
You could prepare a couple meals for your return and freeze them so you have some easy nutrient-dense options available instead of the your routine post travel DoorDash order when you arrive home. We will get more into this in tip #5.
Maybe you are usually a strict “no exercise on vacation” person but this trip you decide to do a quick hotel gym treadmill workout one or two of the days (P.S. you would be shocked at what a difference this makes if you are someone who struggles with your digestion while traveling).
These are just some examples and DEFINITELY not rules to live by. However, if you choose three of these small tweaks to make during your trip, I think you will find yourself pleasantly surprised by how much better you feel upon your return.
2. Do not beat yourself up if you fall off your routine during your vacation.
One of the most common traps I see people fall into when making lifestyle changes is the “all or nothing” mentality. This is where we fall into thinking “Well, I already ruined my progress this weekend so I will just start next week.” Which turns into next month, which turns into next year, etc.
I always tell clients, friends, family- the most important thing that you can do after a trip or vacation (or even just a stressful few days where things flew off the handles- hello, me once a month) is get yourself back on track as soon as possible. If this means you return from a trip on a Sunday and you schedule some time on Monday to grocery shop and do some light meal prep for the week, then do what you have to do!
Your eating pattern is never going to be 100% perfect all the time (nor should it be). The sooner you get back to eating your vegetables and drinking your water, the less impact the fun stuff has on your health (balance, people!!).
Enjoy yourself
This one is easy. It’s called vacation for a reason!!! Most of us can only swing one vacation a year (if that). You should absolutely be enjoying that time! It is important to remind yourself that food does not equal morality. There is no reason to feel like you are doing something “bad” when you indulge a bit on vacation.
If you are NEVER finding time to enjoy your life, that is not “healthy” either!!! So yeah, order the cheesecake.
Prep 1-2 meals for your return
This is one of my favorite easy hacks for when I am traveling. I, admittedly, don’t do it every single time. BUT, when I do it, it makes my life so much easier. I found myself returning from trips EXHAUSTED (obviously, enough tequila pineapples by the pool will do it to ya). I would arrive home on a Sunday (by arrive I mean essentially crawl into my apartment) and immediately pull up the Seamless app so that my precious Rigatoni alla Vodka would arrive hot and ready while I slunk to my couch and turned on reality TV.
Last year, I had to take TWELVE TRIPS for weddings, bachelorettes, and my own vacations so this practice (mostly for, like, my wallet) had to be put in place. I started prepping a meal or two that I could freeze when I came home.
This was typically some type of soup that was packed with veggies, ground turkey, and my favorite Banza rice but you can kind of run with your creative freedom here.
That way, when I finally arrived home as a shell of a human, I could just defrost my soup and I was good for dinner that night (sometimes I would have it for breakfast too the next day if I had to wait until Monday to get to the grocery store). It was one of those easy things that ended up making me feel like I was already back on track after my trip and also saved me SO much money.
ALRIGHT, was that too long? Did you guys make it down here? Are you still at the hotel pool?
I hope you found this one helpful. As always, keep me posted about what you would like to hear from me. Also, I know this newsletter probably isn’t the pretties thing that arrives to your inbox. After this wedding, I am really going to lock in on learning all of the SubStack features so that we can all have a better experience here.
Talk soon and THANK YOU AS ALWAYS for being here. Love ya!
This was great! Thank you!