Traveling? Tips for Eating Well

I just finished a week of travel in San Francisco. Although I didn’t get the opportunity to leave the airport hotel, I was inspired to write a post about ways to eat well while traveling.

It’s challenging to eat healthy while traveling because your regular routine is disrupted. These tips should help you stay on track and not leave you avoiding the scale upon your return.

• Wear a pedometer to better gauge how active you are. If you are getting less than 10,000 steps, your activity is low. Use this as a guide and motivation to not overdo it at mealtime.
• On travel days, drink lots of water and eat light, small snacks. We all know the air is stale, dry and germy on airplanes. If you wait for the flight attendant to serve water, you will probably only get 8 ounces on a 5 hour flight. I always bring a liter of bottled water on the plane. I have a Nalgene bottle that I use my entire trip. It’s better for the environment too. Since you are likely to over-consume calories on your trip, start off on a small deficit by eating a light breakfast before you leave and bringing your own food on the airplane (see tips below). When you arrive, you can have a nice dinner. You will enjoy your fresh meal after a tiring travel day.
• Pack a food bag of non-perishable nutritious noshes! I bring fruit like apples, oranges, pears, and bananas. These fruit travel well. They are high in water and low in calories. Just what you need when you are stuck on a plane with limited activity. I also bring high fiber granola bars. Right now I am a fan of the Fiber One bars. Both oats and chocolate and oats and peanut butter are good. They have 140 calories and 9 grams of fiber. These treats keep me from ordering dessert with dinner or making a late-night b-line for the vending machine for a candy bar. Mixed nuts are also a travel-friendly food. I usually bring raw, sodium-free trail mix. It has nuts, seeds and dried fruit. I pack these into 1/3 cup portions in snack bags because it is easy to overdo it. This snack has protein, carbohydrate and healthy fat which will keep you full for the long haul. You can also bring canned tuna in individual serving sizes. Some are pre-flavored with lemon pepper or other seasonings. No mayo needed! Bring enough food in your bag for the trip out and back, but you can always replenish while you are away.
• Exercise daily. Chances are you will be dining out 1-2 meals a day and you will take in too many calories. Being active is your best way to give some cushion to your calorie-fest. Even if you don’t usually work out, most hotels have gyms and there will be at least one treadmill. Go for a 30-minute walk or job right in the morning to start your day right. It’s easy to come up with the “not enough time” excuse but you should plan the exercise in your schedule. If you can do more than 30-minutes, great! If you only have 20-minutes, bump up the incline and carry 3 pound hand weights (if walking) to increase the calorie burn.
• Plan your meals using the “balance and moderation” approach. It’s hard to plan meals for which you may have little choice or selection, but you can still prepare. If you know you are going to have a big lunch or dinner, plan to take it easy the other two meals. Go for fresh fruit, small yogurt, oatmeal or oat bran mini muffing. Keep breakfast to 300-500 calories. At lunch, look for the foods with little sauces, spreads, dressings and dips. Load up on fresh veggies, hummus, salad (if you can control the dressing) or half sandwich. If you are dining out, you could choose a soup and salad if there is a broth-based soup selection. You could also choose an entree salad with some protein like chicken or shrimp. Try to avoid “extras” like bread with butter or appetizers (unless you are sharing and can keep it to a couple bites). Lunch should be about 500-600 calories. Dinner tends to be the biggest challenge because the portions are so large. If you’ve eaten healthy the rest of the day you shouldn’t worry about it too much. However, you should still try to choose healthy options like chicken breast, salmon or petite fillet mignon. Choose a baked potato, corn or rice rather than mashed as a starch side (they usually add cream and butter to mashed). Ask about options for other veggies like green beans, spinach, asparagus… so many options! Try to leave some food on your plate. Chew slowly and drink water during the meal.
• Don’t drink your calories. If you are drinking alcohol with dinner keep it to a glass of wine, beer or mixed cocktail. If you have two glasses, skip dessert. Same rules apply for caloric juices or sodas. You are better off with lemon water or unsweetened iced tea.
• Pass on dessert… most of the time! Unless you despise sweets, you don’t need to avoid them every night. When I take a trip I plan to order dessert once or twice if I am in the mood for it. I wait until I find an irresistible dessert on the menu and I convince others to share it with me. I also make sure my dinner selection is light, such as an entree salad with protein and little dressing. I skip appetizers if I plan to eat dessert and I limit alcohol to one glass or none. These tricks help “save room” in my stomach and my calorie budget for the splurge.

Have fun with these tips and I’d love to hear other suggestions as well!