5 Simple Tips to Keep You on Track When You’re on the Road

Making healthy choices is difficult when you are at home, it can be even more difficult to do when you are traveling.

I’ve been on my health journey for close to eight years now, but it can still be a little frustrating to find something good to eat when I’m on the road. 

• Where can I go to get something healthy?
• What should I order if I’m just surrounded by fast food places?
• Is there anything healthy that I can snack on?

These questions would dominate my thoughts and early on in my journey, I let those thoughts get the better of me and stress me out. When I got stressed out, I would make food choices that didn’t help me feel my best and weren’t fueling me in the healthiest way possible. 

In this article, I will discuss some tips on making quick, simple, healthy choices as you travel so that you can stay on your journey of health.

Where can I go to get something healthy?

Early in my journey, I was fixated on finding a place that served the “right food.”

• Was the food low fat? 
• Was it fried or not fried? 
• Were there only fast-food places because if so, I was convinced I wouldn’t be able to find something good to eat.

I would stress myself out with all these thoughts.

If I had known then what I know now about the impact of different foods on my wellbeing I would have realized that if I focus on eating nutritionally dense animal protein, I would be just fine.

What should I order if I’m just surrounded by fast food places?

I would panic about this exact situation a lot when I was traveling for work. 

A lot of the places I would go would be in food deserts where the only food that was accessible close by were fast food places. 

I would stress myself out thinking, “I can’t eat anything” or “The only thing I can eat at these places are crappy salads with terrible salad dressings that are just filled with fat.” 

I was so focused on what I couldn’t eat and what I thought I had to avoid, that I would put my brain into vapor lock with the stress of it all. 

I finally accepted that fat and animal protein weren’t my enemy regarding food. 

I finally learned that animal meat and fat were the most nutrient-dense and satiating foods that I could eat.

If I focused on eating the right kinds of protein and fat, I could stop stressing out about the fact that I was surrounded by fast-food restaurants.

Turns out, most fast-food places will just sell you burger patties for cheap, much cheaper than buying a burger and then throwing everything away except the patty. 

They’ll do the same thing with the egg patties and grilled chicken as well, making my meals both cheaper and more nutritionally dense than ordering a salad with chicken, drenched in salad dressing made with inflammatory seed oils.

Is there anything healthy that I can snack on?

When you spend as much time on the road or in an airport as I do, you learn that having the right kind of snacks on hand is critical. 

Before I started planning and bringing my snacks, I would spend time looking at the refrigerated cases in the Starbucks or the snack stores in the airport, just feeling overwhelmed and frustrated by the choices.

I was putting myself in this mindset of scarcity, obsessing over what I couldn’t have versus thinking about what I could eat if I focused on eating protein.

Sugar-free beef jerky, hard-boiled eggs, and even cheese are all great choices that are readily available at any snack shop, Dunkin Donuts, or even Starbucks. 

I pack myself snacks in my backpack now anytime I travel so no matter where I go, I have the snacks on me that I want to eat. 

I usually carry sugar-free beef jerky, meat sticks, or biltong with me whenever I travel so I have a quick, easy snack when I don’t have the time to stop somewhere in the airport to grab a meal. 

It’s something that happens pretty frequently, and I’ve found that when I have the snacks I enjoy on my person, airport travel becomes a lot less hectic. 

I also always bring electrolyte packets with me to stay hydrated as I travel. 

LMNT is a great option as it comes in a little, portable packet and has a great electrolyte profile. It’s easy to just throw one packet into a bottle of water and stay hydrated during plane rides and in the airport.

Below is a simple list of tips to follow as you travel to help you stay on your path towards better health

Tips:

1. Bring your favorite snacks – It doesn’t have to be a lot of snacks, just enough to have on hand in the airport on your flight out and flight back. This way if you encounter flight delays and find yourself in a situation where you are running from plane to plane without time to stop and eat, you have something satiating and healthy with you.
2. Order just the burger patties, just the chicken, or just the eggs – Most fast-food places (5 Guys, McDonald’s, Wendy’s for example) will all sell you just the patties for a reduced price. Skip the cheese, especially if it’s American cheese since that’s just straight-up seed oils.
3. Pass on the free bread and chips at sit-down restaurants – This is an easy way to keep the food that you aren’t going to eat that may tempt you, especially if you are addicted to carbs the way that I am, off your table. The waiter usually will state that they will bring it over so it’s a quick “No thank you” to them and that’s it.
4. Order more protein as a side – Whenever I eat out when I travel, I’m always asked what sides I want. I will usually say no sides, or I will ask for an extra burger patty or maybe a side of shrimp. It feels awkward to say, “No,” at first, but the truth is, I’m not going to eat the food if they bring it and I no longer feel any qualms about saying I don’t want the food at the table.
5. Try to avoid deep-fat fried items wherever you go – This was hard for me because I truly love chicken wings. However, all restaurants deep fry their food in industrial seed oils and those are terrible to consume and cause inflammatory damage in your body. Take time to ask the server if the kitchen can cook your food in butter or no oil. They very often will oblige as most restaurants also cook anything on their grill with those same seed oils. 

Changing your lifestyle can be difficult, believe me, I know because I’ve been there.

Philippians 4:13 states:

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” 

It was only through my relationship with God, knowing who I am through Him, that I have been able to do anything, especially something as difficult as changing how I viewed food and the way I eat. 

Change is hard but through the support of God, anything is possible.

I know what it’s like to struggle with health because I went through it myself. I spent most of my adult life overweight and sick physically, mentally, and emotionally. Over the past 8 years I’ve lost 100lbs and managed to keep it off. 

If you are struggling, please reach out to me via the link below. I’m a health coach and I’m passionate about helping people heal and get better through lifestyle changes.

Tandem Results – Nutrition and Fitness Coaching