5 Simple Tips to Keep Your Eating Habits 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 seven years now, and I can honestly say that things are finally getting a little easier for me, especially when it comes to food choices. However, when I first started that was not the case, especially when I travelled, and I travelled a lot. Early on in my journey, I was on the road about 60-70 percent of my work time during the year. That’s a tone of time in airports, hotels, and cities where I didn’t have the same level of control over the food I ate that I had in the comfort of my own home.

● 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 I would sometimes 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. Plus, that stress was bad for my mental and emotional health and would impact my physical well-being as well.

In this article, I’m going to discuss some tips on how to make quick, simple, healthy choices as you travel so that you move and stay on your journey of health.

Where can I go to get something healthy?

This was a question that caused me a lot of stress very early on in my health 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, and it didn’t really matter where I ate. 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 focused 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 travelling 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 is 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 absolutely had to avoid that I would put my brain into vapor lock with the stress of it all.

When I finally accepted that fat and animal protein weren’t my enemy when it came to food — that those were the most nutrient-dense and satiating foods that I could eat if I were focused on eating the right kinds of protein and fat — I stopped 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 the airport as I do, you learn that having the right kind of snacks on hand is critical. Before I started planning and bringing my own snacks, I would spend time looking at the refrigerated cases in Starbucks or in the snack stores at the airport, just feeling overwhelmed and frustrated by the choices.

I was putting myself in this mindset of scarcity, again focusing on 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. If you can tolerate nuts, that is also a great go-to choice for snacks.

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, Mission Meats meat sticks, or biltong with me whenever I travel. That was 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 own 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. I love sugar free beef jerky, meat sticks, biltong, and LMNT packets. They are easy to carry, don’t have junky ingredients, and really help keep me satisfied until I get a chance to stop and have a real meal.

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. I was in an airport just recently and ordered four burger patties with sauteed mushrooms from 5 Guys and only paid $8.50 for all of it, which was a great deal.
   
   
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 they won’t bring it over.
   
   
4. Order more protein or low carb veggies as the 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, side of shrimp, or even some mushrooms as my side. Sometimes, it feels like there’s pressure just to get the extra sides, and I know that I’ve experienced it before when I’ve told the waiter I don’t want sides. “Really, you don’t want anything? What about…?” It feels awkward at first, but the truth is, I’m not going to eat the food if they bring it, so I look at it from the perspective that I’m helping the restaurant and not contributing to their food waste.
   
   
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 to 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. Avoiding seed oils whenever possible is one of the best things you can do for your health.

Changing your lifestyle can be ridiculously difficult. I’ve been there. But …

The Bible states, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13). 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.