A Nutritionist’s Tips for Eating Healthy While Travelling

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Eating healthy can be difficult while travelling, as vacations often mean splurging and finding familiar food may be challenging. However, there are ways to enjoy the local cuisines and not feel restricted. You can still eat healthy, feel great, be active, and not gain weight on your trip. Read these following tips for eating healthy while travelling.

As a recent empty nester, I find myself fortunate to be traveling more often – visiting my kids at their university locations since they both moved across country, taking last-minute jaunts with my husband being that we aren’t bound to a school schedule, enjoying more girls’ trips since most of my friends have older kids now as well, and taking family vacations when we’re able to synch our schedules.

Even though I enjoy exploring new destinations, eating local cuisine, being on the road and having new adventures, I find that these trips often set me backwards in terms of my weight and health goals. I often end the trip feeling bloated, up a few pounds, and consequently feeling lethargic and less motivated.

I know there are those vacations where you may want to indulge, eat and drink freely, enjoy your vacation, and not worry about those added pounds. However, when these trips are becoming more frequent, and you are travelling more often than not, indulging may be something that needs taming. It doesn’t mean you cannot enjoy your trip, it just means there are ways to travel in a healthier manner.

The following are some tips for eating healthy while travelling, so you can enjoy your time, taste the local cuisine, not feel restricted, yet come home and find your clothes still fit and you haven’t negated all your hard work at the gym.

Plan Your Trips Accordingly

Try to plan trips where the main focus is not overconsumption. Limit your vacations to all-inclusive resorts or cruises where eating and drinking are the main activities. Instead try to plan trips that encourage eating healthy local meals, sport activities, and active adventures.

Examples of these trips are spa and yoga weekends, biking, skiing, or hiking trips, or excursions where you are exploring and learning.

Locating restaurants, grocery stores, and healthy eateries near your hotel or close to where you will be touring before your trip will ensure you have access to healthier food options right at the get-go.

You could also locate gyms and other active activities like biking or walking tours to ensure you are getting your exercise during the trip as well.

Book a Residence Style Hotel, Air BnB, or VRBO

Another tip for eating healthy while travelling is to stay in a residence style hotel or Air BnB. Staying in this type of accommodation will offer you a kitchen, which can decrease your restaurant visits. Even if you don’t intend to cook, it is helpful to have healthy snacks available, fresh produce in the fridge, and/or smoothie supplies. You may opt to make one meal a day in the kitchen, which will save you calories and dollars.

Avoid Buffets

I am not a fan of buffets as I think they encourage overeating and I don’t enjoy the people at my table jumping up and down and not sitting and mindfully enjoying one’s food. If you do find yourself at a buffet, start your meal with a salad full of leafy greens and a variety of raw vegetables.

The salad will provide vitamins, minerals, and fibre, which will boost your immunity and help keep you regular and less bloated on your trip. The salad will also help fill you up so you don’t overeat on the fried foods and desserts.

Your next plate could be a lean protein (slice of meat, seafood, or a vegan dish)with vegetables. Avoid starchy creamy rich foods. These dishes will make you tired and bloated and are hard to digest.

Implement Dieting Strategies

1. Try not to snack and instead enjoy 2 or 3 delicious meals per day, containing lean protein and vegetables with a complex carbohydrate. When we eat, our blood glucose levels are elevated and insulin is released. Insulin transports excess blood glucose to the cells to be used as energy later. If we are continually snacking, our insulin is continually being released and fat storage is increasing. It is best to give time for the insulin to fall and get back into fat burning mode versus fat storage mode. Certain foods make blood glucose levels spike higher than others and are identified in the Glycemic Index. 
2. Start each meal with a few bites of protein. By starting each meal with a couple bites of protein, the amino acids in the protein reach the system first. The hormone glycogen is then triggered, which slows down insulin secretion and triggers the hormone leptin. Leptin is the satiation hormone and signals to the brain that we are full. The more signals our brain receives, the less likely we’ll overeat.
3. Eat an apple a day. Apples are loaded with nutrients and are rich in fibre. Eating an apple per day is like taking a daily multivitamin, and the fibre in apples helps draws toxins to the colon for elimination, keeping us regular. Another reason apples are a good travel food is that they are often offered at hotel lobbies, are easily transported, and do not spoil quickly.

Pack Healthy Snacks

Depending on where you are travelling and the amount of space in your suitcase, packing some small food and drink items may help you stay on track. Food ideas include healthy granola or protein bars, turkey jerky, a healthy trail mix, and low sugar oatmeal packs. Drink items include herbal teas – green tea for energy and antioxidant properties, peppermint tea for soothing stomach issues, and chamomile tea to help you sleep better. You can also bring protein powder to add to your post workout drink.

Bring a Water Bottle

Airplane travel makes you dehydrated, so filling up your own bottle or purchasing a large water bottle after security will ensure you have plenty of hydration on the plane instead of waiting for that small cup they offer on the flight. Packing your own bottle and refilling it is better for the environment.

Water is key to decreasing the bloat, keeping you regular, providing you energy, and filling you up. Being dehydrated can cause headaches, dizziness, fatigue, and overeating, so ensure you drink 8 to 10 glasses of water per day and more if you are exercising or travelling in a hot location.

Boost Immunity with Pre and Probiotic Foods

70-80% of immune cells are present in the gut. These cells interact with your microbiome – the diverse array of bacteria and fungi that live in the gastrointestinal tract also known as your gut flora.

You can support your gut flora by also adding prebiotics and probiotics to your diet. Prebiotics are fibres that aren’t digestible by your body but can help good bacteria grow in your gut. Since your body doesn’t digest these plant fibres, they travel to your lower digestive tract to be a food source for the healthy bacteria in your gut. Examples of prebiotics are garlic, whole oats, apples, legumes, and cabbage.

Probiotics are live microorganisms that have health benefits when consumed or applied to the body. Some bacteria help digest food, destroy disease-causing cells, or produce vitamins. Examples are plain unsweetened yogurt, miso and tempeh, kimchi and sauerkraut. You can also consume probiotics as a dietary supplement.

It is wise to strengthen your immune system before your travels. Check out this Immunity Support Ebook to learn the nutrients that support the immune system along with several immune-boosting recipes.

Pack Health Boosters

These little health boosters provide you with a shot of healthy organic ingredients designed specifically to target certain conditions. These boosters are 60 ml each, so take up little space in your carry on, and being less than 100 ml, are TSA approved and can go through security.

I enjoy these shots from Greenhouse Juice Company, a Canadian organic beverage company that promotes health and sustainabililty. Order your shots at www.drinkgreenhouse.com with the Code – ADISHOFWELLNESS for 10% off.

The shelf life is 10 days, so you wouldn’t bring these shots on a longer trip.

The boosters I recommend for travelling include:

Fiery Ginger – to boost your immunity before or on the trip

Lullaby – to help with the sleepless nights and jet lag

Inside job – to help with gut support

Pick me up – for a boost of energy when tired from travelling

Use a Pill or Supplement Box for Vitamins

Travelling with several different supplement bottles will take up too much space, so purchasing a pill box and adding your daily vitamins to each compartment will keep things organized, reduce space, and ensure you remember to take your daily vitamins.

There are many pretty pill and supplement bottles found on Amazon like this pink one. If you take several supplements, like I do, there are portable dispensers with 7 or more compartments like this one that are very handy and don’t take up much space in your suitcase. (The picture may make it look big, but it is really the size of a small mug.)

Suggested Supplements for Travel

Vitamin C – can help ward off viruses when travelling and is an antioxidant, fighting free radicals that can occur from pollution, smoke, and harmful UV rays. Emergen-C Vitamin C packs provide 1000 mg of Vitamin C and are easy to carry in your purse or bag.

Vitamin B Complex – helpful for energy, stress relief, and maintaining skin health while travelling.

Ortho Sleep – aids with sleep when schedules get disrupted while travelling

Magnesium – helps to relax muscles and aids with sleep

Melatonin – helps shift the timing of the circadian clock to ease jet lag and helps with the transition between time zones by telling the brain to sleep at a different times

Be Prepared When Travelling by Airplane

If you are travelling by airplane, it is wise to be prepared and pack TSA approved snacks and/or meals. Airports and airplanes do not always provide healthy delicious food options, so packing your own food and being prepared can help when you’re hungry. Refer to healthy snack ideas for airplane travel.

Get Enough Sleep

If you don’t get adequate sleep, the hormones that control your hunger and satiation levels are disrupted and will cause you to overeat. The hunger hormone Ghrelin is activated when we don’t get enough sleep and our satiation hormone Leptin is not, causing us to overeat in an attempt to turn off the hormone.

So ensure you get more than six hours of good quality sleep each night to keep your hormones balanced and your eating in check. As mentioned earlier, ways to improve sleep are chamomile tea, magnesium, orthsleep supplements or melatonin for jet lag. Consider packing an eye mask to ensure your room is dark, and/or use the mask on the airplane.

FAQ

What foods should you avoid while travelling?

You may want to consider avoiding fatty fried foods. Not only are these meals high in calories, the oils are sometimes rancid and can cause stomach upset.

How do you diet while travelling?

You don’t necessarily have to diet and deprive yourself while travelling. Just consider healthier eating alternatives and ensure you get plenty of water and exercise. Pick local cuisine that is fresh and full of lean protein and vegetables, think Budha bowls, Vietnamese grilled chicken dishes, fresh fish, or sea food dishes minus the buttery dip.

Conclusion

Eating healthy while travelling doesn’t need to be difficult, but as always with maintaining a healthy lifestyle, planning is essential. Don’t deprive yourself of trying and enjoying local cuisine, just make sure you don’t overeat, or select large portions of the fattiest foods.

Make wise choices, plan healthy strategies, and ensure you get plenty of exercise, and you will feel great on your trip and when you return home.