Hi! Are you ready for summer? Got your beach body rockin? Do you find that it’s really challenging to stay on track while travelling – whether for business or pleasure? Let’s talk about some strategies you can implement to keep you in the groove, and still enjoy your time away from home.
First, it depends on whether you’re flying or driving. Let’s talk about the fabulous road trip first. Start by planning ahead. What time of day are you going to be leaving? Before the sun comes up? What are you going to do for breakfast?
Planning how your travel is going to go and preparing to feed yourself well around those logistics will increase your success. It’s amazing the powerful impact a little forethought can have on the results you produce with your health and fitness efforts. Becoming “thought”-full about it doesn’t really take that much effort, but the payback is fantastic!
Let’s say you’re going to road trip for 6 hours and you plan to hit the road at 6 a.m. The night before, get your cooler set up to have in the car for the road trip. In the morning, you just open the fridge and grab and toss the items you planned for and off you go!
If needed, go ahead and make your oatmeal, or a delicious baked egg casserole the night before so you can just heat, grab and go first thing in the morning. Having that protein rich, nutrient dense breakfast is going to help you be more alert on the road and will also make it a snap to stay on track with eating clean and on time.
You grab your breakfast and throw your cooler in the car. 2 ½ hours into the trip, you’ve got your greek yogurt and granola snack along with some water. 2 ½ hours later, you’re able to make a nice sandwich with sandwich thins or ezekial break, some hummus, deli turkey and provolone cheese. Snack on some carrot sticks with the hummus and you’re in great shape when you reach your destination.
While you’re settling into your accommodations, you can grab some fruit and cheese sticks and you’re satisfied til dinner time.
Eating out on vacation really is possible. Every restaurant I know of has protein and veggies, right? If you need to, pull items from a menu and ask your server to help you out – that you really just want some grilled chicken, steak or fish and steamed or grilled veggies plus a salad. I have found most servers enjoy being the “master” of the kitchen and like helping me with my requests if special requests are needed. Many restaurants won’t require any changes at all – you’ll just be able to pick your clean proteins and carbs from the menu and you’re on your way! Tell them to take away that bread and butter if you can’t resist it, or the chips and salsa. You’ll have a great sense of success when you take control of that and don’t sit there eating a days worth of calories in non-foods.
Dessert can be a request for fresh berries, chopped nuts and a side of whipped cream. (enjoyed sparingly!)
Won’t it feel great to get home from your trip and not feel that ugly bloated feeling? To avoid having that dread of the scale? Not wanting to put on your favorite pants because you’re not sure they’re going to zip? You really can come home from vacation even feeling lighter than when you went if you do it right. Plan time to truly relax while you’re there. Try not to pack your schedule with so much stuff to do that you get home from vacation more exhausted than when you went!
If you’re flying, that’s a whole new world these days now that you are at the mercy of the airport and airlines for your food while in transit. There are some great things you can plan for though to keep good food going every 2 ½ to 3 hours.
Since you can’t take food past the checkpoints, you will have to plan for what you’re going to get in the airport. It is a bit of roulette, but you can do it! There are usually newsstands in the airport that have bottled water, protein bars and fruit. Grab some! Depending on the time of day you’re flying and how long your flight will be, you may want to plan to buy a salad, or a meal to take onto the plane with you. Again, you may need to enlist the professional assistance of a server to get good clean food to take with you, but I haven’t found the need to do that often in airports. There are usually plenty of good restaurants that have good clean carbs and proteins to choose from.
Be prepared for those around you to be envious of your delicious food when you’re on the plane! I kind of like th impact all of this has on our culture. I like that the requests are being made at restaurants – they will begin to offer more and more good clean food choices the more we request it. I also like that we can have an impact on those around us but demonstrating that it’s possible to still eat well, care for our bodies well while we travel.
Together, we can have a strong and positive impact on our culture. Be part of the “cooler generation” and pack your cooler on your road trips. Take it with you everywhere you can, for that matter. When you’re in airports and can’t have your cooler, still stick to your guns and go for the cleanest food you can obtain. It may require a little creative thinking on your part – but keep it simple. Just ask yourself how you can get your hands on clean proteins and clean carbs and get them!
Now, once you reach your destination, make sure you have a refrigerator in your room! Most places will put one there for you if the room doesn’t normally come with one in it. Unload your cooler into it, and depending on the length of your stay and what you have on the agenda, go to the grocery store. Most hotels have someone that will give you a lift to the local grocers and you can stock up on good clean choices. Cheese sticks, deli meat, greek yogurt, fruit, carrot sticks, snap peas, green beans – love those dipped in hummus! Hard boiled eggs, granola, cliff bars. Whatever your favorites are – oh and plenty of bottled water.
I found at most training sessions or business conferences, the food choices offered throughout the day were really some of the worst things they could offer to try to keep you alert and functional. Circumvent their lack of knowing and take your own stuff! I actually did have an impact on 2 companies I worked for by consistently requesting better options and giving physiological reasons for my requests. It’s your turn! Ask for better. Insist on it. Take your own and impact those around you as well.
Bottom line, with a little thought, a little pre-planning, you can stay on track. You can take great care of your body while you take it on the road. It’s really pretty simple and easy to do. It may be different for you to start with, but you already know what you get doing it the old way – you ready to see what happens when you try some new practices?
I hope so! Enjoy your summer travels. My wish is for you to have a great time and to come home light, lean and healthy!
Warmly,
Melanie
