What a conundrum to eat healthy while traveling! I admit, it takes a little planning not to go rogue on your health and completely succumb to the demise of your willpower while traveling. 

I should be clear up front that I, by no means, am discussing deprivation of delighting oneself in vacation food-fare!  Because this is just what we did a few weeks ago in Arizona!

Healthy Snacks Save the Day

In this post, I’ll share how to plan and provide healthy snacks in between the hustle and bustle of the airport and destinations.  My hope is to share with you what has worked for my family while traveling and to help you prevent these costly decisions for your belly and your pocket. If you wish to continue the happy, healthy eating once you have arrived at your journey’s end, I also will share tips on how to eat mindfully in your hotel room or lodging.

My husband and I have a love for traveling and eating with over 20 years of trips together under our belts from China to Canada and the past 11 years with our daughter from Italy to Hawaii.  For most of us, it is the destination that we love so much and contrary to the popular quote, “Enjoy the Journey,” we wish to get through that part so we can get down to business (wink)! It can add a few extra gray hairs to the bunch when trying to get to the airport, all the while trying to keep your shoes on because the kind (or not so kind) body scanner person sees you have a child and gives you a pass on the body scan. 

You know what I am bellyaching about, the layovers, time changes, jet lag, and trying to find the hotel.  So if we plan ahead to make sure our bodies are not stressed with foods that are hard to digest or completely void of any nutrition, we are ahead of the game! 

So many people get sick after travel because our immunity is weakened from such distress. Due to the nature of our passion and business helping patients regain their health, at our Natural Medicine Clinic, our lifestyle encompasses healthy ways from how we treat ailments to what we eat and fuel our bodies with. In a nutshell (raw not roasted in GMO canola oil) we keep it as real and close to natural as possible.

Eating Healthy While Traveling

It is pure torture even for me, who writes a Spoonful of Health Blog. Walking through the airport with all the aromatic artificial flavors of fast fake food! Oh, and especially those hot Cinnabon rolls that hijack any willpower you might have left.  By the time you pass the tenth counter of salty and sweet stuff, you are gawking and straining your neck to get a glimpse of those gooey cinnamon hot buns.

In case you started salivating, I have a recipe remedy for that particular craving after my anguish of literally running past the Cinnabon counter, only because my plane wasn’t waiting for me. When I got home a week later, I was still thinking about those hot sweet buns, and I had to create something I could whip up fast in my fancy blender, and my Creamy Cinnabon Smoothie gave me comfort beyond!

The airlines are much more accommodating these days, and we have stuffed our snacks in a carry-on backpack with our protein and green drink powders in little baggies, beef jerky, cut up vegetables, hard boiled eggs, apples, oranges, store bought pouches of nut butter (so convenient), and homemade trail mixes.  

We like to travel with homemade unPeanut butter & Jelly protein balls,  Applegate Turkey rolled with a cucumber in the middle & cheese sticks with a small ice pack. Homemade cinnamon oatmeal banana cookies,  protein bars,  crackers, hummus, and sardines are also great for travel. I don’t suggest opening the sardines on the plane because the pilot might give you a parachute and send you solo.  Any items not eaten during travel can be stored in the hotel’s mini fridge.

With food allergies in my family, we especially like to be prepared for when hunger strikes.  It is the psychology of the mind that can get us into trouble with cravings so planning ahead will prevent the guilty thoughts, tummy aches and allow you to feel free to enjoy wholeheartedly when you go out to eat. I have personally experienced this recently on our Grand Canyon trip with grabbing a processed meal when I was over hungry and I had acid reflux!  I haven’t had that in decades, and it was no fun, but we had our emergency natural remedies like ginger oil and probiotics!  The Grand Canyon is known for its spectacular views but not it’s culinary ways so be sure to check out the market in town for real food.

In the above picture, you can see some of my favorite travel delights: Lily’s Chocolate {sweetened with stevia}, Justin’s Nut Butters, homemade trail mix, Late July Corn Chips, Nick’s Beef Sticks (grass-fed beef jerky), Wild Planet Sardines and Kind Bars.  On the right you can see the ingredients for my morning ritual that I shake in a cup with a lid. I put single servings in baggies of all the ingredients. I also have that handy vitamin box with all my daily supplements and emergency ones too! Oh and plenty of natural hand-sanitizer wipes and spray.

Eating Healthy While at your Destination

Going out to eat is one of my favorite things to do and especially while on vacation!  I love to find those places off the beaten path like a recent favorite on our Grand Canyon trip, Matt’s Big Breakfast in Phoenix, Arizona, or the local culinary favorite of the town’s people. 

I also like to be a good steward of our money and splurge on those moments that are worth it and in turn they are memorable for our family. Eating breakfast in the hotel room is something we often do, and this is made easy by booking a room with a mini fridge or worse case scenario, in a pinch, you can pick up a Styrofoam cooler for just a few dollars and fill it with ice.

I highly recommend you ask the hotel to empty the mini bar so that you don’t have to rely on your willpower to refrain from those cute colored peanuts. The local market or fresh street vendors is a great place to stock up on fresh fruit and plain yogurt, we sweeten it with our own stevia packets. Eggs that can be hard boiled in a teapot, fruit, hummus, baby carrots, and avocado are great too. I like to pack my own sea salt for the avocado.  Once the avocado is cut open scoring the flesh into a checkered pattern makes it easy to eat with a fork right out of the skin. You can usually obtain plastic silverware from the hotel.

I have been known when driving from Florida to North Carolina to pack the car with our favorite kitchen gadgets like my trusty Vita-mix! I love having the comforts of home, and it saves me tons of heartache, or should I say tummy aches from eating out so much.

We have this super cool cooler that plugs into the lighter so we can keep perishable foods for the drive and rest stops.  We save time, money, and our health is better off preparing in this manner.

Fast Food Restaurants that offer Healthy & Clean Food

We were headed to Sedona, Arizona from the Grand Canyon and all of us wanted to sit down to a meal.  After driving through a town, we saw several chain restaurants and some local ones.  We stopped to look at menus and Yelped a few but after reading one too many bad reviews about food poisoning, we decided to stick with a big chain restaurant.  We were pleasantly surprised at the options we found for clean-eating and food allergies at the Olive Garden!

The waiter couldn’t have been nicer, and they had a gluten-free menu!! My daughter was over the moon, and my husband was thrilled at the salad portions with good quality Olive Oil!

Through the years, we have found real food and allergy-free menus at Panera Bread, Chick Filet, PF Changs, Mellow Mushrooms, Chipotle Mexican Grill, and even Boston Chicken too! With this said, dining at fast food restaurants is not our lifestyle but in a pinch it is nice to have choices for our family.

You can usually be safe with a salad and protein but asking for it plain and using olive oil and lemon for dressing is wise if you have allergies or just want to eat clean and savor your splurge on another meal out that is really worth it.  

Bon Voyage and Make it a Healthy Trip

 I hope you take a few of my healthy eating tips on your travels next time and thanks for sharing in my “Vote for Healthy Eating While Traveling”  guest post on Word Traveling! If you have any questions, I would love to serve you in any way I can over at Spoonful of Health!    Happy & Healthy Traveling to you my friends!