Summer travel series: eat well on the go.
Whether you’re hitting the open road, catching a flight to a new destination, settling into an extended stay, or simply taking some much-needed time off, summer travel is here. While travel offers a refreshing break from the daily grind, it often brings a unique set of challenges to our established healthy routines. How do you balance the desire for vacation freedom with the goal of maintaining your progress and feeling your best?
Welcome to our Summer Travel Series.
Over the coming weeks, we will explore practical, sustainable strategies to help you navigate food decisions and wellness on the go. From mastering airplane nutrition and packing for the road to navigating restaurant menus and grocery shopping for extended stays, we’ll provide the tools you need to enjoy your vacation fully—without leaving (all of) your healthy habits behind.
Let’s dive into our guide for eating well wherever your summer adventures take you.
Over the next few weeks we will cover strategies for road trips, airplane travel, and extended stays but first before a trip of any kind you need to do a personal check in. It is always a good idea to decide in advance what your plan is for the time you will be away.
Before your trip, think through the following questions and set a plan for yourself.
Is this trip a break from your normal routine? In other words, if you are traditionally a very mindful person when it comes to your nutrition, you may decide that on this vacation you will take a break from your normal routine and enjoy the cuisine around you without any restrictions. I have a client headed to France this summer and we discussed this option as a way for her to truly immerse herself in the culture of the region she is visiting.
Better over perfect? If the stress of trying to stay perfect will take away from the goal of the trip, sometimes the option is to think about all of your decisions on a spectrum of worst possible choices to perfect choices with the goal of landing at “better” on the spectrum.
Set your minimums? Before your trip, you can set your minimum requirement for healthy decisions. Maybe your daily minimums look something like this: at least 5 glasses of water, 1 serving of vegetables, 2 servings of fruit, and a 30 minute walk. This gives you the bar you will choose to set for yourself during your trip.
Simply slow down and enjoy the ride? Eating your favorite foods is a treat and at the very least, if you are going to consume those foods you should commit to truly and slowly savoring them. YOu might just find that if you utilize this strategy that you find yourself completely satisfied and you still have half left on your plate (then you can save that half for later, or share it with someone else).
Are you ok with waiting for a better option? Oftentimes when I am looking around at my options at the airport or the exit, I just don’t see anything that I like. Instead of eating something that I just don’t like, I can be ok with a little discomfort in being hungry because I know that down the road or at my next destination, I can find better options.
