6 Food Survival Strategies For The Road

Traveling is fun!

Traveling is exciting!

But then again…

Traveling can create healthy habits chaos – it’s can seem nearly impossible to stay on track!

Whether you are heading out of town for a vacation or traveling on a business trip, eating healthy and maintaining your food routines is often challenging when leaving home. Yet, if you always associate travel with throwing your good habits out, you will either never want to leave home or will repeatedly find yourself returning home a few pounds heavier and bloated.

Let’s change that perspective right now and set you free! Because you see, it IS possible to travel and still maintain healthy habits, you just have to prepare for it.

Here are 6 strategies to help make your next trip as healthy and vitalized as possible.

Strategy #1: Take a proactive approach.

It is not good for you to give away your power to the simple act of traveling. Doing that demonstrates a passive approach to health and signals that you might still be embracing a dieter or victim frame of mind.
Instead, take a proactive, positive approach and you may find that nutritional eating while traveling can not only be possible, but fairly easy. This is a mindset strategy that sets the stage for all the rest!

Strategy #2: Make arrangements ahead of time for a refrigerator or even a kitchen.

Having the right on-site facilities can make the most critical difference. Arrange to have a room with a refrigerator or even a kitchen, which will expand your options and level of control. This will also make it possible for you to bring along, buy and store healthy options for breakfasts, lunches and snacks.
Plus, if you have a freezer, you can take along a cooler and ice packs that can come in handy during daytime adventures.

Strategy #3: Treat yourself like a toddler and always take food or snacks with you.

This sounds so obvious, but how many times do you hit the road with no nourishment in your bag? Taking snacks from home gives you the type of flexibility you have everyday. Sure, packing nuts, dried fruit, small containers of hummus and even cut vegetables takes a little planning, but these easy-to-reach-for foods can allow you to keep a level head and make better choices for all your other meals.
Once you have arrived, you can replenish with a simple trip to a grocery or local farmer’s market, which you can locate before you even leave home.

Strategy #4: Select a restaurant based on your own online menu review.

There is never a shortage of restaurants while away, but finding food that is nutritionally dense takes a little coordination. Preparing ahead is the key.
When you are selecting restaurants, always review the menu online before going then apply a creative approach to thinking through the meal. Put together a main course using the healthiest choices from all parts of the menu, including parts of entrees, appetizers, soups and salads. If it is on the menu, it is in the kitchen and the chef can customize a dinner for you.
Also, don’t think of the salad as a small side, consider getting the largest salad they have to offer, steering clear of dressings, cheeses and other fatty additions. Just like at home, a stomach full of leafy greens leaves less room for the rest.

Strategy #5: Push your creativity beyond just restaurants.

There are many fun ways to get meals while out. If you are traveling to Europe, picnic lunches in a park are a standard practice, but you can take that idea anywhere.
With a quick trip to a store or neighborhood shop, it is easy to put together a great lunch that can be as casual or formal as you want. Plus, picnic meals allow you to not only plan the food, but to also find a fantastic location!

Strategy #6: Take along an attitude of doing the best you can!

While sticking to eating healthy is an important part of any vacation or trip, so is relaxing and being kind to yourself. When you try your best, using all that you know about survival on the road, knowing when and how to be flexible is an important part of being healthful for a lifetime.
You may not be able to or even choose to eat exactly the same way you do at home and that is okay. Knowing when to relax about food and how to not make it a binge fiasco is just as important as sticking with any strict regimen, just like recognizing that flexibility at one meal is best followed by healthful eating at the next.