Travel Like A Pro: Managing Healthy Nutrition On The Road

Eating Clean On The Road: A Food Diary Showing You How It Can Be Done

“I won’t have access to my kitchen” or “You simply can’t find healthy food when you’re travelling” are phrases, or rather excuses, that people often use to give themselves a “green light” for guiltlessly binging on junk food when their travelling. It’s human nature to desperately try and find any excuse for not doing something that might be slightly uncomfortable or take a little more time. It’s normal. But eating healthy on the road is quite frankly, not hard at all. You just have to be prepared.      

 “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail”

Case Study: My School Trip

A week before summer vacation I went on a 4-day school trip with my class. We took the train to lake Constance and spent 4 days in a youth hostel. Going off on a trip with 21 teenagers, who all don’t care about their nutrition sounded like a recipe for disaster to me. I didn’t want to be that weird guy in the group who couldn’t eat this and couldn’t eat that. So I figured I was just going to pack most of my food and rely on the buffet at our hostel for breakfast and dinner.  To be honest, I was quite astonished my self on how clean I ate during the trip. It just goes to show that a little preparation before hand can really make a difference.

Food I brought along in my bag:        -      200 gr of hemp seeds

-       4 food bars

-       Self prepared trail mix (cashews, almonds, walnuts, coconut flakes, brazil nuts)

-       3 apples

-       1 can cold water fish

-       1 big bar organic 85% dark chocolate

-       Fish oil and magnesium

-       1 glass of baby food

 Since I was in the train on the first day I also packed a lunch for that. It consisted of Swiss chard, bell peppers, carrots and tomatoes all packed into a food container box. On top of that I brought along 2 hard-boiled eggs for a protein and fat source. 

Day 1: Lunch (in train): Swiss chard, bell pepper, carrot, 2 eggs

             Dinner (at youth hostel): mixed green leaves salad, pork, peas and rice

             Pre bed snack: 1 apple and a handful of mixed nuts

Day 2: Breakfast (in youth hostel): plain yogurt, oats, coffee, drizzle of honey

             Snack: Food bar

             Lunch: Whole grain sandwich with butter and chicken

             Snack: Hemp seeds and 1 apple

             Dinner: Cold water fish out of the can. Chicken, rice and mixed vegetables in coconut milk (bought it a Thai store)

             Snack: dark chocolate and fish oil

Day 3: Breakfast (at youth hostel): plain yogurt, oats, coffee and drizzle of honey

              Snack: Food bar, dark chocolate

              Lunch (at a shopping mall): store bought salad consisting of lettuce, tomato, egg, cheese and baby carrot. I also bought a protein bar to have along with it (admitted, the protein bar wasn’t the healthiest choice)

               Snack: 1 apple and mixed nuts

               Dinner: Chicken, potatoes, mixed salad and fish oil

Day 4: Breakfast: plain yogurt, oats, coffee and a drizzle of honey

              Lunch (restaurant): Mixed salad consisting of lettuce, chicken, tomatoes, bell pepper

               Snack: Hemp seeds

               Snack: Food bar and baby food consisting of amaranth and carrot puree

That was basically what I ate during the three and a half days. As I already mentioned above, it was pretty simple eating healthy during the trip. Not only did I stay “clean”, but I also had less hassle during the trip than the others had. It was always clear what I was going to eat and I carried at least one food bar along with me incase I’d get hungry.

General tips on eating healthy whilst travelling:

1.     Pack along “insurance” snacks such as nuts, seeds, food bars, kale chips etc.

2.     Before hand, do a quick Google search and find out if the destination you’re going to has got good supermarkets/ farmers markets where you can get all your basic needs.

3.    There are two different types of eating habits I lean towards when I’m travelling: frequent eating or fasting. By frequent eating I'm referring to eating 6-9 small meals/ snacks throughout the day. This has the benefit of avoiding getting “bogged” down, a result of eating a lot of food in one sitting and thus not being able to adhere to the busy schedule one tends to have whilst travelling.  

The other option, fasting can be defined quite broadly. Let me be clear on this: I’m terrible at fasting. The longest daytime fast that I recently did was 8 hours! I’m still in my teens so my metabolism runs pretty fast regardless of what I eat and do throughout the day. But after all, that’s not the topic of this blog post.

Regardless if fasting is 4 hours or 40 hours for you – doing it whilst you’re travelling can be very useful for a multitude of reasons. For one, you significantly reduce your time spent on preparing and planning your food. Another benefit of fasting during travelling is that it’s easier to stick to your eating program. If you’re only eating an average of a meal a day than the chances of that one meal being of the highest quality are a lot higher (availability, financially…) than if you were to eat 6 meals a day. I’ll write a blog post in the future in which I’ll share my views on the pros and cons of frequent eating vs. fasting.

Any protocols you like to follow when travelling? Please share in the comments section. Thanks!

Stay tuned for my second post in the category "Travel Like A Pro", I'll be covering the topic of working it whilst travelling!