How to eat healthy while traveling—Staying fit while you’re traveling goes beyond just eating healthy travel food. Your body needs the energy to function throughout the day. Especially since you’re likely going to move around a lot. Eating healthy while you’re on the go may seem to be a daunting task for you. But you need to eat nutritious food in a good amount at the right time. How to eat healthy while traveling is not at all a chore. Whether you’re on the road once in a while or often, the key to practice eating healthy on the go is to start.
Eat little and often throughout the day
As opposed to eating a big meal at once! This is especially important if you’re one of the people guilty of not eating anything the whole day, only to eat big during the night. Eating until you’re full is not how to eat healthy while traveling. Not to mention, it will only make you feel bloated.
While this is a difficult issue for those who are trying to lose weight, frankly, traveling just isn’t the time. Moreover, the method (for lack of better words) is not at all a good way to lose weight. Your body needs balanced nutrients, taken at the right time. How to eat healthy while traveling is as simple as eating often, in a small amount each time.
This method is a much better way to not just maintain a good level of energy throughout the day. Ideally, you need to eat until you’re 60% – 80% full. You need to make room for digestion and the gas produced by the process.
Eating not until you’re full and eating small amounts throughout the day are not only useful during travels. It’s a healthy method for your everyday lives as well. This way, your body would be able to maintain a fairly constant level of energy throughout the day.
How to eat healthy while traveling? Bring your own food!
There are simply a lot of things out of your control in an unfamiliar environment. This includes the ingredients and how your meal is processed. While you won’t be able to control every single aspect of your meal, it does not mean you have to resort to eating junk food. You can still very much contribute to enjoying a good, healthy meal while you’re on the go.
Bringing your own food is a straight-up solution on how to eat healthy while traveling. However, due to the nature of traveling, you may not always be able to make and bring your own food. And that’s fine. It’s usually enough to bring your own food for your snacks throughout the day. You need nutrients throughout the day and eating just three times a day usually won’t be enough for the majority of people. Snack time serves an important role to maintain your strength and keep your stomach from grumbling in between meal times.
Healthy travel food suggestion:
A simple meal that you can bring is hard-boiled eggs. They’re packed with nutrition and also very filling. One to two eggs as morning snacks after a breakfast would last you well until lunch time.
Any kind of fruits would also serve to provide a healthy source of carbohydrate. I recommend pears and apples, ones you can find anywhere. Bananas would be great if you don’t need to store it for more than a few days.
Plan your meals
How to eat healthy while traveling? Plan! Planning is important not just for your itinerary. You can plan a broad aspect of your meals throughout your journey. And if you’re serious about eating healthy, then make sure you plan your meals as well.
Although you’ve planned to cook your healthy travel food, you know you’re not going to be able to do that every single meal. Will it ruin your effort on how to eat healthy while traveling? Don’t worry. You can either plan to cook once for the whole day, or eat out! Eating out is the most convenient option. And people eat out all the time during their travels. But often times, you simply don’t know whether the option offered at the establishment is for you. This is particularly important if you have special needs. Research about the places you’d want to eat at. Make sure that those places are near or within the area that you’re visiting. Going to another place altogether just to fill your stomach with dinner, for example, is not going to end well. You’d be way too tired by that time and wouldn’t bother.
It’s important to remember that, even though you already plan, a lot of things are simply out of your control during a journey. Don’t worry or get frustrated when things are not going as you’ve planned. Exactly because of this element of unpredictability that a plan is essential. At the very least, you’ll have a direction you can still follow so it’s easier to adapt.
Plan a time to cook
Staying in a place that has a kitchen would bring so much difference in your meal intake. Cooking is not only how to stay healthy while traveling, but also how you can control what gets inside you on regular days. Having a kitchen means you are able to process your own food. All you have to do is get the ingredients you need.
Get an apartment or a home rental like Airbnb for a more cost-friendly alternative compared to a hotel. And most of them would have a kitchen, or at least, a shared one that you can use anytime. It may not be the most convenient way, but having set a time just to cook is one of the best ways on how to eat healthy while traveling.
Planning or brainstorming what you can cook beforehand would make things so much easier for you. Planning on how to eat healthy while traveling can be super fun. Hitting the internet to search about what ingredients your destination usually have at the ready is a great way to learn about the place you’re visiting.
Also read: How Much Can You Actually Save on Travel?
Bring your supplement
You need all the help you can get when it comes to staying fit during your travel. Eating healthy travel food will provide the main source of nutrients. But vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin B, magnesium, and all that good stuff sometimes need an added supply. Try to consult your doc when you’re about to embark on a journey.
You can also consider bringing Melatonin, but remember that it’s not for everyday consumption. Take it when you know you absolutely need sleep but the environment or circumstances is far from ideal. Especially if you’re like me and you can’t function without a good 7 – 8 hours of sleep. Although you eat well, without the support of a good night’s sleep, you’re likely not going to feel energized during the day.