You have been careful all year to incorporate healthy eating into your healthy lifestyle plan. Traveling and vacation is not a ticket to give up all your hard work. Although traveling does add some extra stress when trying to stick to a healthy eating plan, you don’t have to throw in your towel when you are busy and on the go.
Planning will be vital for when you are away from home for an extended period of days. If you will be somewhere where you are able to bring your own food items, like a camping trip or a condo on the beach, continue to create your preplanned meals like you would at home. You can use coolers to keep your meals cold and fresh until ready to use. Throw away containers make it easy for cleanup when traveling. Hummus and fresh veggie sticks are perfect travel companions for healthy snacks on the go. The veggies will fill you up and the hummus will give you some protein to keep you full until mealtime.
Popcorn travels well too for an easy snack on the go. Use your air popper at home before you go and pack your popcorn into Ziploc bags for preplanned portion bags that you can take with you. You can experiment with different seasonings to keep the flavors fun without adding a lot of calories or fat.
Fruit that does not require refrigeration travels well too. Bananas, apples, peaches, pears, oranges and many others travel well and make an easy snack. Fruit has a high water content so it will fill you up too without adding excess calories. If you are eating out, you can substitute or request fruit or extra veggies to help add volume to your meal without adding extra calories.
Staying hydrated will be the biggest part of eating healthy over the summer. We often confuse dehydration for hunger. Drink a glass of water or tea before you eat. Having some fluid in your stomach will help you prepare your body for the nutrients it is about to receive and can help prevent overeating. You don’t have to drink boring water if that is not appealing to you. You can mix your water with varieties of fresh fruit or cucumbers to flavor the water naturally without adding excess calories. Cucumbers and mint added to water is very refreshing and is good for the digestive system. Lemons and limes added to water helps to increase the antioxidants and vitamin C in your water and can help with inflammation. Have fun experimenting with different natural flavors and you might discover that you were just thirsty the entire time.
Planning and learning how to make better choices are all part of a healthy eating plan that you can take with you everywhere you go, even on vacations. Do not use traveling as an excuse to give up all the benefits you achieved over the year. Stay strong, positive, and stay healthy!
