Key Tricks To Staying Healthy While Traveling On Vacation
When you’re out of your house and your normal routine, I know it can be tricky creating a new schedule around your health goals.
Traveling brings up a slew of mini-challenges.
- Will I have access to healthy foods?
- How will I move on a regular basis?
- Will others I’m traveling with give me a hard time for staying healthy?
- …and more.
Recently, I went on a family trip to Montreal for a 5-day vacation to meet up with old friends.
I had the same initial concerns.
And for the first time (in what has felt like forever…), I didn’t pack a single piece of exercise clothing or sneakers. The only sneakers I had were “cool” looking sneakers for the airplane, ha!
However, here are some of the things I did to prioritize my health goals while out of town.
Eating
I tried to avoid buying unhealthy food and snacks for our hotel room. If we were hungry, we had to go out for food, and we had to walk there if possible. And all of the expensive hotel snacks and drinks? I hid them so they were out of sight. I also emptied our hotel fridge so we could store healthy (perishable) food / leftovers as needed.
When it came to restaurants, we were definitely tempted by the café croissants, bagels, and well… basically CARBS. However, we always tried to go for an egg quiche with protein (ham / prosciutto) or ordered a sandwich and split it in half.
Juices and smoothies were tempting, but you always need to be careful of the super heavy sugar and carb punch that these end up carrying. We only ended up getting 1 on a day that was super nice out and after we had walked over an hour together outside. It was refreshing, but we enjoyed it right before we got back to our hotel and could buffer it with some leftover turkey slices in our fridge. Always make sure you’re having protein with every meal / snack!
Movement
Nothing gets your feet on the pavement than expensive Uber rides!! Having a kiddo was tricky some days walking long distances, but we did the best we could to walk wherever we went. We also chose activities outside that involved a lot of walking, such as visiting the Montreal Botanical Gardens. They were BEAUTIFUL and it was such a peaceful activity to do with the family!
Mindset
Listen. Traveling with a 1.5 year old? Stressful. However, having a quick breathing technique on the back-burner is the quickest and easiest way (at least for me) to keep myself grounded, cool, and collected. I also tell myself; “In the scheme of life… is this that serious?” Usually the answer is always “no” and I can move on from it.
Getting yourself out in the sunshine and away from the dark and clustered hotel room does wonders for your mind. There’s nothing more refreshing than walking the sidewalks with others as you explore a city, and spending a few minutes in a local park to just sit on the grass and take everything in.
When it comes to traveling, it may not look exactly like what you’re used to with your home routine, but you can still stay consistent on your health goal(s) by being intentional with what you’re eating, how you’re moving, and how you’re managing your mindset.
And if you’re looking for a boost of support to help you stay consistent (especially on days or weeks while you’re traveling and feeling very tempted!), come and join our positive and uplifting membership support group Banana Bariatrics!
We’re a family.
Why not take us with you on your travels! (Virtually, of course…!) 😉
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I am a bit nervous about my upcoming 2 week trip to Africa. I don’t think movement will be an issue and if I don’t allow myself to get too tired, I think I can manage my mindset. I am concerned about eating. I will not have much control over the food options. Our meals, for the most part, will be prepared for us. Sudza/pap is the staple there. It is a very heavy dish made with “mealie meal” or white corn meal. There is no way I can eat that. I couldn’t tolerate it very well prior to surgery. It sits in your stomach like a rock! I pray I don’t offend the cook by not eating pap. We may have some control in packing lunches but I won’t have control over what is offered to pack in those lunches. I am trying to think of protein snack items I can take in my luggage. I plan to take individual packets of my collagen protein powder to mix with my sugar free chai tea mix. It will be winter there. I can drink that in the mornings to warm up or during “tea time”. I thought about packing some beef sticks and almonds. Any other suggestions that would be easy to pack?
That’s definitely tricky, but you may be surprised by the protein they may offer you there. I did a trip to Kenya myself, and they served eggs and chicken sausages for breakfast (in addition to the starchy options). But to answer your question about what to bring – you’re definitely on the right track. Raw nuts and little snack-sized baggies of protein and collagen powder are probably your best bet from the non-perishable side of things. Maybe little single servings of peanut butter (without added sugar) can be useful too.
Thanks Kate! Nuts and nut butters were one of the last items suggested by my team to add back into my diet. I am going to try almond butter this week and see how it goes. I tried almonds and pistachios this week and had a little discomfort.
My sister gave me a recipe for energy bites… little balls of nut butter, flax seeds, oats, mini chocolate chips and honey. I’m need to plug the recipe into my app and check the nutritional info.
Ah, ok. Maybe start with the nut butter and then work up to the whole nuts themselves.
With the nut butters- read your labels. Avoid anything that has cheap / processed vegetable oils in it. The only ingredient(s) on the label should be the nut itself and/or salt. And be really careful with serving sizes. If you can keep it to a Tsp a serving, that’s great! A little goes a long way.
If you’re ready for the whole nuts, make sure they’re not coated in anything and that they’re also just the plain version. Chew them thoroughly (to the consistency of applesauce) as well. Also, be mindful of how many you’re grabbing. If you take a closed fist’s worth (1/4 cup), that will count as a serving. I like to do that and then put them into pre-portioned snack sized ziploc bags so that I don’t graze in an open bag of nuts. Nuts are very caloric and are easy to snack on, so just be careful with it as a snack.
But that energy bite recipe sounds delicious!! Let me know how they turn out!