Eating Healthy While Away from Home or on a Holiday
I am trying to cheat a bit and make this interstate move a bit of a holiday. I am realising just how much cortisol and adrenaline I have been running on in the last few months! While stressful, some super duper herbs, exercise and fresh food has helped me through this (ok, I’m human, and maybe a glass of wine in there too!)
Now that I am in our temporary house though, it’s a bit harder to implement all this. It would be all to easy to slip into bad habits, and trust me, it is very tempting to eat lots of ice cream and lounge around on the couch!! While traveling somewhere new is (almost) always lots of fun, trying to eat and stay healthy on holidays can be a challenge.
Here are some tips I try and stick to, as much as I can, while away.
Staying Healthy on holiday?
That may not sound like sound like much fun, but worse when you feel bloated, irregular, dull skin and gained an extra few kilos.
It can be tricky to pass up the afternoon cake and coffee, fish and chips or a glass or 4 of wine…especially when you are on holiday, but for the most part we try to put good things into our bodies. At the end of our hectic day real food helps our body’s and immune system to function at its best.
I don’t know what it is about being away from home and our routines, but it is easy to leave our rational, nutritionally savvy selves at home and replace them with high fat, high sugar quick treats, especially with the endless cafes and restaurants everywhere.
I’ve found some tried-and-true tips that allow us to enjoy ourselves while away, without falling into overindulgence or gluten hangover.
1. Plan. Yep. Boring, I know but you will be grateful you did it.
You know the saying “proper prior planning prevents piss poor performance”? It also applie for our food and how our body’s perform.
Meal planning is the single best thing I do each week for my sanity and for our food budget. I now manage to plan meals in less than 10 minutes a week (and save dollars doing it).
This time, we drove to our destination, so I started pre-making as much of the food as possible. I batch cook and pre-make entire meals like salads, Bolognese of chilli sauces, Falafels etc. so that I don’t have to cook much on holiday (which makes it more relaxing too!) I also plan a few meals that we will eat once we are here so I know ahead of time exactly what I’ll need at the shops. This planning ahead means I won’t forget any condiments neither
2. Pack Healthy Snacks
Whether your destination is a short car ride or a 3 hour flight, having an array of healthy snacks on hand can be the difference between processed airport or petrol station food and a fresh alternative. It helps prevent blood sugar drops too so staying in control and avoiding temptation is much easier. Having better alternatives on hand saves time Trying to find snacks on the go and keeps us from feeling terrible.
Snack ideas:
- Boiled eggs
- carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers
- rice crackers, hummus
- Trail mix (Almonds, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, raisins)
- Reusable insulated bottles for holding smoothies
- Pre-made energy bars or homemade protein balls
- Various types of almond butter, pecan butter and coconut butter for serving with fresh fruit
3. Keep to your eating at home routine as much as possible
For some people, holidays are a time to completely throw their normal eating habits and budget constraints up in the air and spend far too much money eating processed foods at overpriced restaurants.
Ask yourself, ‘would I eat this at home?’ If The answer is NO, then I probably shouldn’t put it in my mouth while in another state or country either. But this can be a tough gig, especially if ‘everyone is doing it!’
Pre-making food or pre-planning meals when out helps a lot with this, since I don’t want to have food leftover that goes to waste. I also realized that much of the reason I like to eat out when I am away is that all I really want is a break from cooking, so pre-making food helps with this as well. If I can’t premake it, I remind myself that it’s not a junkfest, and mentally plan ahead of time to eat as we do normally (don’t get me wrong-with occasional healthy treats, I’m not that boring company ;-).
4. Limit the sugar
Make this an event and enjoy it! Just don’t make this an everyday/every meal occurrence but instead make it a special treat e.g. a long day of sight seeing or playing on the beach. Also don’t forget how good a fresh smoothie or some tropical fruit tastes if you find that you want to have something sweet and zesty!
5. Picnic fun
Kids love a play in the park throwing a frisky or kicking a football. Why not choose some healthy but tasty nibbles that everyone can help choose and spread out a cosy blanket
6. Drink plenty of water
Often the weather is is warmer when we go away, and keeping hydrated is even more important. Bring your drink bottles and fill them. Aim to consume a bottle a day if not more and start the day with a glass of water or herbal tea. That way you start the day hydrated rather than playing catch up all day.
7. Don’t worry too much
So you fell off the wagon, so what? The most import thing is to try and get back onto it as much as you can. Rather than getting all stressed and thinking ‘what’s the point, I might as well give up all together’ , pick yourself up for the next meal or snack. Just try to make the best food choices you can and above all ENJOY YOURSELF!