Eating Healthy on the Go - Thanksgiving Travel!

Eating healthily while traveling is a habit I’ve worked on developing for over 10 years.

While I didn’t travel much growing up, the few trips/vacations we took usually involved (1) driving to get there & bringing our own snacks/food for the road, and (2) staying somewhere with a kitchen or grill, going grocery shopping, and cooking most of our own meals — a habit my husband and I also have also now developed with Air BnBs!

I didn’t get too accustomed to air travel, though, until my husband and I started dating. We got together right around the time I was starting a 2-year graduate program, and right after he had just been assigned a new duty station with the Navy. We lived pretty far apart, so for 2 years, we could only see each other if we flew; and I realized very quickly that if I wanted to feel good and remain healthy while doing this, I would need to become discerning about my travel eating habits! While travel might have previously felt like an opportunity to indulge, it now became a personal goal of mine — and challenge for myself — to eat the healthiest food possible, even when traveling on planes, trains, busses, Ubers and automobiles :). And let’s be honest — when you’re someone who already struggles with IBS (I hadn’t discovered Nutritional Therapy yet!), that along with plane bloat can be pretty rough if you’re not careful :p.

That said, let’s check out some food from my past week’s trip over Thanksgiving week. I’m thankful that major airports like LAX, SFO, JFK, etc. usually have great salad bar and other healthy options these days, making it much easier to stay on track! Remember though, it still is up to you to have the habits and resolve in place to choose your best options :).

This restaurant stand in SFO had a salad bar with 6 options, all of which looked great. I chose 3:

-arugula salad (with pecans, grapes, dried cherries),

-toasted Brussels with some parm, and

-a butternut squash salad with pumpkin seeds.

+I also added chicken for protein. It was tasty, filling, and a great sized portion! Our flight was a quick one, so I ate about half, and stuck the other half in the fridge for the next day when we got into the hotel!

Note 1: when I travel, I aim for good, not perfect, and don’t stress over what I can’t control. No idea what kind of dressings or oils were on these salads; it’s very possible that they contain canola or other iffy ingredients. But honestly, I eat at home most of the time during the week, and am careful otherwise, so I’ll let it go in a situation like this 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Note 2: More often than not, I bring my own food on flights and/or just eat before. However, due to timing and traveling with the pup, I just wasn’t in the mood to carry MORE things. Gotta find that balance of meeting your goals/needs, and also opting convenience when it’s necessary to manage your stress!

I took some other pictures of meals we had throughout the week. Take a look below, and you’ll see a pretty common trends!

1)Stopped in a local deli w/ a salad bar on our 2nd day in town. Loaded up a ton of veggies so that I would have some leftover for the next day! Stayed at a hotel, so made sure we had a mini-fridge and microwave!

2. Set up a grocery delivery when we got in! Most breakfasts this week were frozen egg cups + frozen broccoli. Its amazing what you can do when you get creative :).

3) I also ALWAYS bring healthy packaged food options with me when traveling, which allows me to fill in any nutritional gaps that might be tricky, AND it helps me feel more at home :). Some favorites (shown): collagen peptides, dandelion tea, and instant coffee w/ MCT for my morning drink; epic jerky bars; sardines (FULL of micronutrients!); protein powder if I’m having trouble finding protein that isn’t breaded or fried :).

4) If we DO order room service, like this dish here, I tend to opt for something similar to what I’d make at home. This grilled chicken over green with fruit, veggies + nuts was delicious; and I always order dressing on the side, use about half, and then add vinegar or lemon juice for more flavor :).

5) When we DO splurge, we enjoy it! Since we were away for the whole week and both worked a lot, we made a point to have a date night at the hotel restaurant one night. We started with & shared a salad, then each had our own (delicious!) entree. I opted for salmon + risotto, 2 foods that I love but won’t always take the time to cook at home <3. (The rissotto was SO yummy, but I only ate about half b/c it was pretty heavy on the dairy). Chris ordered steak + mashed potatoes, and it was so tender! )

6) Keep in mind we were traveling for the holiday, so we also had a family Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. I wanted to enjoy the time w/ people we don’t get to see a lot, but I will say that I’m so grateful that another family member also needs to eat gluten free, so there were some awesome options, including GF bread, gravy, stuffing + apple pie! But if there weren’t those options, I would have been happy w/ just some turkey, potatoes + veggies. Eating the way you need to can be surprisingly doable once you decide it’s important to you, and make the choice to commit :).

Let me ‘splain…no, there is too much, let me sum up

I’m curious — how to you feel about your eating habits when you travel? How about during the holidays? Do you feel comfortable with your decisions, or do you feel “out of control”, or as though you aren’t really “choosing” what you’re doing at all?

The most free I have felt around food is when I commit to retaining MY own autonomy of choice.

It’s up to ME alone to choose what I am putting in my body, and nobody else; and noone has the right to judge, shame, or tell me (or you!) to do things otherwise. This has been the most challenging, but most important part of my journey toward healing my gut + having a better relationship with food.

I’d love to hear from you over on this post on Instagram how this experience has been for you, and where you are at in your journey! There are SO many of us on this journey, and I want you to know you’re not alone. But I’m hoping that in the meantime, some of these tips will help you during busier, more stressful times like travel.

Yours in Wellness,

Liz