Eating Healthy While Traveling
The 2024 summer holidays are here and many of you have already planned to discover the charms of the local beaches or to venture abroad. Traveling is an opportunity to escape from everyday life while discovering new cultures. However, we all tend to adopt a diet that is sometimes different from our usual habits. If immersing ourselves in local gastronomy is an integral part of the holiday experience, these sudden changes in our diet can have some effects on our health and/or well-being. Discover this selection of tips for eating healthy while traveling!
Tips to eating healthy while traveling
After months of paying attention to having the perfect summer body, our good eating habits are put aside and for some it is the door open to slacking off.
Result: a few extra pounds when returning from holiday, which only makes it more unpleasant!
Today, we give you tips to enjoy yourself on holiday while continuing to eat healthily.
–Prepare your trip
It all starts with the trip! By train, car or plane, you can plan snacks and/or meals to eat healthy (and save money ). Plan snacks: cut fruit, dried fruit, nuts, almonds, biscuits, cereal bars… to satisfy your hunger pangs.
If you travel by car or train, planning a picnic or lunch box allows you to bring a complete and balanced meal: turkey and cheese sandwich and raw vegetables, tabbouleh and hard-boiled eggs, lentil salad and raw vegetables…
In addition to a balanced meal, this allows you not to buy your lunch at full price.
–Keep a regular meal rhythm
During the holidays, we relax, we slow down the pace and we enjoy ourselves. That’s the principle of holidays. However, this does not mean that you have to eat 6 times a day, snacking here and there.
Stick to a regular meal schedule, with at least 2 main meals, a breakfast and/or a snack. Even if they are out of sync with your usual schedule.
This allows you to maintain regular intake and digestive rest periods. It also allows you to structure your diet and avoid consuming a large amount of nutritionally “poor” foods.
–Treat yourself
The holidays are also a time to enjoy yourself and treat yourself. So it is not the time to try to follow a drastic diet at all costs!
Whether during the holidays or throughout the year, diets are not our allies anyway! We will tell you about them in a future article.
Allow yourself to indulge! But don’t get me wrong, the desire is not to eat all day long! When you have an opportunity to treat yourself: an ice cream parlor on the beach, a restaurant with friends, a crepe with the kids… and you feel like it, nothing and no one should stop you.
This “excess” is beneficial for your pleasure and allows you to enjoy your vacation.
The body is intelligent, it knows how to compensate for these excesses as long as you do not accumulate them and you balance your diet around them.
We can never say it enough, pleasures are part of a healthy and balanced diet!
–Listen to your body!
Whether you are going to a foreign country or simply to a campsite in your country, you will want to taste everything that is offered to you.
This is normal and part of the game. It allows you to open your horizons to new things or simply to treat yourself with foods that you do not consume daily. But there is no point in eating until you are sick! That will only ruin your vacation.
So remember to listen to your food sensations, even on vacation. Eat when you are hungry, stop when you are full.
Don’t hesitate to refuse a dish when you are not hungry, or to stop when you have eaten enough. You will enjoy the food that you taste all the more. This will also allow you to eat what you want without exceeding your body’s needs.
–Make the right choices
During your vacation, you can make choices to promote a quality diet without excess quantity. The “all-inclusive” formulas are for example the trap in terms of temptations! They force you to return morning, noon and evening, at fixed times, to the restaurant of your vacation spot. In addition, they offer you a huge choice and lead you towards quantitative excess!
If this option sometimes seems economical, we advise you to only have breakfast on site. This will give you more freedom to move around all day, to have small meals when you are out and about, and to enjoy choosing your meal location whenever you want.
At the restaurant, or when you eat out, you are free to choose what you want. Depending on your mood, you can choose a more substantial or lighter dish, and thus balance your diet.
If you have your breakfast in a structure, treat yourself to 1 pastry, a few pancakes or toast. But balance your meal by supplementing it with a source of protein (scrambled eggs, bacon, dairy product, etc.) as well as fresh fruit preferably.
–Eat seasonally
Summer is the season for juicy fruits and vegetables full of vitamins!
The advantage: they are perfect for bringing lightness to your meals and balancing your day!
As an aperitif, treat yourself to raw vegetables cut into sticks and dipped in a light homemade sauce! They will lighten up this friendly moment often synonymous with excess by making it healthier.
Whether you eat out or at home, mixed salads are the ally for balanced meals. Combine several raw vegetables, a starchy food, a source of protein and a homemade seasoning; you get a complete and tasty meal!
For desert or as a snack, seasonal fruits will provide you with a large number of vitamins and minerals as well as a lot of water! And yes, had you noticed that summer fruits and vegetables are the richest in water? Things are well done in this period during which we must drink more!
You have understood, if summer rhymes with barbecue and aperitif, it also rhymes with fresh fruits and vegetables. Do not hesitate to consume them in quantity and to vary the pleasures!
–HY-DRA-TE YOURSELF!
It’s hot, you may be lounging in the sun, playing on the beach or hiking with your family. Your water losses are significant, so make sure you cover them up!
Choose water, as always. Alternate between mineral water, sparkling water (richer in minerals) and tap water if you drink it.
Limit sugary drinks: sodas, fruit juices, cocktails, etc. High in calories, they don’t hydrate you properly. So you can drink them to treat yourself, in moderation.
–Stay active!
Vacations are a good way to take a break from your sport and rest your body. But it’s good to continue to stay active, in other ways. Hiking, playing on the beach, swimming, surfing or paddle boarding, water skiing… there are many ways to stay active.
Take the opportunity to stretch, massage yourself or work on your mobility!
And above all, if your physical activity is less important, your needs are also. So remember to listen to your food sensations, your body is asking you for what it needs!
–Don’t feel guilty and try to balance
The goal is still to enjoy your vacation. You have to find a certain nutritional balance. If you eat fast food at lunchtime, on the one hand, don’t spend your day feeling guilty and in the evening, opt for a light meal. Vacations are vacations after all.
The holidays are the time to enjoy and relax. So no more prohibitions and frustrations, but you can still maintain a healthy and balanced diet by taking into account these little tips!
For more health content and tips, click here.
I hope you enjoyed these tips for for eating healthy while traveling and found them useful. Comment down below what you think of eating when on vacation. And better yet, share with us your own tips if they are not mentioned abive.
Looking forward to reading your comments, sending you love and positive energy!!!