I posted recently about What we do at Home. This post is about how we eat and what we do on the Road. Because we are Never Home, we tend to eat out more than we would like to. Therefore, we have to be mindful and make good choices. If we happen to be staying at a place with a kitchen we will buy food and cook breakfast at home. Sometimes lunch and dinner too, depending on our situation.
My Love has to eat out more than I do. When he goes on a work trip he has to eat out for all of his meals including the catering on the plane. He has to make a conscious effort to eat as well as he can when he’s gone. When he orders his meals on the plane he will order eggs for breakfast, fish and veggies for dinner, or choose from a few other options. He doesn’t eat the bread or the dessert that comes with the meal. He will get a salad and a fresh fruit when he can. He takes protein bars and nuts with him to snack on. Eating on the road can be hard but good choices can be made.
When we eat out we have to make the effort to choose wisely from the menu. Salads with protein, fish and veggies, omelets with fruit instead of bread. We will split sandwiches sometimes. We will order chicken or hamburgers without the buns. There are little things you can do to make the meals a little bit healthier for you. We don’t order French fries. We don’t order desserts. We rarely order anything deep-fried. But that is us and that is how try to stay in shape with our gypsy lifestyle.
When we fly we almost always bring a bag of food with us. Usually, we have several baggies full of pulled-off chicken breast, homemade turkey/chicken sausages, fruit, nuts, and protein bars. Remember, you can bring your water bottle and refill it after you pass through security. You can also bring food and protein powder in your carry-on luggage. Just make sure it’s not liquid such as hummus or yogurt over the 3-ounce limit. Just know they may pull your bag to check out the food and protein powder, but it’s worth it to take healthy meals on the road.
This is how we do what we do on the road. Our lifestyle isn’t for everyone. We are gypsies and we love it! We also love being in shape and eating as clean as possible. Therefore, as much as we are “on vacation” we rarely eat like we are “on vacation”.
Of course, there is a time and place for everything. Please don’t think that we NEVER eat wings, ice cream, French fries, or pizza. We had pizza for breakfast at my sister-in-law’s over Christmas and took our friends to our favorite ice cream shop The Love Boat. We do enjoy our treats but certainly not every week and sometimes not even every month. I’d say we eat those things a few times a year. And to us we are satisfied.
Anyway, there is always a choice, a good choice, a better choice, and the best choice. For example, let’s say you decide to go to McDonald’s. The choice is a Big Mac and fries. A good choice is a grilled chicken sandwich without the bun or a fruit smoothie and then add your protein powder. A better choice would be a salad with balsamic vinaigrette. And the best choice is don’t go to McDonald’s 🙂
There are always substitutes or omissions. You can always say no bread, you don’t need to order fries, you can have fruit instead of a muffin, and you can add almond milk to your coffee instead of sugary creamers. There are ALWAYS options. You just have to ask for them and sometimes pay for them. The catch is people think eating clean and healthy is expensive. And yes, maybe it is a few dollars more. But let’s think if you don’t make healthy more expensive choices now, you may “pay” for it later when with hospital bills, heart attacks, or loss of a job, etc.
I hope this helps as there is a way to eat healthy while you are on the road and away from home. One other piece of advice is to limit your frequency of fast foods and soft drinks. The only fast food restaurant we go to when we are on the road and don’t have time to sit down and go somewhere local is Chick-fil-A. We get a chicken sandwich or nuggets and no fries and no milkshake. The only drinks we drink are coffee, water, and club soda with our tequila. If we need an energy drink, we drink Celsius or Bang. We believe that bread is one of the most fattening food items. Most American breads are filled with loads of sugar and high fructose corn syrup.
There you have it. Life is all about making choices and these are some of ours.
Photo by About Maps on Unsplash
