How to Eat Healthy When Traveling

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eat healthy when traveling

How to Eat Healthy When Traveling:

For health conscious individuals, eating out at restaurants has always been tricky.  Today, more and more places are beginning to provide organic and nutrient dense options.  One of the biggest challenges people have as they begin to lead a healthier lifestyle has to do with social outings and restaurants.   This article will give you some insight on how to eat healthy when traveling and how to make the best choices when eating out.

When you are trying to live a gluten-free, organic lifestyle there are some social repercussions.  You can get around these challenges by doing your research and planning beforehand, asking the right questions and choosing wisely.  Here are some tips to get the most out of your meals away from home.

Planning Ahead is Crucial:

Planning ahead is really critical for eating healthy while traveling.  This means researching restaurants and grocery stores in the area you are traveling through.  You can do a google search using keywords like “gluten-free,” “organic food,” “grass-fed,” “raw food,” etc.

You can also go to websites like eatwellguide.org to search for the healthiest places in the area you are traveling too. It is also a great idea to look at online reviews of different restaurants you may be going too.  You can find helpful reviews on sites like Yelp, Chowhound, TripAdvisor and Urbanspoon.  You can also use family destinations guide to look up restaurants.  An example would be if you are traveling to Irvine, California, you could look up the best restaurants in Irvine.

This will give you a view of other people’s dining experience at the place you are looking into. Whether you are meeting up with friends, going on a date or at a family outing it is always a good idea to eat something beforehand so you aren’t starving when you show up.

When we are really hungry we make poor nutritional decisions and become much more susceptible to eating poorly.  So be prepared by either eating something before going out or even bringing some of your own healthy food with you.

eat healthy when traveling

Ask a Lot of Questions:

When you go out to eat it is okay to ask the waiter the questions you need to know.  You may want to make sure the food you are eating is organic, GMO-free, gluten-free and/or dairy-free.  You can tell the waiter or restaurant manager that you may have a real dangerous reaction if you come into contact with a certain food item.

That will immediately get their attention and they will be sure to cater to your needs. It is always advisable to know exactly what you are eating.  So ask questions, avoid things like sauces, soups and dressings that are typically not made from scratch.

These things are usually processed mixtures with multiple toxic ingredients such as industrial seed oils, GMO’s, artificial sweeteners and preservatives.  The server may not know or understand this so don’t make it too complicated on them. It is best to go with clean organic meat if available, good fat sources like avocado slices or guacamole, olive oil and lots of fresh vegetables.

You can always ask for extra veggies or extra avocado, etc. so you will be satisfied after the meal.  Be sure to let the server know you are going to tip really good and they will come through for you.  Of course, you need to step-up and follow through with your end of the bargain and take care of the server.

eat healthy when traveling

Choose Wisely:

There may be times where you are at a family member’s home or a place where you just cannot find anything that typically fits into your nutrition plan.  If you know this beforehand, you can obviously eat before going and bring some digestive enzymes with you to help neutralize the damage.

You could also opt to drink lots of water with lemon if available which will help curb hunger and provide antioxidants for your system. When it comes to starches, it is much better to choose potatoes, rice or quinoa over breads and pasta.

Try to take as many of the vegetables as are available and load up on the good fats such as any sort of avocado dish that is available, a hummus dip, olive oil or coconut products.  If the meat isn’t organic or wild-caught I would look to avoid this or eat just a real small amount to avoid the concentrated environmental toxins that are in the commercialized meat.

You can also find many great snacks including grass-fed beef jerky, grass-fed cheese and many others through US Wellness Meats.USWELLNESSMEATSBANNER

What Does Dr Jockers Do?

I always research the restaurant I am going to beforehand so I know what choices they have on the menu.  I only go to places that have some sort of clean meat like organic chicken, bison, grass-fed beef, organic eggs or Wild-caught Salmon.  I also look for different fat sources such as avocado, pastured butter, olive oil, coconut products, etc.

If I am not able to pick the restaurant, I always eat something beforehand and choose a vegetable based dish like a salad with no dressing and I squeeze lemon on the veggies.

If I am going over someone’s house and I am unsure about the quality of what they may serve I will either bring a dish I can enjoy or I will eat beforehand. When I am at a restaurant, I hardly ever order a recipe straight off the menu.  Typically, I am maneuvering foods around to get the right amount of good fats, clean protein and antioxidants that I want.

For example, out here one of the “healthier” places is Ted’s Montana Grill.  When I am there, I will get a naked bison burger with diced avocado (I always ask the waiter to give me 2 servings of avocado) and some sort of veggies like broccoli or asparagus.  This way I get lots of good fats (avocado), clean protein (bison is a free-range animal that forages on fresh pasture) and veggies.

Best Snack Ideas:

When I go out of town, I always bring food.  If I am taking a road trip I bring a cooler in my car with raw cheese, coconut flakes, nuts/seeds, Perfect Keto collagen protein bars, low-sugar chocolate whey protein bars, grass-fed beef jerky, flax crackers, Sea Snax, fresh veggies, fresh fruit, coconut butter, etc.

I try to avoid plastic food storage containers (although this isn’t a big deal unless it is a liquid) and try to stick with glass containers such as these ones here.

When I fly out of town, I will pack the flax crackers, pumpkin seeds, coconut flakes, macadamia nuts or some healthy and crunchy (I love crunchy) veggies such as celery/carrots/cucumber, coconut oil, coconut flakes and grass-fed beef or organic turkey jerky among other things.  If it is a trip that will take several days, I will find the closest health food store to stock up on more healing foods. What do you do when you are at a restaurant or traveling to make it easier to eat healthy?

I get most of my non-perishable items through Thrive Market and my wife and I estimate that we save $50-$60 a month by doing this.  That is about $500 a year after the $60 annual membership Thrive charges.

I absolutely LOVE flax crackers so I get those, we get non-bleached paper towels and toilet paper, snack foods such as EPIC bars, beef and turkey jerky, stevia, spices like Herbamare which is a combination of Italian herbs, kelp, etc.   I like to buy turmeric in bulk and use it all the time so I get a big bag from Thrive!

Check it out for yourself – you get a free 30 day membership and 15% off your first order by going here.

eat healthy when traveling

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Dr. Jockers

Dr David Jockers is passionate about seeing people reach their health potential in mind, body and spirit. He is the host of the popular “Dr Jockers Functional Nutrition” podcast and the author of the best-selling books, “The Keto Metabolic Breakthrough” and “The Fasting Transformation.”

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Comments

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Comments

  1. I’ve only tried this once but I was able to get through airport security with several bottles of solid frozen liquids. When asked about these bottles my argument was that it was in a solid state and not a liquid state. Got a confused look from the TSA agent and then was let through the line with all of my frozen liquids.

  2. I keep a cooler in my car daily. I freeze water bottles (and rotate them) only for the purpose of keeping what is in the cooler cool. I carry water filtered at my house in glass bottles and drink that all day. I also keep tessemae salad dressing in the cooler and some 85 to 90% chocolate (clean) in the cooler.

  3. This article sounds great and for past few years have tried to be proactive with consciousness but stil have faced some dilemmas with no
    control. Below are few major inquiries.

    1. Even if you go to a restaurant bc of a family or friend or work obligation, isn’t it true that many managers at the restaurants may just make up stuff regarding no GMOs or lack of something as we cant go behind thekitchen in some cases and look at the ingredients?

    2. What do you suggest in cases of being a guest at people’s homes for a meal they are taking the time to make such but they use original vegetable oil and some items in the dirty dozen used are nonorganic and yet the point is to act graceful and be a good guest with grace?

    3. What are some powerful herbs, supplements to take for a Vegan like me who tries to totally eliminate GMOs but can’t bc of a limited budget and obligations from attending meals at other places, business luncheons or maybe in the near future staying in a community where everyone is served the same food?

    I wish it didn’t have to be so cumbersome as such but due to all the articles and huge issues of GMOs i have cause to concern but yet have the right to eat be it GMO or not. The whole goal i have is how to REALIstically and Pragmatically Tackle Issues when i am inevitably exposed to gmos and cant help it despite my effort. Its the fault of the law and governance that the US i live in hasnt banned GMOs unlike some other countries.

  4. Lastly, just to keep things simple with situations above isn’t it best to stick with whole foods of fruits, veggies or rice besides the sauces, soups etc and I hear fruits and veggies and grains are much less contaminated in pesticides compared to animal products even grass fed as I researched.

    Just wondering here. What is the point of eating even grass fed or organic animal products if conventional ones are still advised not to eat as grass fed or organic meat, beef,;eggs, or milk is still from an animal and the conditions those animals came in arent the most ideal?

  5. John,

    Hey, good questions. I addressed many of them in the article by telling the server you have “dangerous reactions” to certain foods. That will surely get their attention.

    Grass-fed and organic animal products are amazing for the body. These are from animals raised in very good conditions and provide valuable nutrition for the body. It is much more challenging to be healthy as a vegan but it can be done.

    Just do your research before going out as the article states. Good supplements to minimize food and toxins related inflammatory stress would be to use digestive enzymes and chlorella and/or cilantro before eating and activated charcoal afterwards. This will help remove pesticide/herbicide/heavy metal exposure. Also, be sure to supplement with probiotics as a regular part of your lifestyle.

  6. I’m assuming the carrots/celery you packed for the airplane were in your carry-on? Do they let you do that? I usually have some nuts/seeds in my car while traveling and lots of bottles water. This way I don’t really get very hungry and am not tempted to grab some fast food to stave off hunger.

  7. Thank you for the practical tips about carrying food while traveling .it is still challenging , but can possible.
    Elsa

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