How to 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.

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.

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.

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.