Eating right while traveling for business is hard because I’ve got a license (in the form of an expense account) to eat out every night. Added to that is the peer pressure to try the wonderful appetizers, sample desserts, and have one more drink. There’s an atmosphere of joviality which makes it really hard to say, “No, I’ll just have this small (pathetic) salad while all of you are (over) indulging.” In days passed, I’ve gone along and let the social pressure beat out my internal pressure to eat healthy.
John’s heart attack was a wake up call in so many ways and one of the biggest was that I’ve committed to continuing my healthy habits even while traveling. I’ve also realized that if I’m going to be successful, I’m going to have to plan ahead and make my desire to eat healthy a higher priority than my need to be liked. The following are some tips that have helped me stay on the bliss diet while traveling:
- Pack food–Eating on the run is the number one reason that I fall into the pit of over indulgence when I travel and the only sure fire way I know to combat that is to pack food in case I’m not able to get to the grocery store. I typically throw a few cans of “soup at hand,” oranges, and sometimes prepackaged salmon into my bag. That way I have portion controlled foods readily available in case I get the munchies.
- Eat in for lunch–You have to pick your battles and I’ve found that saying no to going out to lunch is easier for most people to accept than saying no for dinner. if I’ve packed a lunch, even if it is just soup and a piece of fruit, it’s even easier.
- Hit the grocery store–Chattanooga, the town I travel to most, has an awesome grocery store called Green Life that has great produce, cheeses, and other tasty treats. When I’m in Chattanooga, I always head to Green Life my first day in town to pick up some goodies. I typically pick up cheese and crackers to have for breakfast, fruit, and other yummies that taste great and are healthy for me.
- Choose a hotel with a fridge and a microwave—Doubletree is an awesome hotel with big comfy beds, nice people, and a microwave and fridge in every room. Having a microwave and a fridge makes it easier to eat healthy on the road because I can store cheese and fruit in the fridge and have an easy way to heat up soup or other healthy food.
- Prepare a lunch box–One of the biggest challenges of eating healthy while on the road is making sure you have the utensils you need if you choose to stock up at the grocery store. I’ve created a lunch box of utensils, condiments, and other things that make it easier to prepare and eat food on the road. My lunch box has silverware, honey, a tea cup, my favorite Teavana tea, and a small cutting board that I use both as a cutting board and as a plate. I wash things out in the sink when I’m traveling. When I get home, I throw the silverware, cutting board, and cup into the dishwasher and then repack my lunch box and put it back in my suitcase so it’s ready for the next trip.
- Eat room service–Room service has a bad rap as being unhealthy, but room service has one huge advantage of eating out: you typically order your entire meal at once and have it delivered so you’re not presented with the menu over and over and over. I’ve found that it’s a lot easier for me to make choices when I’m ordering all my food at once. It makes me realize that if I have the gigantic appetizer, I probably should have a smaller entree and skip the dessert. Or I could have a small entree and eat the dessert. Making the choices all at once lets me create dietary balance.
- Mix up socializing and eating alone–Despite it’s ability to wreak havoc on the best laid dietary plans, eating out with the team is important because it lets you get to know your coworkers as whole people instead of just seeing the work side of their personality. If I’m traveling with the team, I’ll typically go out to eat two nights and eat in the rest of the week. I’ll budget my calories carefully to make sure that I have enough calories available for a little overindulgence at dinner.
- Improvisational Bliss–I usually stick some Ziploc bags in my lunch box so that I have them to store my opened cheese in. This time I forgot, but luckily the Doubletree came through for me and there were paper coffee cups with lids in my room. The worked great for storing my cheese and as a tea strainer when I forgot my special teaspoon that acts as a strainer. Since the soup was getting boring, I tried packing little cheese and cracker sandwiches in a coffee cup and popping them in my purse. They were absolutely perfect come lunch time.
Planning ahead means that I get to stay on track while I’m on the road and that creates a sense of blissful control.
Cairn by Cairn 