How to eat healthy while traveling

“How do you eat healthy while traveling?” This was a phrase I googled last week before we took a road trip from Tennessee to Michigan…

I was hoping for some inspiration on what to pack, how to pack it, restaurants I could stop at for better food options, etc.

Unfortunately, I didn’t find much. Eating healthy while on a long car ride or long day of travel can be tough! Especially, when you are in the middle of an elimination diet like I was! (For more information on my elimination diet, read Elimination Diet Week 1 where I explain in detail!)

So, I decided to take it upon myself to figure it out!

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To start, my husband and I wrote out a list of the days we would be gone, and what we would need for breakfast, snacks, lunch and dinner each day.

We were also traveling with 2 year old twin boys, so we needed to be prepared with food for them as well.

We already had smoothie supplies, bread, meat, condiments, crackers, cheese, fruit and veggies, so we incorporated those items into our list of food/snacks.

Here is what we came up with…

	breakfast	lunch	dinner
Wed	Smoothies before we leave	Car lunch: taco salad	Hotel: grilled chicken salad with sweet potatoes
kids	Eggs, toast, fruit, avocado	Car lunch: PBJ, cucumber, oranges	Hotel: Pick up Chipotle
Thurs	Hotel: smoothie packs	Car lunch: taco salad	Vacation House: Homemade burgers, sides
kids	Hotel: Overnight oats, hard boiled eggs, avocado	Car lunch: turkey roll ups, cucumber, banana	(same as adults)
Friday	Smoothies	Beach: tuna/avocado salad with celery and cucumbers	Vacation House: Grilled chicken salads/wraps
kids	Scrambled eggs, pancakes, fruit, avocado	Beach: PBJ, oranges, Simple mills crackers, beef sticks	(same as adults)
Sat	Smoothies	Vacation house: grilled chicken salads using leftover chicken	Vacation House: Tacos/taco salad
kids	Fried egg, pancakes, fruit, avocado	Vacation house: Turkey and cheese roll ups, cucumber, banana	(same as adults)
Sun	Smoothies	Car lunch: taco salad using leftover taco meat from dinner	Car dinner: tuna/avocado salad
kids	Scrambled eggs, pancakes, fruit or overnight oats	Car lunch: leftovers or turkey roll ups with leftover veggies and fruit	Car dinner: PJB or leftovers with fruit

After writing up our food list, we compiled a grocery list and went shopping. We knew we would need snacks as well, so we made a list of possible snack options for us and the boys.

Healthy Snack Ideas:

1. Raw vegetables and dip (cucumbers, celery, carrot slices with hummus, guacamole or nut butter).
2. Fruit: bananas, apples, oranges
3. Dried fruit- Bare brand
4. 100 % grass fed beef sticks- CHOMPS or EPIC
5. Homemade muffins
6. Raw nuts or make your own trail mix.
7. Organic cheese and Simple Mills almond flour crackers

Better Fast Food Options

While I don’t consider these “healthy meals,” I think they do offer better options rather than stopping at a McDonald’s or Taco Bell. My hubby is definitely not as picky as I am and would eat anywhere. 🙂

A lot of restaurants nowadays have a nutrition and allergen ingredient menu online that you can look at if you are curious. I look up menus when I want to know which items have dairy, tons of sugar, etc. These are very helpful!

1. Chipotle- burrito bowls make for a better fast food option. Choose chicken, greens, veggies, guacamole and rice OR beans for a pretty well balanced meal. Choosing both rice and beans adds a lot of carbs and may make you feel crappy soon after eating it.
2. Jimmy Johns- you can get an unwich and skip the bread for a healthier option. I do still enjoy the sandwich with the bread personally because I don’t get it often. 🙂
3. Jersey Mikes- subs, wraps, salad or you can get it in a “tub,” which is a salad version of the sub.
4. Panera– offers a variety of salads. Watch the salad dressings though… many of the dressing options are full of sugar. Maybe opt to get it on the side or bring along your own dressing!
5. Not a fast food restaurant, but consider stopping at a local market if you can, or stop into a Whole Foods, etc. and eat off their salad bar!

These options definitely aren’t as healthy as cooking your own food and bringing it along, but if you don’t have the time to prepare food for your travel, salads are a good way to go.

Fiber & greens, protein and fat will keep you satisfied without a blood sugar spike. Focus on those over simple carbs if you still want to feel good.

What we chose to pack

We left our house Wednesday and came back Sunday. Wednesday night was spent in a hotel, and the rest of the week we were at my sisters house in Michigan.

We were there with family, and each family made dinner one night, so the rest of the nights we didn’t have to worry about food. Worked out perfectly!

After making our list and grocery shopping, here is what we ended up preparing for our trip.

Breakfast: healthy travel breakfast ideas

Smoothies- we packed Ziploc bags full of individual smoothie packs. These included fruit, avocado and greens. Each morning we added these ingredients into our mini Nutribullet – added water, fiber and collagen, and blended away!

Boys breakfast: made a double batch of Birch Bender’s Paleo pancakes, froze them and kept them in the cooler when traveling. To prepare them each day, we popped them in the toaster and added nut butter and/or homemade jam on top. Served with a side of fruit and fresh chicken eggs (my sister has chickens).

At the hotel, the boys ate overnight oats that we prepped at home and stuck in the cooler with our cold items. These were heated in the microwave at the hotel.

Lunch: healthy travel lunch ideas

Taco salad: I cooked taco meat before we left and added them to glass pyrex containers with greens and vegetables. I added avocado for fat and made homemade salad dressing that I kept in the cooler. Next time I would make a cilantro lime dressing instead of the vinaigrette dressing I used.

Chicken salad: I grilled chicken before we left the house and made grilled chicken salads for lunch while on our trip.

Tuna/avocado salad: mixed tuna and avocado with celery, put it on top of greens and added the homemade dressing just prior to eating. The avocado will start to turn brown so you want to eat this within a day or two of making. Adding some lime juice to the avocado can help with brownness.

Hubby: did not want to pack his lunches, so instead picked up food while on the road.

Snacks: healthy travel snack ideas

1. EPIC bars– venison and chicken flavors
2. Vegetables: raw carrots, celery, bell peppers and cucumbers
3. Fruit: bananas, oranges, grapes, apples
4. A brick of organic cheese and Simple Mills almond flour crackers
5. Beef sticks we found at Costco. They were 100% grass fed beef sticks.
6. The New Primal beef stick
7. Siete grain free sea salt chips
8. Bare carrot, apple and coconut chips
9. Perfect Bars– for the boys
10. Applegate organic turkey
11. Love Grown O’s
12. Annie’s pop-tarts for my husband 🙂
13. Annie’s cheddar bunnies (already had in pantry)
14. Homemade green smoothie muffins

We stuck all the cold items in the cooler with ice. I made individual snack bags for my husband, myself and boys, and then added those bags into a medium size tote. This made finding snacks for each person super easy!

Other tips/items for travel:

1. paper plates, napkins and utensils
2. trash bag to, surprise!, collect trash
3. thermos to keep drinking water cold
4. wipes for hands and mouths
5. hand sanitizer for cleaning hands
6. if you do plan on stopping for food, scope out the food choices ahead of time. For example, if you know you are leaving at 8am and will be hungry around 11 for lunch, look to see what kind of food options will be around you at that time. You may want to wait a little longer for a better food option, or eat earlier.
7. water ended up getting inside of my glass food storage containers because the lids were either a little loose or slightly cracked. Next time, I would place the food in the glass container, and then in a plastic Ziploc bag to avoid water getting inside. The ice will melt in your cooler, so make sure the food will stay safe.

Don’t forget to Pin this to your Pinterest for later!

What are your best food travel tips that work for you!? Comment below! I love to hear how others pack food for the trip to ensure they are feeling good while on vacation too!