How to Eat Healthy While Traveling (Just in Time for the Holidays)
My family recently took a trip to Disney, and we had an absolute BLAST! We spent a week with our loved ones, checked out lots of amazing places, our kids got to meet their favorite Disney characters, and one of the best parts? We hardly skipped a beat with our healthy eating habits and healing lifestyle (we hope you got to see some of our Insta Stories!).
Since our return, I’ve received many questions and concerns about how to plan and prepare for vacations/trips away from home while still managing to eat healthy foods. I’m here to tell you that it CAN be done!!
Rule number one : Keep it simple!!
Rule number two : You have to put perfection aside.
You may not be planning a trip to Disney, but if you’ll be doing any traveling for the holidays (or ever really), this blog is for you!
Some important thoughts
Most families plan trips or vacations in order to spend time together and to bring joy to all who are present. So while you may not be able to achieve TOTAL perfection with your healing diet when you’re away from home, you can come pretty darn close! This is a good time to remember that our bodies are resilient and can adapt to occasional minor imperfections such as week-long vacations, so please give yourself some grace. I also encourage you to consider that bringing JOY and HAPPINESS to your family is just as important as your health!
The way I see it, there are two major components of traveling to account for. Firstly, the actual traveling from your home to your destination. If you’re taking a road trip, it’s fairly easy to fill a cooler with all kinds of healthy snacks and drinks (That is, as long as you have the car space for the cooler. You can split your items up into smaller coolers/bags if space is an issue.)
If you’re traveling by plane, know that you can absolutely bring your own food on an airplane! Some of our preferred plane food options for our trip included salads, potatoes, and black beans, as well as raw foods like spinach, and fresh fruit and veggies. We packed our food in a carry-on and also brought tea, honey, and lemon slices to add to the water you purchase (once through security). This is especially helpful on long flights.
The second travel component includes what to do once you arrive at your actual destination. If you’re staying close to any shopping areas, consider planning a trip to a local grocery store to buy the basics. This can alleviate a lot of stress just knowing that you’ll have plenty of food choices right at your fingertips. If you’re staying in a hotel, keep in mind that hotels nearly always supply blenders upon request, so you can call ahead to make sure your hotel can do the same. While it may not be a top of the line blender, you can still make smoothies a part of your everyday plans! If your hotel can not supply you with a blender, consider traveling with your own personal blender.
Generally speaking, keeping it simple is key!
I can’t express this enough! Know that you really don’t need to rely on major recipes while on vacation. Certainly, if you are able, you could make a big meal one night and then use the leftovers for the next day, but generally, simplicity is your friend!
Think easy, healthy options like cartons of raspberries, cut up strawberries, bags of grapes, blueberries, bananas, cucumbers, tomatoes, and mini packs of hummus (or larger sizes if enough people are eating at once). Some other snacking options we recommend include dates, figs, and other dried fruit or fruit chips (you’ll want them to be sulfur-free – look carefully at labels), pumpkin seeds, Sea Snacks, That’s It bars, “Go Raw” snacks, “Larabars,” “Simple Mills” crackers, dried chickpeas, kale chips, nut butters, clean potato chips, or honey stix. If you have time and a chance to buy the ingredients, you could even make some “no-bake balls.”
For drinks, consider water with added citrus and/or honey, coconut water, or maple water. Lastly, if you have room to pack your juicer, absolutely continue with celery juice! CJ can also be made using a nut milk bag. Some locations also have juice bars where you can find freshly juiced celery in a pinch!
Our Family’s Day to Day in Disney
While in Disney, we made a big fruit plate and smoothies every morning that served as our family’s healthy breakfast and then we put the remaining fruit and smoothies in containers and in coolers for (adrenal) snacks throughout the day. For lunch, we made big salads. The kids topped their salads with fresh veggies, avocado, and often potatoes. Many people were also surprised to learn that you CAN bring food into the parks.
These are the times, however, that perfection has to be put aside. You are not permitted to bring glass of any kind into the park, and most people wouldn’t necessarily want to drag around heavy and breakable glass containers with bamboo utensils with them throughout their days. You may have to settle for disposable containers and/or utensils, knowing that you are continuing to have your amazing, healing foods for your family ( Lunchskins are also an option and Stasher Bags ). Another travel tip is to have Sani Wipes for wiping things down in the planes, parks, and everywhere, as well as your hands before eating!
If you are traveling for a holiday where food is a big focus, you have several healthy choices. You can prepare/bring an MM-compliant dish or two to share. At a minimum, you can bring a big portion of fruits and/or veggies as an appetizer. There are also a LOT of simple recipes for appetizers, main dishes, and/or desserts that would be excellent additions to your family meal.
While sometimes the adversity that comes from loved ones is the hardest to combat, know that you are following a healing lifestyle in order to BETTER your health and the health of your kids, etc., so remain strong, prepare as much as you can, and stick to your plan.
I have to say that when I first started learning about how powerful this lifestyle was, and how possible healing truly was 4.5 years ago, I felt nervous about travel and I felt like I had to do everything perfectly or else I couldn’t go. As SOON as I realized that as long as I kept it simple and that this is truly not impossible, life became so much easier. Remember that to be able to travel with your family, is an absolute BLESSING. Enjoy the time with your loved ones, take some deep breaths, and always know you are doing GREAT! Happy travels!!
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