Eating well on the go

If you’ve reading for a while you may notice I travel a lot. For work I’m out-of-town about every other week for about 9 months out of the year. And traveling is one of my favorite things to do in my spare time. A trip around the world is definitely on my bucket list.

But it’s a little difficult to keep up a healthy lifestyle when living out of a suitcase. When I’m driving all day it’s so much easier to stop and get a burger before heading to my hotel room than to load up on healthier options from the grocery store or attempt to find healthier options. So to make better decisions I looked up some of the best food options at popular fast food restaurants. I’ll exclude sandwich places because I think those are pretty much a no brainer. Just load up on veggies and stay away from all the extra cheeses, meats and fattening condiments.

Several of my favorite options are Burger King’s and Chick-fil-A’s  grilled chicken sandwiches, fruit bowl from Chick-fil-A, McDonald’s hamburger and egg mcmuffin, and Wendy’s chili and baked potatoes. But your preferences depend on your specific dietary needs and preferences. Generally I don’t watch sodium or carbs and go the basic route of low-calorie foods. But here is a list of different restaurants and their healthier alternatives.

Another option I have is to load my hotel room with healthy options so that I won’t have to run out to eat every time I get hungry. So I’ll go to the local grocery store and stock up on fruits, spinach, water, bread, and cold cuts. I figure I can make sandwiches or salads most of the time and then I can limit the amount of meals that I have to go out to get. But today I brought some tuna and fruit with me so I only had to go buy water and bread. Sometimes I may get a Lean Cuisine or some kind of frozen dinner to have if I don’t feel like going out for dinner.

Even though I have a go to plan temptations are lurking all around. Some hotels serve a light dinner and most hotels I stay at serve a buffet style breakfast (which includes a lovely selection of muffins, bagels and pastries).I have a pretty easy time avoiding the pastries, but I can’t tell you how tempted I was yesterday by the make your own waffle station. They had strawberries and chocolate chips! But I kept away from them and decided to have a biscuit, sausage and eggs. I know that’s not the absolute healthiest breakfast but it definitely beats chocolate chip waffles and syrup. And I’m glad I was able to stay away. As far as the dinners go they usually have a salad option and I always TRY to have a salad and drink a full glass of water before I begin with the main course. And that’s a good rule for where ever you’re eating.