Traveling can be a stressful and tough time to make healthy choices. But when I hear people saying they can’t eat healthy when traveling, or use the excuse that it is impossible to make healthy choices, sorry my friends but you’re wrong!
I travel a lot, both for business and pleasure, and trust me, you can eat healthy while traveling, the key to success is planning.
Here are some suggestions in order not to fall off the fitness wagon while traveling:
1.Invest in a good quality lunch box
2. Pack convenient, easy to eat foods, examples:
- Protein: canned or packed tuna and salmon, sardines, boiled eggs, etc…
- Carbohydrates: fruits like apples or bananas, rice cakes, etc…
- Fats: Almonds, Mixed nuts, Natural Peanut Butter, etc…
- Other fruits and Vegetables
- Supplements: Protein powder, EFA, multi-vitamins, greens powder…
- Water!
3. When you book a hotel, make sure you have access to: a mini-fridge that you can fill with healthy food, a grocery store nearby, a fitness center!
So you see, it’s not that difficult 
Now, these are my strategies, but what are yours? Leave a comment below and let me know how you manage to stay in shape when you’re away from home!
Most gas stations in America have protein bars (though they are rather expensive…$3-$5 apiece) I ate a s*** load of them while i was on a road trip to San Bernardino.
Hey Dave… most protein bars on the market are just glorified candy bars… and most of them are filled with sugar.
I use your homemade protein bar for traveling a lot. I put them in a freezer and just pack them on the trip!
BTW, I used unsweetened almond milk this time and come out just right!
Hey man,
When it comes to eggs, I know that free range are the best, but they tend to be pricey (you may have guessed I’m a college student
). I stick to grain fed eggs, is that ok? Also, do you reckon cage eggs are ok? As long as they’re not pumped full of hormones or antibiotics of course.
And thanks for the constant stream of great info and advice dude!
Hey big D! I prefer free range and grain fed of course… however it’s ok to eat regular grocery found eggs, no worries
dammm your not messing around ha. the most i took on a road trip was a sandwich and couple bottles of water! now i know for next time. thanks
Gotta do whatcha gotta do Franky!
Hey Dave,
Thanks for this any thoughts or suggestions on what to bring with you when you are traveling by air and can’t pack a cooler with you, don’t know if I can survive on bars and powders on the road.
hey Garrin,
I face this problem when I travel too..trust me, the airlines dont make things easy to follow a diet up in the air.
Most times though, I will go as far as freezing a premade meal of chicken and rice. Then you dont need to keep it that cool so long as you are able to eat it before it gets to room temperature (which should give you about 4-5 hours).
And like Dave said, tuna is another option, although it might stink up the plane
And lastly, my favorite as always is prebaking a batch oh Dave’s famous High Protein Fudge bars. Its better than simply ingesting protein powder and is much more tasty
Super Jo said it all!
Thanks bro!
Planning ahead is huge. The more you can eliminate the element of chance (“I’m sure I’ll find something somewhere”) the better. That said, even if you can’t bring food with you, you’re never far away from healthy choices if you’re in a city or even a small town. You’ll always find a Subway, or even a roadhouse-type restaurant that will serve up a salad with grilled chicken. There’s NEVER an excuse for eating poorly!! Worse comes to worse, find a grocery store and buy some fruit and cheese.
Thats a really good tip, to get a hotel close to a grocery store. I’ve made the mistake of assuming that I can eat at restaurants the whole time and I always end up eating something fried as those are the only options. Specially in the souther US states.
Hard to avoid to texas grills eh!
Dave,
You have great blogs!
When I go on vacation, I always try to get a full kitchen in the room, if not, at least a fridge. I make breakfast, and lunch in the room and we go out for dinner every night. I BRING protein bars, protein powder, natural peanut butter, and cinnamon with me FROM HOME. We usually go to the Carribbean, and they don’t have what we usually eat, but you do the best you can.
We buy eggs, wheat bread, oatmeal, turkey and/or chicken, tuna, skim milk, fruit, and low fat cottage cheese from a local grocery store. We also eat mostly grilled food when we go out. My wife and I eat very well all year around, we still have great vacations without “pigging out”.
By the way, we always, always, always make sure the hotel has a great workout facility.
Way to go Chuck!! Planing ahead is the key!
100% right Scott!! I always make sure I got a grocery store near my hotel when I travel.
Beef jerky!!! Look for stuff that is basically just meat and spices (careful, there are some brands that have all sorts of nasty stuff in them…), or make your own.
When flying, I always order a vegetarian meal. Sometimes the veggies are cooked beyond recognition, but at least there’s fibre… but sometimes you get quite lucky and have a nice fresh-tasting meal.
Watch out for too much jerkey though, most jerky contains sodium nitrite but you can find some that doesn’t
Hey Dave,
I really appreciate this video because I travel a lot for my job, mostly by car. And I love tuna and sardines so it’s alllllllll good
I’m just wondering where did you buy your lunch box? I think the pouch for the icepack is awesome. Where can I get one?
Thanks Dave. Keep up the good work!
Hi Dave
Really appreciate your hard work and the way you are sharing valuable information. However, I do have one question concerning this traveling topic. We are going on holiday starting September 3rd, so I was really interested in this subject, afraid as I am to destroy all the good and hard work that lies behind me.
The fish tins you are mentioning in the video, they do have one problem I always notice: Too much salt/sodium. For me with a family history on both high cholesterol and blood pressure always something to be aware of. Next to the fact that when we arrived in the States (working for the Dutch government at the ‘Royal Netherlands Embassy’) there was this story of Dr. Sanchi Gupta at CNN, that about 150 thousand people a year are dying in the US alone, related to the use of to much sodium.
Do you know if there are better/healthier solutions? Or maybe brands with less to non sodium?
Thanks man and keep up the good work!
Bert Washington DC
Hi Bert,
How about rinsing anything coming from a can with water, and drain!
Jacqueline, could be a solution.
Bert, you’re overthinking
A few cans of sardines won’t kill you trust me… people actually underestimate how much sodium they really need.
That being said you have a valid point, north americans eat WAY too much sodium, which on the long run can cause health problems… but this is only if you go WAY overboard (i.e fast fod every day, soda, processed foods, etc…)