Luka and I are on the road a lot, traveling through California and Europe. Now, add a toddler to all that. It takes A LOT of energy to deal with all that. A lot of energy also goes into eating, believe it or not. Deciding what to eat, knowing when to eat, making sure the little one has eaten enough, it’s work! It is challenging even if you don’t have kids. One of the biggest challenges is how to eat healthy while on the road. The easiest solution is to eat out, but for how unhealthy restaurant food is, especially in the U.S., it’s possibly the worst choice not to mention how expensive it is! Just for a Chicken Caesar salad (no dressing) we paid $15 and it came out as a handful of limp lettuce and a sliced chicken breast. That’s it. If we do one week of that we can pay for an Herbalife Ultimate Program for a month. Traveling through Europe, you definitely have healthier options, but can still easily empty your wallet on a few simple meals. Here are the things we do to stay trim and fit and save time and money:
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1. Prepare your own food
We do it at home and we do it when we travel. It’s the smartest and easiest way to plan. Wherever we go, we order Herbalife products to the hotel or house where we are staying. This gives us several healthy meals a day that can easily travel anywhere with us and aren’t messy. Another one of the first things we do is we go grocery shopping. Depending on where we are, we get food that is easy and simple to prepare. Usually we first look for tupperware or something like that. Then food like bread, lean lunch meat, veggies that are easy to eat like carrots and celery, and lots of fruit. Those are our staple items. If we have a kitchen where we can cook then we get things like eggs and rice and so on. When we are looking for hotels I always try to find one that has a little kitchen if possible. It makes life easier. Preparing your own food means you avoid a lot of unhealthy fats and sugars and extra calories that usually come along with restaurant food. If you’re staying at a hotel or with family, figure out your home base. Find a place where you can keep your food and supplies organized and then plan out the day from there. We like to keep all our Herbalife products and other food where we are staying and then we just take with us for the day what we need that day. If you have a refrigerator where you are staying then you can keep some of your food there. When our hotel didn’t have a fridge, or a big enough one, we bought a styrofoam ice chest and a bag of ice. It was inexpensive and kept our food good for several days.
2. Plan ahead
One of the worst culprits to poor eating habits is hunger. As soon as we realize we’re hungry (especially if we have kids) we tend to look for the fastest option. To avoid this, plan your day ahead of time. Know what you will eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all your snacks. Also, plan your water and drinks. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I go to a new place (especially a new country) I like to try their food. Something they are famous for or that is typical for that place. It could be also just a favorite regular, like how every time I go to Disneyland I must have their steak gumbo in the sourdough bread bowl. Whatever it is for you, try to plan it into your day and decide what it is you really want to have instead of a little of this and a little of that. This will make it more special than just walking into any place or having tons of little meals here and there. Plus, you won’t overspend your calorie wallet as easily. It’s also better to have restaurant meals earlier in the day rather than later. Try going for lunch or an early dinner so that you can have some healthy meals afterwards and give your system some time to digest before bed.
3. Find a way to be active
When you’re traveling for a while it can be pretty exhausting. Especially if you are on the road for a couple weeks and doing a lot every day. It gives us a false sense of activity. It feels like because we were walking all day we must have burned 2,000 calories! Sadly, it’s not so. Wherever you go, try to find a way to get a workout in a couple times a week. Find some way to get your heart rate pumpin’. Maybe it’s a morning run, maybe it’s a one day pass at a gym, maybe it’s sprints on the beach, maybe it’s sprints in the snow, maybe it’s a HIIT routine, it can be anything! You will be amazed at how this gives you a boot of energy and keeps your metabolism going.
