Nutrition Tips for Road Warriors

Check out these tips for eating healthy on the road from the First Stop Health registered dietitians.

Pack healthy snacks.

Save room in your suitcase for some healthy portable snacks. These will come in handy when you’re on your way to your destination. Healthy snacks like nuts and dried fruit keep well and are far better options than what you might find at an airport or convenience store. And since you’ll be spending less money on snack foods, you’ll have more room in your budget for local restaurants where you can have an authentic and cultural culinary experience.

Travel days tend to mean limited food options and processed snacks. Plan ahead to keep your digestive (and immune) system happy by preparing travel-friendly healthy snacks in advance. Think: high protein (curbs hunger and holds you over between meals) and fiber (keeps your digestion and elimination regular). 

Our favorite options are:

• Trail mix (create your own with your favorite combination of walnuts, almonds, Brazil nuts, dried fruit, pumpkin seeds, etc.)
• Raw fruit like apples, pears, bananas, oranges
• Raw veggies like sliced cucumber, carrot sticks, bell pepper, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.
• Homemade energy balls
• Whole food bars like RxBAR, LÄRABAR, Epic or Perfect Bars

Bring your water bottle.

If you’re traveling to a place where the water is safe to drink, bring your water bottle. Staying hydrated is important, especially during hot summer months. Proper hydration can also help reduce jet lag symptoms and help you adjust to a new time zone more easily. Travel with a large reusable bottle or stock up on bottled water whenever you have the chance.

Staying properly hydrated is one of the simplest and most effective ways you can ward off the physical stress of travel. Proper hydration aids digestion, reduces bloating and keeps your immune system healthy. While traveling, aim to drink more water than you usually would each day. A general rule of thumb for travelers is to multiply your bodyweight (in pounds) by 0.67 — so if you weigh 120 pounds, you should aim for 80 ounces of water per day.

Look for veggies / have at least one vegetarian meal per day.

Eating at restaurants every day can make it hard to get enough veggies in your diet. Vegetarian meals don’t have to just be a salad. There are plenty of rice, noodle, vegetable and pasta vegetarian dishes as well. Aim for at least 2 cups of vegetables each day when on the road.

Switch to tea.

Tea provides energy and tastes good, but also contains a lot of antioxidants which can help protect us from damage from pollution, and it can even help improve your immune system.

Book your hotel room near a grocery store.

Think ahead of time by booking your room near a grocery store so you can shop in the local market instead of stopping by a fast food establishment.

Boost gut health by taking a daily probiotic.

Probiotic supplements could be helpful when traveling for several reasons: they boost your immunity (your gut is your immune system’s first line of defense!) and keep your digestive system healthy and happy—which is helpful when detouring from your usual eating habits and exposing your digestive system to new foods and microbes.

Stay active.

There are countless ways to stay active while you’re traveling. Working out the morning after you arrive can also help reset your circadian rhythm, so you don’t feel quite as much jet lag.

• The best way to get to know a new place is to explore it on foot.
• Choose a hotel with a workout room or a nearby park.
• Check to see if there is a gym near your hotel that offers a free class or trial membership.
• A helpful aid to staying active while traveling is using a tracker. Keep up with your step goal, or any other fitness goals, even when traveling.

Do a hotel room high intensity workout.

This is a great exercise if you’re craving an intense workout on a limited amount of time. Bonus: You don’t even have to leave your room! Work your way through the following exercises with reps of 25-20-15-10 as fast as you can.

• Burpees
• Sit-ups (sit all the way up, not just a crunch)
• Push-ups
• Squat Jumps (full 90-degree squat, explode in the air and land back in that deep squat)
• Tricep Dips (grab a chair or a ledge for these)
• Mountain Climbers
• 45-second Plank

Ensure a good sleep routine.

Proper sleep will help keep your immunity and digestion healthy, while lack of sleep will contribute to their distress. Travel is not known for being very kind to our sleep patterns—from jet lag to busy schedules to unfamiliar sounds, lights and distractions, there are many ways sleep can be disturbed while traveling. Solutions that may help include:

• Travel gear. Traveling with an eye mask, ear plugs and/or sound machine can help if you’re a light sleeper.
• Pack a pillow. For long haul flights or bus/train/car rides, packing a good quality travel pillow can help you catch some much needed sleep.
• Consider consumption. Be mindful of caffeine and alcohol consumption if you’re having trouble sleeping while traveling—both are significant sleep disruptors. It’s common knowledge that, for best sleep, you shouldn’t consume caffeine after about 3:00pm (earlier, if you’re sensitive). It’s less well known that sugars and carbohydrates can also lead to difficulty falling or staying asleep.
• Get enough sleep. Most adults feel and function best with 7-9 hours per night. (Although you’re likely to need more if you’re strength training, fighting an illness or recovering from an injury.)
• Respect bedtime. If you need to be somewhere at a particular time in the morning, part of ensuring you get enough sleep is counting backward from your wake-up time, setting an appropriate bedtime and then respecting that bedtime.
• Keep it cool. People sleep best in cool conditions, so try to keep your bedroom cool—ideally under 65 degrees.
• Turn off tech. Our bodies’ circadian rhythms are affected by light, and exposure to blue light (such as a computer screen) after dark has been shown to disrupt the circadian rhythm and can make it hard to fall asleep.

Find time for yourself.

Know that your body has immense wisdom and know that you can develop the ability to listen to your body and access that wisdom.

Can you think of a time when you got physically ill and you knew it was a way for your body to tell you to slow down? It happens all the time. The trick is to learn to “drink as you pour”— manage your energy and replenish your energy as you give to work, to family and to all the aspects of our lives. If you don’t, the result can be symptoms of burnout which
can affect your sleep, your physical, emotional and mental health.

What are some ways to do practice self-care?

• Start to notice if you are doing too much and learn to strengthen the “no” muscle. You only have a certain amount of energy every day so be discerning about how you spend it. Managing your time is about knowing yourself. Do you gain energy by being around certain people? Are you someone who needs an hour of silence every day?
• Where are you numbing yourself out or wasting time? Start to notice where your energy is going. Do you scroll on social media every day? How much television do you watch? Is it contributing to your wellbeing? Screens are often the first place we look when we want to reclaim our energy. There is certainly nothing wrong with indulging in a TV show but be discerning.
• What activities GIVE you energy? Walking outside, gardening, playing with animals, sitting with a loved one, being alone, taking a bath, having a few moments of deep breathing in the car, listening to music with really good headphones on, reading a good book—these can all give you energy and help you reclaim your time.

Care you will love.