Travel To Wellness Inc.

HOW TO DINE HEALTHFULLY WHEN TRAVELLING

Wellness professionals, nutritionists and healthy-eating experts offer tips for eating healthy when you travel:

Dr. Judith Beck Ph.D, author The Beck Diet Solution and The Complete Beck Diet For Life

Christine Hamelin, Ste. Anne's Spa, Grafton, Ontario

Steve Holt, author of The Vegetarian Bodybuilder




Contributed by Christine Hamelin, Ste. Anne's Spa

If you eat out while travelling (and most of us do), make sure that you’re making healthy choices, since the excessive amounts of salt, calories and fat found in much restaurant food can be dangerous. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. Pre-Plan
When you’re choosing a restaurant, consider a place with Asian or vegetarian food, or seafood. Avoid all-you-can-eat buffets, which promote overeating, and check if your selected restaurant is on the list of Eat Smart restaurants in your area. According to the Eat Smart Ontario website, these establishments “provide a variety of healthier food choices, on the menu and by request, including whole grains, vegetables and fruit, lower fat options and substitutions.”

Many restaurants post their menus online, often with nutritional information, so you can pre-plan your order. Deciding in advance helps you avoid less nutritious options. If you’re eating out two days in a row, pick one outing to be the “treat” and make a bigger effort towards nutrition the other time. Plan ahead.

2. Be mindful of what you order
If you’re ordering pizza, pasta, or tortillas, ask for a whole-wheat or whole-grain version, with increased fibre. Go for a tomato-based pasta dish over a cream-based one. If possible, have your salad dressing, or any sauce, placed on the side so you can control the amount, or ask for low-fat dressing. Most restaurants happily accommodate special requests.

Consider your choices carefully. Fries should be avoided, if you’re trying to eat nutritiously. A baked potato is better, and a side of steamed vegetables better still. Avoid extras like sour cream, butter, and cheese; you can still have a delicious meal without them. Instead of calorie-filled soft drinks, opt for water, soda water, or tea. After a full meal, you probably don’t need a piece of cheesecake. Why not try seasonal fruits or berries, or sherbet or frozen yogurt?

3. Consider how the food was prepared
Look for items that have been grilled, poached, baked, barbecued, broiled, steamed, or stir-fried, which will have a lower fat content. Conversely, avoid dishes with excessive cheese or cream, heavy sauces, and pastry; of course, deep-fried and breaded items will never be good for you.

Pick dishes that have been flavoured with delectable herbs and spices, rather than fried in oil and butter.

4. Watch your portion size
“To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals,” Benjamin Franklin advised. Many restaurants serve far more food than one normally eats in one sitting. Order off the children’s menu for a more reasonable size. Alternately, plan to bring home half your meal, and enjoy it for lunch the next day. Consider ordering two appetizers, or an appetizer and salad, instead of an entrée, although appetizers tend to be high in fat and calories, so choose wisely. Share an appetizer or dessert with your friends, instead of ordering one each.

Finally, when you’re full, stop eating! Listen to your body; don’t feel obliged to polish off every bite. Savour and enjoy each mouthful, and you’ll feel satisfied.

5. Don’t deprive yourself!
Don’t decide that eating out is universally bad—this will ruin the experience. Instead, be moderate. If it’s a special occasion, enjoy your favourite meal, but make a point of having a very light lunch beforehand, or go for a walk when you get home.

Let yourself enjoy the food, and the fact that someone else is preparing it, and that you’re enjoying it with friends. Humourist Erma Bombeck once said, “Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart.” The key, of course, is to find a balance between indulgence and restraint, and to consider nutrition while enjoying some of the finer culinary opportunities that summer brings.


Contributed by Dr. Judith Beck Ph.D author of
The New York Times Bestseller, The Beck Diet Solution and
The Complete Beck Diet For Life (Oxmoor House/January 2009)

1. List, in writing, every reason you have for wanting to lose weight. Take
this list with you on the trip and read it every morning and whenever you're
tempted to eat something you know you shouldn't.

2. Develop a travel mindset. If you think, "Here's my chance to let loose,"
ask yourself, "What do I want the scale to say when I get home?"

3. Create a travel eating plan. It's completely legitimate to say, "I'm
going to eat [300 extra calories] every single day," knowing that your
weight may go up a little. But definitely have a plan, otherwise you can
end up eating thousands of extra calories.

4. Think ahead about how you're getting to your destination. Do you want to
eat whatever food is available on the way, knowing that you're probably
going to have to eat smaller portions? Or do you want to bring food with
you?

5. Write a message on a 3 X 5 card before you go and read it three times a
day while you're away. It might say something like, "It's worth it to me to
stay in control while I'm away. The consequences of losing control are too
severe. If I cheat, it will put a damper on the trip. I'll feel guilty and
bad about myself. If I follow my plan, I'll feel proud and happy, both on
the trip and when I get home."

6. If you stray from your plan, avoid criticizing yourself. Label it as a
mistake. Tell yourself that if you get right back on plan this minute, your
mistake just won't matter. But if you use this mistake as an excuse to eat
in an out-of-control way, you will certainly gain weight.

7. If you stay in a hotel, don't take the key to the mini-bar. If the hotel
has provided food that is out, in plain sight, cover it with a towel, move
it to the closet, or ask that it be taken away.

9. Beware of sabotaging thoughts: "It won't matter if I have a larger
dessert tonight, even though I hadn't planned to." It's okay to deviate from
my plan because the food looks so good/everyone else is eating it/I hardly
ever get to have it/I'll make up for it later." Forcefully respond to these
excuses or chances are, you'll eat way more than you want.

9. If you start to feel deprived, tell yourself, "I'll either be deprived of
some (but not all!) food I want on this trip, or I'll be deprived of feeling
good about myself, of feeling good about staying in control, of being
pleased when I weigh myself, of fitting into my clothes. Which deprivation
do I want?"

10. If you feel it's unfair that you have to restrict yourself when your
traveling companions don't, recognize that what you are doing is exactly
what all successful dieters and maintainers have to do.

11. Get as much exercise while you're traveling as you can. Find a hotel
with a gym. Plan your schedule so you can get in as much walking as
possible.

12. Prepare yourself for re-entry on the way home. If you allowed yourself
to eat several hundred calories more per day, remind yourself why it's worth
it to you to resume your usual way of eating when you get home.


Contributed by Steve Holt, author of
The Vegetarian Bodybuilder

Eating on the road is about planning. Travelling is a stress on the immune system, due to the mental/physical stress of travelling as well as the increased proximity to airborne infection on the airplane itself. This is relevant to vegetarians as well as anyone paying attention to a healthy dietary lifestyle. Assuming you forgot to pack a meal or two, or the security people confiscated your strange looking tupperware... there are foods to buy.

1. Fresh food: Usually easy to find apples, oranges. These are important immune system boosters for their constituents of phytonutrients and vitamin C. Green salads also important for cleansing effects.

2. Nuts: Although calorie dense, important to eat some component of healthy fat. This also staves off hunger, important when the flight attendant waves cookies and chocolate bars under your nose. Have 1-2 handfuls of raw almonds or roasted without any other sugary coating. One handful is about 200 calories.

3. Eggs. The best protein available on the planet. Have a plate of scrambled eggs, preferable to an egg salad sandwich which usually has loads of mayo.

4. Protein bars. Not a great idea, as they usually have too much in the way of carbs and even fat, but still better than pizza.

5. Milk. A glass of skim milk has protein and lower glycemic index carbs. A good idea.

6. Water. Lots of it, very good for processing physiological effects of stress via elimination. Just be sure there are lots of bathrooms on the flight.


The Vegetarian Bodybuilder