Join me as I discuss five powerful, easy to follow tips for keeping your nutritional goals as well as possible while traveling.
I talk about everything from smart snacking to restaurant ordering, all while enjoying your trip and not obsessing over food during your travels.
Now, if you think keeping up with health goals is like trying to sprint through the airport in flip-flops, let me ease your mind.
I'm laying out the roadmap for setting and sticking to realistic wellness objectives while traveling, whether on a shorter road excursion or visiting a new country. All while staying sane, lightening up, and enjoying new cuisine on the go.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Join me as I discuss five powerful, easy to follow tips for keeping your nutritional goals as well as possible while traveling.
I talk about everything from smart snacking to restaurant ordering, all while enjoying your trip and not obsessing over food during your travels.
Now, if you think keeping up with health goals is like trying to sprint through the airport in flip-flops, let me ease your mind.
I'm laying out the roadmap for setting and sticking to realistic wellness objectives while traveling, whether on a shorter road excursion or visiting a new country. All while staying sane, lightening up, and enjoying new cuisine on the go.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Speaker 1:
Hello and welcome to episode 277 of the Dairobi Health Show. Recently I was traveling and I sometimes beat myself up when I travel. I try to eat well and exercise. When I'm traveling, however, I might be a little bit overzealous about my nutrition. I'm in the health world After all. I want to set a good example and I want to be as healthy as I possibly can, and I find that hard to do. When I'm traveling, I have more sugar. When I'm traveling, I have more unhealthy foods, and I've given this a lot of thought and I beat myself up because I do not have perfect willpower and I doubt I ever will and I've given this a lot of thought and a lot of research and read what a lot of experts have said about traveling in a healthy way.
Speaker 1:
And these five tips are designed for real world travel, where you want to enjoy your vacation, not stress too much about food, but you also don't want to come back and have to do two weeks of recovery for one week of travel or something like that, right? So I think these are really great lists. I'm going to try to go over them quickly, but summer's coming, if you're depending on when you're listening to this podcast podcast, obviously, but here in the north american continent anyway, or the north northern hemisphere uh, you know, it goes all the way around the world and let me just think about my geography here. Yeah, if you're in the northern hemisphere, summer is coming and you probably will be doing some traveling. Now this first tip may not make much sense to you, but I think it's really powerful, and that is lower your standards first. I actually think this is part of my problem and why I travel with a little bit of guilt, because I expect to continue my very healthy home routine while I'm on the road and I finally realized why am I doing that to myself? There's not going to be the same amount of healthy food available.
Speaker 1:
Sometimes I do driving vacations, sometimes we're flying. When we're driving, we're kind of stuck with whatever's available when it's time to eat. Now, of course, we have some control over where we stop and there's healthier choices than others. We have some control over where we stop and there's healthier choices than others. But I found that I just need to be a little less tough on myself. So I lower my standards just a little bit, but there's no use keeping the lofty health goals I have when I'm in my routine while I'm on the road and have about 50% probably of the control that I have when I'm home. So there's plenty of nutritional habits that I have when I'm home. So there's plenty of nutritional habits I can keep while I'm traveling.
Speaker 1:
For example, I still stop eating after dinner. I still strive to eat all my food slowly and mindfully. I prioritize protein, even in a less than ideal meal. I just make sure that I'm. For example, if it's a fast food meal, I'll get maybe a double burger with small fries, for example. More protein, less crap. It's not an ideal meal by any means, but it's better by a few hundred calories and it's a better source of protein. So I also generally don't eat before 10 am. Those are great health habits that will make up for some of the difficulty of traveling. These habits alone are better than what a lot of people keep, even when they're at home, and so this takes some pressure off if the food quality is lower. So I try not to stress about a few extra snacks or fast food meals while I'm traveling.
Speaker 1:
Tip number two plan ahead and pack smart snacks. I find this is not that hard to do, especially driving on a driving vacation. You know you have a lot of control about you. Generally, depending on how far you go, you can often pack healthy food for the duration and get yourself all the way there. I'm a huge fan of my own nuts on a flight, for example, some form of healthy drink and so it's easier to reach for unhealthy options like fast food or sugary snacks if you're not prepared. So try to prepare ahead. And also, we have found that having an Airbnb over a motel or hotel room makes a major difference when we travel as well, because in an Airbnb, you have a kitchen and so you're able to go out and do some shopping and buy that healthy food that you'll want, which you're often going to eat first thing in the morning or later at night, and it also saves you money on food when you're having enough food in your Airbnb for all of your own breakfast. So that's tip number two Plan ahead as much as possible so that you have healthy snacks and food available wherever you go.
Speaker 1:
Tip number three is you might have guessed this one stay hydrated and mindful of your beverages. Proper hydration is crucial for overall health, even when you travel. Believe it or not, I take my bottle everywhere. Chances are you do too. This is getting to be more and more common. Everywhere I go, I see people with their water bottles, and hey, we're being kind to mother earth when we're not buying a bunch of plastic bottles on the road and throwing them out. I'm not a zealot on this point. I buy my share of drinks. However, my primary go-to is my own water bottle, which does save some garbage and plastic, and so it's just a great habit having your bottle with you at all times. Again, it's another money saver. Many of the places that you'll go on a vacation have water fountains where you can refill your own bottle. Excessive consumption of sugary drinks, alcohol and caffeine can obviously derail your plan a little bit and actually cause you to be dehydrated some of the sodas especially and then contribute to fatigue, making your vacation less fun. So opt for water, herbal teas or unsweetened beverages whenever possible and stay hydrated as your primary weapon with your own water bottle.
Speaker 1:
Tip number four choose balanced meals and prioritize protein. Dining out while traveling is part of the fun right. Trying new cuisine is an exciting part of being out there in the world or in a different area or country that you've never been to, and as long as you have some idea what a protein, fat and carb is. You can often order accordingly, and the reason we prioritize protein always is because our bodies need it. It's the building blocks of our body. It's also satiating, so we're less likely to overeat or have a big dessert if we have prioritized protein with every meal and, of course, try to get veggies with every single meal, as we teach in our Dirobi Undiet.
Speaker 1:
A short aside for the Dirobi Undiet if you just Google Dirobi Undiet, it will pop right up. It's a free diet that I have been teaching for a few years. I think it's an absolutely fantastic way to eat. It's dead simple. There's no calorie counting and people have lost a lot of weight with it. We have a lot of great testimonials on that product. It's absolutely free and it's easy to do so. If you haven't done that yet, or read about it or tried it, I highly recommend that you download our free guide. So again, enjoying local cuisine should be an enjoyable aspect of travel, as long as we prioritize protein, get healthy carbs, fats and protein as often as we can. Get those veggies with each meal, as always dressing on the side. There's nothing worse than having a you doing the right thing, getting a big salad with your meal and then having it smothered with three or four hundred extra calories in the dressing that they they put on it. If you have it on the side, you can just you know enjoy a little less than your average chef might put on a salad.
Speaker 1:
Tip number five practice mindful eating and listen to your body. Traveling can disrupt your usual eating patterns all by itself and this can lead to mindless snacking or overeating. So continue practicing that mindful eating, tuning into your body's hunger and fullness cues. For example, for me, if I'm traveling into the evening, I'm going to be eating a lot of food. I'm more likely to say yes to the snack cart, unless I just do a quick gut check, literally, and go oh, I'm actually not hungry, I was only going to take that food because it was offered to me. But in actual fact, if I'm mindful and paying attention, I don't have to eat food just because it's presented to me. I can stay in my intermittent fasting window while I travel and not just eat mindlessly because I'm out and about at a time that I'm normally home, right. So these are some of the disruptions we get when we're traveling, but hopefully these five tips will help you.
Speaker 1:
These are fairly simple to do, as everything that we do at Dirobi.
Speaker 1:
We try to keep it real, we try to keep it doable, we try to keep it doable, we try to keep it effective, and the only dietary rules or guidelines that will ever work are the ones that we can do. That's why number one is to lower your standards a little bit. There is a time to just enjoy a treat. A treat is a perfectly normal food. To enjoy a less than ideal meal every now and then will not hurt those of us that are intentional about our health generally doing a good job. I've contended for a long time that if we live a really healthy diet and lifestyle, generally to about 80% of a high standard, we'll be very healthy, more healthy than the vast majority of people around us. Just 80% of our principles, and when we're traveling maybe it's 70%, but maybe that'll make us enjoy our trip a little bit more, not give us the two or three weeks of recovery, nutritionally and exercise-wise, that we might have needed, and I hope these tips do that for you. Until next time, this is Dave Sherwin, wishing you health and success.