Don’t you ever get tired of the boring food choices at the airport or rest stop? Admit it. You do; as well as the rest of the population. Basically, when you are on your own, it’s easier to stick to your own routine and no matter where you travel – be it for business and/or pleasure, it’s a given that your usual patterns may be disrupted by the changes of a time zone and various other factors over which you have no control. However, a little preparation often goes a long way. Here’s a little guide to low-carb travel.
- Eating well before departing – Home is always the easiest place to eat right; and as such start your journey by making yourself nourished and satisfied. Before leaving home, it’s best that you fill up yourself with low-carb favorite foods.
Items like hardboiled eggs, reheated egg muffins, berries, nuts or plain Greek yogurt with cream should be the ideal breakfast for you before your journey starts. If time permits, you can also treat yourself to sauté sausage with mushrooms and tomatoes or maybe, slice a avocado by enjoying it with olive oil or mayonnaise.
- Packing low-carb snacks – Often, we are given pretzels during our flights. Trying to resist those, we should dig into the snacks from our carry-on:
- Nuts and nut butters
- Pealed hard boiled eggs
- Cheese of any type
- Jerky, dry salami and cooked bacon
- Low-carb Sesame crisps or nut crackers (make your own)
- Parmesan Cheese Crisps
- Celery filled with cream cheese or nut butter
- Ham and cheese roll-ups
- low carb seed crackers with dip
- Salmon and Cream Cheese Bites
- Leftovers from yesterday’s low-carb dinner makes a great snack or meal
- Butter for tea, coffee and crisps
- Olive oil for salads and veggies
- Dark chocolate (≥ 85% cacao; no more than a couple of squares per day)
- Containers – For your snacks to retain their freshness, you can pack your snacks in their original containers or may be, in a plastic bag. There are various containers which makes travel easier by keeping our food fresh for long, and out of them, the following needs to make a special mention:
- Soap case (for butter)
- 4oz leak-proof bottle (for olive oil)
- Squeezable 3oz GoToob (for nut, butter, mayo)
- Medium Go Tubb (for nuts, cream cheese, dip)
- Toothbrush case (for bacon)
- Salt & pepper shaker
- Chilled Bento Box
- Chilled Salad Shaker
- Chilled yoghurt and berries container
If you are still having doubts, then for extra protection against leaks, it is best to pop your container into a large zip lock plastic bag.
- Using coffee to keep hunger at bay – Coffee, be it black or with a splash of heavy cream or melted butter can lessen the hunger if you combine it with better food and which includes tea or bullion too.
- Try fasting – if in our low carb routine, if intermittent fasting is included, then you have to skip meals and make travel simpler by using it in a strategic way. You can rush to your early morning flight and wait to eat until lunch or maybe, you eat a low carb breakfast before leaving home and don’t eat dinner until you reach home. That’s the best thing about fasting. You can practically do it anywhere.
- Master restaurant dining – When travelling, eating out with confidence is the key part of success. And which is why, you should say no to bread and yes to double veggies discarding starch with your main course along with choosing olive oil plus vinegar for your salad. For your cooked vegetables and proteins, you should ask for the butter to melt. Also dessert needs to be skipped or else a cheese plate or berries with heavy cream should be taken into consideration.
Regarding the liquids, it is okay to drink water. But the other items – champagne, dry wine, light beer and straight spirits can be taken in moderate amount for people that are not trying to lose weight, If you are trying to lose weight ordering a sparkling water with a squeeze of lemon is the way to go.
- Committing to success – There should be no excuses as it is not a reason to cheat on your low-carb routine. It is necessary that you should make health your number one priority by deciding to make the low-carb diet work for you before you start your journey.
