What's your first instinct when you're traveling and you roll into a new town? Sniff out the nearest restaurant? Check the hotel's mini-bar? Pull into a convenience store?
As a matter of fact, it's very easy to get healthy food when you're traveling. I personally rely almost 100% on grocery stores when I'm on the road.
And because of that, I've formed a healthy travel food grocery shopping routine which I could now probably put together with my eyes closed, and which varies only slightly in my extremely frequent airplane and car travels (which is why you may notice that the healthy grocery shopping video below closely resembles another video I shot a year ago called “How To Shop For Healthy Groceries”.)
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In case you missed that…you basically need:
A wrap (preferably sprouted, gluten-free, from frozen foods section)
Some tomatoes
Some avocadoes
Some dark leafy greens (in this case, mustard greens)
A cheese (I typically go for feta or goat)
A protein (in this case, sardines in olive oil)
A fat (in this case, organic peanut butter)
A cheat food so you don't end up at the local ice cream shoppe (in this case, an 80% dark chocolate bar)
Fruit (pears are usually a good choice, and I eat these before or after my travel exercise sessions + banans for breakfast)
Coconut water (although if I were traveling for racing or working out heavily, I would instead choose coconut milk)
Sparkling water (satiates the appetite and keeps you from boredom eating when combined with gum)
So using the items above, a typical travel day of eating would involve:
Early morning run (pre-workout pear)
Breakfast: banana + LivingProtein + peanut butter
Lunch: Avocado + tomato + cheese + greens + sardines in a wrap
Afternoon snack: Coconut water
Dinner: Eat out (sample some local fare – I typically go for fish + vegetables)
Dessert: 1/2 dark chocolate bar
What do you think? Do you have questions? Them leave them below and I'll respond!
12 Responses
yeah i know that travelling sometimes might give you headache about the food choices… better have to deal with this one too.
Cheese? Refined Grain Tortillas? You serious…? Thought you'd never go for that stuff, especially recommend it to us !
I have absolutely no problem with cheese or refined grains in moderation, Sparky. I'm not Paleo or anything like that.
Thanks Ben, you're far more knowledgable on these things than I am. That's why I follow you so closely. I'm not religous in not eating those things either, however when I'm in a position to choose (Great US Supermarkets! instead of Mom-in-law's), I'll certainly avoid and pick other more healthy choices.
What's your LivingProtein, pb, banana recipe?
I've never followed a recipe in my life, I don't think. I put a banana in a cup, dump some protein powder and put a spoonful of peanut butter in then I stir.
Ben. In a past podcast you mentioned you were on a new bike that you liked better than your $5K bike. What bike was that?
It was the Gray Storm TT from http://synergysport.com/ . Awesome bike. Call them and ask for Jason, he'll take care of you.
Trader Joes has raw almond butter (nothing else added, no palm oil, sugar or even salt), for around 6 bucks for a 16-oz jar, although I don't think it's organic. (But is Skippy Natural?)
yes, but that organic peanut butter cost me 2 bucks. ;) i usually do almond butter from Costco.
Thanks for the advice Ben. Always challenged by making the right choices when on the road. I make a point of staying at hotels with fridges these days.
Good stuff, BG. Agree on the almond butter price thing – saw a small jar of organic raw almond butter at my local small health food store @ $27.99! Skippy Natural is a decent peanut butter and well-priced, plus you don't have to mix it or keep in the fridge. Has palm oil, a bit of sugar and salt – not bad. And you can't beat an avocado anytime. Safe travels home.