Vacation smarts: Eat healthy foods on the road

yeahright

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Vacation smarts: Eat healthy foods on the road

On your summer travels, you may be tempted to indulge in snacks, candies, and sweet drinks. Nutritionist Keri Glassman shares tips on eating right.

Nutritionist Keri Glassman was invited on "Today" to share her tips on making the best food choices when you're on the road.

Sometimes just the thought of traveling makes people want to eat. Try to have meal as close to departure time as possible to help cut back on calories consumed on the road. Here are some traveling tips:

Bring snacks for traffic/delays

* Think in terms of "set snacks" - for every couple of hours and emergency delays
* Consider low-calorie, but crunchy snacks, for those moments when you say to yourself, "OK, I am bored and just want to pick!"

Start your day with breakfast
Even if you skip breakfast before you hit the road early, you'll need to start your day right.

* Cereal: Have about ½ cup to 1 cup of whole-grain cereal, such as Kashi Good Friends or Heart to Heart cereals. (Heart to Heart comes in the paper cups). Choose one with at least 5 grams of fiber. Add it to Dannon Light 'n and Fit yogurt or Fage's Total Greek yogurt.
* Hard boiled egg: Grab one and go! Peel before you go on road and combine with piece of fruit such as a banana or apple.
* Oatmeal packet, such as Quaker Instant Oatmeal: Add hot water at rest stop. Top with small pre-portioned bag of nuts.
* Coffee: stay away from whole milk. At Starbucks, have a skim-milk latte instead of a Frappucino and save 400 calories or more!

Avoid heavy lunches and dinners
General Rules:

* NO special sauces
* NEVER order anything that says "super size" or "double"
* Go for a salad on side
* Vacuum-packed tuna. All you have to do here is add it to a plain salad at any fast-food restaurant. (StarKist tuna in a pouch is easy to pack - and easy to open.)

McDonalds:

* Plain hamburger is the best option! It's even better than a chicken sandwich. A hamburger has 260 calories and 9 grams of fat, while the Premium Grilled Chicken sandwich has 590 calories and 22 grams of fat. Add side salad if you like.
* A Happy Meal with a hamburger is the best option for kids. It comes with Apple Dippers with a low-fat caramel dip and an 8-ounce jug of 1% milk.

Subway:

* Any of the salads with 6 grams of fat or less, such as the Grilled Chicken Breast salad and Baby Spinach Salad. Choose a dressing and use half the portion. They all have the same calories - even the fat-free ones.
* Any sandwich with 6 grams of fat or less. Make sure to choose whole-wheat bread! Also, the calories and fat grams do not include ANY CONDIMENTS OR CHEESE!! Choose mustard or add vinegar.

Gas Stations/Newsstands:
They're actually not hard places to make healthy food choices for meals or snacks.

* Turkey wrap, a plain salad with grilled chicken, or fruit and yogurt.
* Nuts
* Vegetables, such as a bag of carrots
* Fruit, such as apples, bananas, pears, or peaches
* Yogurt drinks
* Buffalo jerky or salmon jerky
* Low-calorie bars
* Water mixed with a True Lemon packet. The lemon crystals add some flavor to water as well 25% of the daily recommended requirement of vitamin C - but no calories.
 

Brent

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I am on the road.

Today I had...
Continental Breakfast- Lots of bread and jam.
Wendy's- Chili and Frosty
Frankies Pizza- greasy ****ing pizza, wonderful.
Culvers-Snickers shake.
 
yeahright

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I am on the road.

Today I had...
Continental Breakfast- Lots of bread and jam.
Wendy's- Chili and Frosty
Frankies Pizza- greasy ****ing pizza, wonderful.
Culvers-Snickers shake.
JFC. You can only get away with that because you're a young whippersnapper.
 
Basso

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Yet another good read today, Do you have a job?? LoL
 
yeahright

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Yet another good read today, Do you have a job?? LoL
Unfortunately, I have two jobs.....and yet I'm procrastinating on the computer instead of finishing the presentation I have to give tomorrow. :blink: Thanks for the kind words.
 

akp2004

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I travel ALOT for my job. Lots of great suggestions.

In addition, for this bodybuilding crowd reading this:

Travel is a great time to fill up your water bottle with Xtend or Anabolic Innovations BCAA drink - at least keep yourself from going catabolic during the day.

Invest in packet MRP's and slam a few of those during the day, thrown into some widemouth water bottles. I find I overeat calories when I try to eat a high protein diet at restaraunts. And making sure that i get a few MRP's in, has me able to eat normal meals without "extra meat servings" or big steaks in order to get my daily protein.

Agree on the beef jerky + nuts... I also like beef jerky plus a protein bar and a diet coke if I'm only able to get food at a quicky mart/gas station.

At a restaraunt for breakfast, order the poached eggs instead of omelets or sunny side up.. you can keep yourself to just the fat from the egg yolk without all the crap. Get a side of fruit.

Lunch - order a salad with low fat dressing or oil + balsamic on the side, or bring your own dressing and have them add a single or double order of chicken or prawns or steak.

Dinner - dont be shy, just ask for a nice cut of fresh fish or shellfish, and have them serve you up a nice steamed broccoli or similar steamed side dish.... If you are really cool with your waitron, just say, you're really committed to your health and are needing to watch your fat intake and would like their help in making sure you get a meal that they dont add any fat to...

Definitely agree on bringing oatmeal in packets, and mixing that up with some protein powder for breakfast.

eating on the road is a challenge, but you can do it so easily if you plan ahead.
 
Basso

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Unfortunately, I have two jobs.....and yet I'm procrastinating on the computer instead of finishing the presentation I have to give tomorrow. :blink: Thanks for the kind words.
Yeh I posted that at work!!

It's interesting though because when I'm traveling I don't feel like eating at all, yet the wife and kids want to eat constantly so I end up eating crap just to keep them happy. I always bring healthy stuff but I just end up eating that and the crap. :blink:
 
jjohn

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That should be a sticky. A lot of people dont realize what they are eating as snacks. Somatimes, they have more calories than a meal!
 
yeahright

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Yeh I posted that at work!!

It's interesting though because when I'm traveling I don't feel like eating at all, yet the wife and kids want to eat constantly so I end up eating crap just to keep them happy. I always bring healthy stuff but I just end up eating that and the crap. :blink:
Yep, especially if the in-laws are along......then trips are just the time between meals.....like we're herd animals out on the savannah going from watering hole to watering hole.
 

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