4 Healthy travel tips you must know if you don’t want to gain extra holiday weight
Sticking to healthy habits is so much easier when you’re at home and in your routine. The holidays tend to throw a wrench in our health goals because they take us out of our routines and introduce situations where we don’t have complete control over what we eat. However, that doesn’t mean you need to throw in the towel and overeat for three months! You can stick to your health goals, even when you’re traveling this holiday season with these 4 easy tips!
Traveling during the holidays adds an extra layer of stress and routine-busting for mamas on a health and weight loss mission. But with just a few small adjustments to your normal travel plans, you can manage to stay on track with your health goals this holiday season.
Buy groceries when you reach your destination
This is one of my favorite and easiest tips for healthy eating when you’re traveling! A lot of classic travel and holiday foods aren’t the healthiest, so I always encourage my clients to grab a few of their staple items once they reach their destination!
Protein is often the hardest macronutrient to come by when you’re traveling, so I always encourage people to load up on that at the grocery store! I like to make sure that I have ingredients for a healthy, protein-packed breakfast. I’ll talk more about it next, but make sure you include whatever you need for that on your grocery list!
It’s also a great idea to have some macro-friendly treats handy, especially because everyone else will be enjoying holiday treats!
Here are a few ideas of what you can grab at a typical grocery store to help you stick to your goals.
Fairlife or Premier Protein Shakes
Quest protein chips
Yasso ice cream bars or Halo ice cream
Protein bars
Greek yogurt
Eggs/egg whites
Beef jerky
Chocolate rice cakes + marshmallow spread + sprinkles
Some people get a little worried about offending their hosts by bringing groceries, but I promise that with the cost of groceries right now, your host will appreciate you chipping in! Plus, you can always offer to cook a meal with what you buy that way you have a meal that fits in your nutritional boundaries and they can get a break from host duties for a night!
Eat a normal (protein-packed) breakfast
Breakfast truly is the most important meal of the day! It sets you ups for success if you eat a protein-packed breakfast.
The kind of food you start your day with plays a huge role in your cravings throughout the day. If you start the day with donuts and coffee, not only will you be hungry again in an hour, but you’ll crave sugary foods the rest of the day.
However, when you start the day with protein and whole grains, you’re going to stay fuller longer and you’ll have fewer sugar cravings because you didn’t spike your glucose first thing in the morning.
Here are a few protein-packed breakfast ideas for your holiday vacation:
Protein pancakes/waffles (add a scoop of protein powder to any pancake mix or grab Kodiak Cakes frozen waffles from the grocery store)
Oatmeal made with a protein shake
Eggs (egg whites are another great option)
Breakfast sandwiches/burritos
Greek yogurt and fruit
Pay attention to full and hunger cues
I wish that everyone was more in tune with their full and hunger cues! It’s something that almost every person has trained themselves to ignore and it’s why we all struggle with healthy living!
Our full and hunger cues are our body’s way of telling us when and how much to eat. I know you’re not going to be able to instantly re-learn how to listen to your body before you travel, but I want you to be aware of it so that you don’t have to rely on gimmicky dieting tricks!
I teach my clients to start recognizing what hungry vs. hangry, satisfied vs. stuffed feels like, and most importantly, what content feels like! When you’re eating, especially on food-based holidays like Thanksgiving, learning what each of those feels like will help you enjoy your food without overeating.
Overeating and eating when you’re bored lead to the most weight gain during the holidays. Instead of letting your feeling or tastebuds run the show, listen for your body to tell you when to stop and start eating!
Keep your mind in check
Last, but most importantly, you need to make sure you’re not letting your mind get out of control on your holiday vacation. Mindset is the piece of the health puzzle that is often ignored. But it’s the most important!
Just because you’re focusing on your health doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy life, enjoy food and enjoy the holidays! The problem most people fall into with holiday travel is that they restrict food either before or during a trip and then binge big time when they can’t manage to restrict anymore.
Instead of living with an all-or-nothing, restriction mindset, enjoy something fun every day! Have a piece of your favorite pie, or eat some cookie dough while you’re baking Christmas cookies with your kids.
Don’t let a diet mentality hold you back from enjoying the holiday season because mama, that’s not what healthy living looks like! Healthy living is about finding a balance between fun foods and nourishing foods!
When you break free of the diet mentality, you’ll live a healthier life when you’re traveling or at home and it won’t feel so hard to make good choices!
If you need a little extra guidance to make it through the holidays without putting on extra weight, let’s chat. Schedule a free discovery call with me and we’ll work together to find balance in your holiday celebrations.
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