The Triage Ultimate Guide To Nutrition While Travelling

Staying on point with your nutrition while travelling can be quite challenging and this is something that a lot of our clients have dealt with, so we have had to come up with comprehensive systems to deal with this. This article is going to mainly deal with the actual travelling aspect of things, rather than what to do when you get to your destination (as that is a different story altogether, and usually needs a little more tailored advice, depending on the reason behind travel). 

Travelling can also look different for everyone, depending on why you are travelling. Some of you may be travelling for work or for leisure, while some of you may be travelling to compete in sporting events. There are many reasons why someone may travel, and thus the exact protocols needed to deal with the travel are going to be different. 

We must also take into account where exactly you are travelling, as there are usually challenges that are specific to different destinations that must be overcome to successfully stay on track with your nutrition. 

This article also mainly deals with managing your nutrition while travelling in the context of flying, although many of the tips do still apply to long-distance travel by train, bus or car.

I am also making the assumption that you have a basic understanding of nutrition already, otherwise, this article would be much, much longer than it already is. So if you don’t, please take the time to read our article on how to set up a diet.

The Triage Ultimate Guide To Nutrition While Travelling

To master your nutrition while travelling, there are some key things to keep in mind before we get into the specifics of how to actually go about it. You need to know what kind of challenges you are likely to face, and how you should mentally approach your nutrition while travelling. 

Healthy Nutrition While Travelling Is Challenging

Maintaining healthy nutrition habits while travelling is often challenging, and at Triage, we frequently help our clients navigate these challenges. But to be able to navigate the challenges, you kind of need to know what they are ahead of time. It is much easier to deal with challenges if you are prepared than if you are exposed to the challenges for the first time while travelling. In our coaching practice, we do generally promote the building of a resilient dietary approach that allows you to handle the various challenges that life throws at you, but it is much easier to be resilient if you are prepared. 

Some of the most frequent nutritional challenges people are faced with while travelling are as follows:

• A common issue is the limited availability of healthy food options while travelling. Travel destinations may not always offer a wide range of nutritious choices, leading travellers to opt for more readily available high-calorie and processed foods, especially when they are not well prepared. 
• Irregular meal timings also pose a significant challenge, particularly when travelling across different time zones. This disruption can lead to irregular eating patterns, which can upset your nutritional balance and overall health.
• Cultural differences in food can also impact your ability to maintain a healthy diet. Local cuisines might be richer or differ significantly from what you’re used to, making it harder to make healthy choices. You may also not be sure of the calories, macronutrients or general contents of specific local foods. 
• Being sedentary during long flights or road trips is another common issue. This lack of physical activity can compound the effects of an unbalanced diet, leading to a decline in overall fitness, health and general well-being. This can be further compounded if there is a lack of physical activity planned at the travel destination.
• Alcohol consumption tends to increase during travel, especially for leisure holidays. This not only adds extra calories but can also affect your judgment about food choices.
• Disrupted sleep patterns and jet lag further complicate nutrition management. A lack of high-quality sleep can affect your metabolism and appetite, leading to poor eating habits.
• Finally, the general stress of travelling, whether for work or leisure, can lead to emotional eating and a departure from your normal healthy eating routines.

So there is a lot that has to be dealt with when we consider trying to stay on track with nutrition while travelling.

However, luckily for us, most of these can largely be overcome by doing some planning before your trip. We will walk you through some strategies to ensure that you can stay on point with your nutrition while travelling, in a moment, but first, I want to just touch on maintaining perspective with all of this stuff.

Maintaining Perspective

Travelling offers a unique opportunity to practice and reinforce the healthy eating habits you have developed in your health and fitness journey. Far from being a break from your routine, travel can be a platform to test and adapt your nutritional discipline in new and varied environments. We always try to encourage our clients to think of disruptions to their normal schedules as opportunities to develop their nutritional resilience. 

It is very easy to stay on track with the diet if you never leave the house and have all your meals prepared ahead of time. But that is not the real world. You are unlikely to live like that (or even want to live like that) for the rest of your life.

So at some stage, you are going to have to develop strategies that allow you to eat in accordance with healthy nutrition practices in the real world. Travelling offers you an opportunity to test the systems you have in place, and to then develop new systems to overcome any challenges you face.

Maintaining your healthy eating habits while travelling demonstrates resilience and commitment to your well-being. It is basically a vote for yourself.

However, it does require planning, such as researching restaurants and markets in the areas you’ll be visiting or packing nutritious snacks for long journeys. This preparation ensures that you have access to healthy food choices, making it easier to stick to your dietary goals. Travelling also presents situations that challenge your decision-making skills regarding food. Navigating these situations successfully can boost your confidence in making healthy food choices, even in unfamiliar settings.

For instance, opting for a salad over fast food at an airport, or choosing grilled fish and vegetables over a creamy pasta dish at a restaurant, reinforces your commitment to healthy eating. 

The more you succeed with navigating these situations, the more confident you will be in your nutrition abilities, and your ability to manage your nutrition long-term. But even if you don’t manage these situations like you wanted to, this is just an opportunity to come up with strategies to better handle these situations in future.

Another benefit of travelling is the exposure to different cultures and cuisines, which can broaden your understanding of what constitutes a healthy meal and diet. For instance, you might discover a new vegetable in a foreign market that becomes a staple in your diet, or a cooking technique that is both healthy and delicious. This exploration can be both exciting and beneficial, allowing you to diversify your diet with nutritious options that you may not have considered before.

Furthermore, travel can inspire new culinary interests and skills. You might take a cooking class in a foreign country, learning how to prepare healthy local dishes that you can recreate at home. This not only enriches your culinary repertoire but also keeps you engaged and excited about maintaining a healthy diet. This kind of stuff seems like it wouldn’t really make a difference, but it is actually stuff that really does seem to lead people to make healthy nutrition a foundational part of their lives.

We have had many clients who actually end up thriving when travelling, and coming back with an improved overall approach to nutrition. 

Now, this certainly doesn’t mean you should always be dialled in with your nutrition. Not at all. Sometimes you are going to want to let your hair down a bit more, and travelling also offers the opportunity to learn how to do this, while still being in charge. It is one thing to say you want to let your hair down a little bit with nutrition, and another thing entirely to then go on an unstoppable, out-of-body, binge-eating experience. Most people don’t want this, and learning to balance having a bit more fun with your nutrition while still eating a relatively well-balanced and nutritious diet is a skill that will serve you for life. 

In essence, using travel as a platform to practice your healthy eating habits is an excellent way to strengthen your approach to nutrition. It encourages adaptability, resilience, and creativity in your diet and when done right, will leave you better able to handle any hurdles to healthy eating.

Planning And Preparation of Nutrition While Travelling

Planning and preparation are crucial when it comes to maintaining nutrition while travelling. Setting specific, yet flexible nutrition goals is the first step in this process. These goals should be realistic, taking into account the potential limitations and opportunities of your unique travel situation. It can be hard to know what to prioritise, so it helps to have some sort of hierarchy of what is important in mind. 

When discussing nutrition, we generally recommend that people ensure that they eat a calorie-appropriate diet first and foremost. After that, they should ensure that they get the right balance of macronutrients for their needs. Finally, they should try to ensure they look after their micronutrient needs, and this is generally done by ensuring they have generally good food selection practices in place. 

1. Energy Balance: The top priority should be managing your energy balance. This means being mindful of your calorie intake relative to your calorie expenditure. It’s essential to at least maintain this balance, even if other nutritional aspects are less than perfect. Researching what you have available to you when travelling and at your destination ahead of time can help here. Look for restaurants that offer healthier meal options or consider accommodations with kitchen facilities where you can have more control over your meal preparation.
2. Macronutrients: Next in line is paying attention to your macronutrient intake. Aim to balance your intake of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Protein is particularly important to pay attention to, as it can be quite difficult to get sufficient amounts of protein in certain places. You might need to bring protein-rich snacks or supplements, especially in areas where you know your protein requirements are going to be difficult to obtain otherwise. You can be a lot more flexible in your carbs and fats, as long as you stay within your calories and hit your protein target.
3. Micronutrients: While maintaining adequate micronutrient intake can be challenging during travel, small dietary tweaks can make a big difference. This might include choosing meals that are rich in fruits and vegetables, or even taking a multivitamin supplement to cover any nutritional gaps.

When planning your trip, spend time researching healthy dining options near your destination. Many restaurants now offer nutritious, well-balanced meals that can help you stay on track with your dietary goals. Also, identify nearby grocery stores or markets where you can access fresh produce and other healthy food options.

Remember that flexibility is key. All this health and fitness stuff is supposed to enhance your life, not become your life. Travel can be unpredictable, and being too rigid with your diet just adds unnecessary stress to your life. It’s okay to indulge occasionally, as long as you maintain a general adherence to your nutritional goals. 

Planning Your Nutrition While Travelling

There are three time periods that need to be dealt with to succeed in planning your nutrition while travelling: 

• Before travelling.
• During travelling.
• At your destination.

Each of these has different things you can focus on, while also presenting different challenges.

For most people, you will be able to make much better food decisions before you leave for the airport. This is an opportunity to really set yourself up to successfully navigate your nutrition while travelling. You can make travelling a lot easier for yourself if you implement some strategic planning at this stage.

Navigating your nutrition while in transit is probably the hardest part of travelling, as this is generally the area where you have the least control. However, if you were smart during the pre-travel period, you can have yourself set up to much more easily deal with this. You can also learn how to more effectively navigate the nutritional landscape in an airport. This is a skill that you can develop, and massively improve your ability to navigate your nutrition while travelling.

Finally, when you arrive at your destination, especially if you have done your planning effectively, you have much more control over your nutrition. However, there are some unique challenges that you may need to navigate here. While this is a topic we will cover in a separate article, there are a few key points to keep in mind.

Before Travelling

You have the most control over your nutrition before you travel, and you should take advantage of that opportunity. But before we get stuck into how to do that, I do just want to briefly note that there are a few things that we can do in the “before travelling” window that will allow us to much more easily navigate our nutrition while travelling.

Pre-Travel Planning

Before you even get to the day of travel, you can make your life much easier by doing some pre-travel planning. It should go without saying that your ability to stick to your nutrition is going to be much easier if you have a well set up diet {nutrition fundamentals article}. Aside from that, there are a few things you can do in the pre-travel period that will make your life significantly easier.

If you are in control of your travel destination and accommodation, you can simply choose places where you can more easily stick to your diet. Some places where it is just much easier to stick to healthy eating practices. If you don’t have control over the destination, then you will need to do more research on the food options available to you at that destination. This can be done through travel blogs, local food guides, online forums, web searches, social media searches and YouTube travel vlogs. 

It is also important to try and identify where the local shops (and training facilities) are. It is much easier to stay on track with your nutrition (and training) if you have access to facilities close by to where you are staying. 

If you do have a choice in your accommodation, it can also be quite helpful to try and stay somewhere that has kitchen facilities available. This makes it much easier to stay on track with your nutrition, as you can prepare some of your own meals, rather than relying on what is available in local restaurants.

Of course, this isn’t always possible, but if you do have more control over where you go and where you stay, you can really make your life a lot easier. If you don’t have as much control, then you will need to spend a bit more time researching the options available to you where you will be staying. This will leave you much better prepared, and thus more likely to succeed in navigating your nutrition while travelling. 

Nutrition Before Travelling

Now, you do actually have quite a lot of control over your nutrition before you travel, and if you want to successfully navigate your nutrition while travelling, it makes sense to take advantage of this opportunity. The exact specifics will depend on your unique situation and will need to be tailored to your needs, but there are a few things that you should keep in mind. 

Don’t Diet Right Up To The Trip

The first thing is to ideally not be dieting right up until your travel. This is mainly aimed at those of you who are trying to lose weight and are in a calorie deficit. Most people make the mistake of dieting right up until they get to the airport, and they are then left in a situation where they are in an unfamiliar food environment where they can’t rely on their good food habits, and they likely also have a build up of cravings and diet fatigue. This is a recipe for binge eating, and it is probably one of the most common experiences in fat loss dieters when they go on a holiday. 

This is especially the case if they have not included any periods of eating at maintenance throughout their fat loss phase, and thus have not built up their skill and knowledge around how to eat at maintenance levels.

So, if you have been in a calorie deficit, ideally try to eat at maintenance for the 3-7 days before you travel. This will reduce the likelihood of binge eating dramatically, and it will make the travel experience a lot more enjoyable all around. 

Eating Before Travelling

Beyond that, on the day of travelling, you have a lot more control over the food you eat at home. So, ensuring that you eat a sufficient amount of calories, protein and fruits/vegetables, is important. 

You want to consume enough calories, so you feel satiated, but not so much that you give yourself no wiggle room to navigate the food environment while in transit, or when you arrive at your destination. 

You want to focus on consuming enough protein, as this is likely going to be the most difficult macronutrient to consume while in transit, and potentially also while at your destination. Consuming enough protein will also help with satiety, and make it less likely that you will experience significant cravings or hunger while travelling. 

Eating a decent serving of fruits and/or vegetables in the pre-travel window is also important, because it can be difficult to get sufficient fibre or micronutrients in the diet while travelling. Consuming fruits and/or vegetables will also contribute to satiety, much like protein.

So, for most people, trying to have a well-balanced meal before you leave for the airport makes sense. 

Not Eating Before Travelling

Some people elect to engage in some form of fasting before travelling, and this can work too. But it does come with more caveats.

Some people like to engage in some form of intermittent fasting/time-restricted feeding, before travelling. They really only rely on water, caffeine and maybe zero-calorie beverages until they get to their destination. This can potentially be a beneficial strategy for some people to help deal with jet lag (we will discuss that in a moment). However, some people do it because travelling gives them a bit of digestive distress and fasting alleviates this.

There are a few drawbacks to fasting in this context. Fasting in this context usually makes it much more challenging to hit your daily calorie, macronutrient and micronutrient targets, as you will be trying to hit them when you get to your destination. 

It can also lead some people to feel more stressed, especially if caffeine is also in the mix. So if you are already a stressed flier, then this may not be for you. 

There is also a lot less wiggle room with fasting while travelling, as you can be left in a very tricky situation if there are any delays or issues with your flights, as you have no plan for food. 

Binge eating can also be an issue that crops up when people try to fast while travelling, especially if there are changes to the flight schedule or stress is quite high. It is very easy to end up bingeing if you have no plan for food, and your stress gets the better of you, especially if you have no plan in place for food.

Preparing Your Nutrition For Travel

Now, there are a variety of things you can do before travelling that will make it significantly easier to manage your nutrition. Of course, the exact specifics will depend on your overall travel arrangements, but for most people, you can make your transit much easier with some basic prep work before you travel. This is especially important to focus on if you travel frequently for work, and need to have a much more consistent plan of action to allow you to navigate your nutrition while travelling.

The three things you can do to prepare yourself better for travelling are: 

• Having meals prepared ahead of time.
• Having snacks prepared ahead of time.
• Having a plan for navigating the airport food selection.

These three things will dramatically improve your ability to navigate your nutrition while travelling, especially if you need to be a bit more precise with your nutrition (e.g. you are a competitive bodybuilder or physique athlete who needs to maintain a certain look, or you are a sporting athlete who needs to maintain a certain body weight, or needs their nutrition to be more dialled in to optimise performance).

Meal Prep

You can actually take prepped meals with you as you travel, and this is a great way of staying on top of your diet, especially if you travel regularly. You don’t have to be excessive with this, or need to bring another bag for your food, but it certainly does help to have some or all of your meals prepped for travelling. 

This is something that we recommend quite often for our frequent flyer clients. If you are someone who travels often for work, or indeed you work as part of the travelling process (i.e. pilots or cabin crew) like many of our clients, you will likely need to do some sort of meal prep to help you stay on track with your nutrition while travelling. 

There are some things to keep in mind when meal prepping for air travel though. You need to be aware of the restrictions on food items that may be in place where you are travelling, and indeed what security will allow you to travel with. In most cases, I would simply avoid trying to travel with meals that are more liquid-based (i.e. soups, stews, and very sauce-heavy meals). 

Unless you work in the air industry, you will generally need to choose meals that can be eaten cold too. While sometimes you can find microwaves in the airport to heat up your food, this is not always the case. Cabin crew and pilots will usually have access to facilities to heat up their food at the airport and in the air, but this generally isn’t the case for the general public.

Generally, we recommend using glass containers for storing your pre-prepared food (especially if you intend to heat the food up, as we want to ideally minimise exposure to potential endocrine-disrupting chemicals) but this may not be practical while travelling (nobody wants to have their travel bag full of broken glass pieces, mixed with food). So you may need to opt for plastic containers. Ideally, you do want containers that have a seal and that don’t leak. You may want to also place them in a ziplock/sealable bag too, just in case there are any accidents.

You should be aware that sealed containers can be impacted by the changes in pressure as you ascend/descend. This can lead to leakages while on the plane, and if you close the container in the air, it may make it next to impossible to open when at ground level. 

Finally, if you are bringing food onto the plane, try to be cognisant of the other passengers. Nobody wants to smell somebody else’s stinky food on the plane. So leave the egg salad and fish sandwiches for another time.

Snacks

Now, depending on the duration of your travel, you may not need to bring a whole meal. But you may want to bring some snacks to help tide you over until your next meal. We will be discussing snacks again, in the section about how to navigate snack options at the airport, but you can really help yourself with this by bringing your own snacks with you. 

Bringing your own snacks for travelling generally means that you can have healthier and cheaper snacks than what you can find at the airport. You have much better control over your snack options, as you can do a bit more shopping around for them, or indeed you can prepare your own healthier versions of snacks. 

By preparing your snacks ahead of time, you will be able to much more easily stay in control of your calories, protein and fruit/veg intake. Which in turn, will allow you to stay much more on track with your nutrition while travelling.

There are many options for snacks, including:

• Nuts and Seeds: Almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, or a mixed bag. They’re rich in protein and healthy fats.
• Fruit: Fresh fruits like apples, bananas, or grapes are easy to carry and don’t require refrigeration. Dried fruits are also a good option but watch for added sugars.
• Granola Bars: Choose bars with whole grains, nuts, and minimal added sugars.
• Protein Powder or Bars: These can be quite helpful for staying on track with your protein intake while travelling.
• Popcorn: Air-popped popcorn is a light and healthy snack. Avoid overly buttered or sweetened varieties.
• Whole Grain Crackers or Rice Cakes: You can pair these with some form of nut butter and/or jam for a healthy snack.
• Vegetable Sticks: Carrot, cucumber, or bell pepper sticks. They can be eaten alone or with a small container of hummus or yoghurt dip.
• Yoghurt: A small container of Greek yoghurt. Be mindful of liquid restrictions if you’re bringing it through airport security.
• Trail Mix: Make your own mix with nuts, seeds, dried fruits, and maybe a bit of dark chocolate.

Having these snacks on hand serves as a preemptive measure to curb hunger and prevent impulsive decisions to purchase unhealthy options often found in airports. 

When packing snacks, you do still need to consider the duration of your travel and the limitations of what you can carry. Opt for non-perishable items that can withstand a bit of jostling in your bag. Also, be aware of any restrictions on what food items can be taken through airport security or into the destination country.

For those of you travelling with children, you will be very glad you brought some snacks to keep your kids occupied and hopefully, this will help to keep their energy levels and mood stable (and thus hopefully we can avoid the added stress of an overly tired, hungry toddler meltdown!).

Plan For The Airport

Finally, having a plan for how you are going to navigate your nutrition while at the airport is imperative. This is especially important if you have not eaten before travelling, and even more so if you have not prepared any snacks or meals. 

The plan doesn’t need to be overly complicated, but you do need to have some sort of idea of how you are going to handle your nutrition.

Are you going to purchase snacks while at the airport?

Are you going to try to get a meal at a restaurant or buy a quick “meal deal” from one of the airport shops (here is an article on how to make the most of the Tesco meal deal for inspiration)?

Are you going to eat on the plane?

What are you going to do if your flight is delayed or cancelled?

Sitting down and thinking through your options ahead of time will drastically improve your ability to navigate your nutrition while travelling. With that in mind, let’s get stuck into how to navigate your nutrition while you are actually at the airport and in the air!

Healthy Eating in Transit

Trying to stay on top of your nutrition while travelling is quite difficult, and the most difficult part is between when you are at home and when you arrive at your destination. The actual “transit” part is the area where most people fall down. This is especially true if you have not prepared food ahead of time, or if there are any delays or issues with the flight schedule.

So we need to have some sort of plan of action for dealing with nutrition while in transit.

Airport Snacks

There are many opportunities to make good choices when choosing airport snacks. Now, this will of course be much easier if you have already brought snacks with you, but even if you haven’t, there are better choices for snacks in the airport. For more regular travellers, or for those of you going on longer trips, it is just a good idea to bring some non-perishable snacks with you, and leave them in one of your bags. You don’t even have to necessarily consume them, but it is much better to have them with you in case you need them, rather than be left without them.

As discussed previously, the best option is to bring your own snacks, but this isn’t always an option. So, if you find yourself at the airport and in need of something to eat, you need to have some sort of framework for choosing better snack options. Rather than focusing on specific choices, it makes sense to instead have some sort of decision framework in place. This prevents the situation where you arrive at the airport with a certain snack in mind, but then find they don’t have it, and then you are left in a situation where you are more likely to make a poor choice. 

So, when choosing snacks in the airport, we want to ideally try to:

• Be conscious of calories.
• Choose a snack that is high in protein.
• Choose a snack that has some fibre.

If you can follow all of these guidelines, perfect! But that isn’t always possible. In most cases, you will be able to follow at least two of the guidelines. By following these guidelines, you will generally end up making much better food selection choices. 

You can also combine snack options to make a more complete snack. For example, having some fruit and a protein bar can still be relatively low in calories, but allows you to get some fibre and protein in. You can also add in snacks to improve the quality of an existing meal, such as a sandwich that might be low in protein or fibre.

Which brings us to the next point, which is navigating airport meal selection.

Airport Meal Options

The food options in most airports are generally poor, but that doesn’t mean that they are all terrible. Many airports are now equipped with food outlets that offer relatively healthier options like sandwiches, wraps, salads, or sushi trays. These can be great choices for maintaining a balanced diet while on the go. 

When selecting such items, look for whole grain breads in sandwiches, lean proteins like chicken, turkey, or fish, and plenty of fresh vegetables. Salads are a great option, but be mindful of dressings, which can be high in calories and fats (try to choose options that have the dressings on the side, or choose vinegar-based dressings). 

Sushi, preferably those with more fish and vegetables and less rice, can be a nutritious and satisfying meal. But I do always recommend that people spend a moment thinking about the logistics of getting sushi to the airport where they are. If you are in the centre of a large country, beside no major waterways or at least transit hubs, then the sushi may not be the best choice. Nobody wants to be dealing with food poisoning while travelling, so do think through this option for your specific circumstances.

In addition to these, the snacks you pack can play a complementary role. Healthy snacks like nuts, fruits, or protein bars can help balance out a meal that might be lacking in certain nutrients. For example, if you end up having a sandwich that’s low in protein, a protein bar can help make up for that deficit.

Even in scenarios where you find yourself at fast food outlets like Burger King or McDonald’s, there are still better choices to be made. Many fast food chains now offer more health-conscious options. Look for grilled items rather than fried, opt for salads or apple slices instead of fries, and choose water or low-calorie beverages over sugary drinks. For burgers, consider skipping the cheese and high-calorie sauces, and if possible, go for a smaller size or a children’s meal for better portion control.

It’s important to remember that while these options may not be perfect, they can be part of a balanced approach to nutrition while travelling. The key is to make the best choices available and complement them with healthier snacks you’ve brought along, ensuring you stay as close as possible to your nutritional goals even when options are limited.

In Flight Options

Your options will become even more limited once you board the plane, however, by that time, you can have quite a lot of preparation done, either by having already eaten some food, or by bringing your own food for the duration of the flight.

You may not have a huge amount of choice over the food that is served on the plane, however, very often you can select this ahead of time, so you can try to factor it into your overall diet for the day. 

You can also request special meals, such as a diabetic meal. These meals will generally be lower in sugar and contain lower GI carbs, while also having better overall nutritional value than the default meal you are given on flights.

You may need to supplement this meal with more protein, as very often they can have very meagre protein portions.

Have A Plan For When You Get To Your Destination

Hopefully, you have successfully navigated your nutrition in the before and during segments of your travel, and we need to just round out this discussion by tackling what to do once you get to your destination.

However, this is incredibly hard to do, because the specifics are going to be very different for different people.

• Travelling for work
• Travelling for leisure
• Travelling to visit family for a holiday
• Travelling for sporting competitions

But there are some commonalities that we can discuss.

Accommodation

Ideally, you would have done some planning before you booked your trip, and you have access to kitchen facilities, and training facilities and you know where the local shops/markets are.

Planning ahead for your arrival at your destination is a crucial aspect of maintaining good nutrition while travelling. Here are some strategies to ensure you stay on track with your dietary goals:

Kitchen Facilities:

Booking accommodations with kitchen facilities can significantly improve your ability to control meal ingredients and portions. Having access to a kitchen means you can prepare meals that align with your nutritional needs and preferences, and also helps in managing portion sizes. This is especially beneficial for longer stays or if you have specific dietary requirements.

Local Shops:

Research where you can buy food upon arrival or around your destination. In most destinations, you will be able to find some sort of shops or markets, and knowing where to go ahead of time will make it much easier to stock up on foods that will make staying on track with your nutrition much easier. 

This is such a valuable thing to do, but very often people don’t think of it. But if you do spend a few minutes identifying where the local shops are, you are so much more likely to succeed as you won’t find yourself hungry and trying to find somewhere to eat food quickly.

Accommodation Food Options:

Depending on your accommodation, you may not have access to kitchen facilities. However, you can still make the most of the facilities you do have access to.

Many hotel rooms at least have a kettle or coffee maker, which can be used to heat water. This opens up options like instant oats, soup cups, or even instant noodles (opt for the healthier versions). You can also bring along containers of tuna or salmon, which can be added to pre-packaged salads or even eaten in combination with the instant noodles you just cooked!

Some accommodations may provide breakfast, and this can vary quite a lot in its nutritional value. So it can be quite hard to navigate, as you could have access to very basic options like cereal and milk, or you could have access to a full buffet. Generally, the key here is going to be to focus on getting some sort of protein and plants on your plate, while still being mindful of calories.

Now I know that this isn’t always possible to choose your accommodation, especially in certain destinations or if you are travelling with family or for work. So you will need to know how to navigate eating out!

Dining Out

Dining out when travelling can make staying on track with your nutrition difficult. When we are coaching people, we generally try to develop individualised strategies to help our clients navigate eating out. So ideally, you already know how to navigate eating out and you have developed strategies as part of your nutrition plan. 

When dining out, you need to be mindful of menu terminology to understand what you’re ordering. Opt for dishes that are grilled, baked, or steamed, and be wary of terms like “fried” or “creamy”. This can be difficult when travelling, because there may also be a language barrier. However, with a little bit of research beforehand and using web-based translation services like Google Translate, you can usually navigate this stuff quite easily. You can also look up the rough calorie and macronutrient breakdowns of various dishes, and get a better idea of whether the meals fit within your nutritional needs.

A lot of places aren’t generally calorie or macronutrient-conscious, so they may add extra oils or other calories to make the meal taste nicer. So you do have to be aware of this, and potentially ask for modifications, such as dressing on the side or even substituting fries with a salad.

Managing portions is also key to staying on track with your diet while still enjoying the local cuisine. Consider sharing dishes or asking for a half-portion if the restaurant is known for large servings. 

You can also better manage your calories by not having alcohol with the meal, and/or not having dessert with the meal, and/or not having a starter. Of course, you may wish to let your hair down a little bit, and indulge in all of these, but that is something you need to decide ahead of time. There is nothing wrong with indulging every once in a while, once you go into it with your head screwed on and you don’t wake up the next morning feeling shame, guilt and maybe even contempt for yourself.  

If you have dietary restrictions, look for restaurants that cater to your needs. Many places now offer options for various diets like vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, etc. While travelling, some places will obviously be better than others for certain dietary restrictions. So it does make sense to spend some time identifying restaurants that cater to your needs, or at least identifying meals that you would be able to eat at different restaurants.

We generally encourage our clients to eat the local cuisines wherever possible. You don’t want to be the person who only ever eats chicken, broccoli and rice. So expanding your palate is a good idea, and travelling gives you an ideal opportunity for this. Research the local cuisine for healthier traditional dishes. Many destinations offer dishes that are nutritious and made with fresh, local ingredients. However, be cautious if you’re not accustomed to these foods, as they can sometimes cause stomach issues.

Now, as we have a lot of clients who go travelling in South East Asia, the topic of street food very often comes up. This can be tricky to deal with, because while street food offers a cultural and culinary experience you do need to be cautious about health and safety standards. If you choose to try street food, opt for stalls with high turnover, which often indicates fresher ingredients.

Of course, there are other things to consider when navigating dining out when at your destination, but as we noted earlier in this article, that is a discussion for another time. 

Destination Specific Concerns

There are a few things I do want to just touch on before wrapping up this section, as there are often destination-specific concerns that you need to keep in mind when planning how you are going to deal with your nutrition at your destination.

Depending on where you travel, you may need to adjust your hydration strategies. Your hydration needs will vary depending on the climate. In hot and humid climates, or if you’re engaged in activities like skiing in cooler climates, you’ll need to consume more water than usual. 

You may not be able to drink the local water straight from the tap, depending on where you are travelling. So you may need to purchase extra bottled drinking water.

The local climate also affects appetite, so you may find yourself not feeling quite like your normal self. This may mean you are hungry at different times, not as hungry as normal, or indeed more hungry than normal. This can be further compounded by the fact that many people find that travel can throw off their digestive system. While you can’t exactly plan for either of these, it is important to identify what is occurring if you intend to effectively manage your nutrition while travelling.

Finally, altitude can also affect appetite. So depending on your destination, you may need to adjust your diet expectations. This is especially important to keep in mind if you are at a higher altitude because you are preparing for, or indeed even on a hike. You may need to consume food even though you don’t quite have sufficient appetite, as you need the calories. 

In summary, planning ahead for your nutrition needs when you reach your destination involves a combination of researching local food options, making smart choices when dining out, and being adaptable to the local environment, all while keeping your health and fitness goals in mind.

Hydration While Travelling

Maintaining good nutrition while travelling involves more than just food choices. Hydration also plays a crucial role, especially during air travel where the cabin environment can be particularly dehydrating. I am going to assume you already understand how important hydration is to your health, and you know how much you should be drinking (if you don’t then you need to read about how to set up a diet). Effective hydration strategies are essential for overall well-being while travelling. 

Staying hydrated is vital for various bodily functions, including maintaining energy levels, aiding digestion, and ensuring cognitive function. Dehydration can lead to fatigue, headaches, and a decrease in alertness, which is not ideal when travelling.

You can make staying hydrated significantly easier by keeping a few simple guidelines in mind.

One of the most effective hydration strategies is to always carry a refillable water bottle. This not only ensures that you have water on hand when you need it but also reduces the environmental impact of buying single-use plastic bottles while at the airport, or indeed once you arrive at your destination. Many airports now have water refill stations, making it easy to keep your bottle topped up. Carrying your own water bottle can also serve as a visual reminder to stay hydrated. It serves as a constant prompt to drink water and can be a vital part of your healthy travel routine.

While water is the best choice for staying hydrated, other healthy drink options include coffee, teas, zero-calorie drinks, coconut water, or diluted fruit juices. 

While caffeine is often identified as dehydrating, this doesn’t seem to be the case in habitual drinkers, especially if it is accompanied by lots of liquid (i.e. a coffee can be quite hydrating, but caffeine pills/powder may be net dehydrating if not consumed with sufficient water). You do have to be aware of your caffeine intake, especially while travelling, as you may need to have an altered sleep pattern when you get to your destination (or you may need to sleep on the plane) or your stress levels may be higher (and caffeine will only make you more stressed). 

You can also get a significant amount of hydration from your food, depending on your food selection choices. Fruits can be especially hydrating, and consuming fruits like watermelon, cucumber, strawberries, and oranges can really contribute to your hydration (and overall nutrient intake). 

Alcohol While Travelling

Maintaining good nutrition while travelling often involves making conscious decisions about alcohol consumption, especially in environments like airports where drinking can be a common activity to pass time or kickstart a holiday.

Many people turn to alcohol at the airport either to alleviate boredom or to enhance their enjoyment in anticipating their holiday. However, it’s important to be mindful of the impact of alcohol on your overall health and nutrition goals. Alcohol can not only add empty calories to your diet but also affect your overall diet quality and ability to make sensible nutrition choices.

We recommend reducing your alcohol intake as much as possible. This doesn’t mean you have to abstain completely, but being aware of the quantity and frequency of your consumption is key. Opting for lower-alcohol options or alternating alcoholic drinks with water can help mitigate some of the negative effects of alcohol.

While travelling, especially to places known for their unique local beverages, it’s natural to want to partake in these cultural experiences. The key is to find a balance that allows you to enjoy these offerings without compromising your health or fitness goals. This could mean setting a limit for yourself before you start drinking or choosing certain days when you allow yourself to indulge in moderation.

When you do choose to drink, consider healthier options. We have discussed how to fit alcohol into your diet while still getting results before, so we won’t labour the point here. However, the below image from that article highlights the best options for alcohol, at least from a calorie perspective.

Ensure that you stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water before, during, and after consuming alcohol. This is especially important if you are in a warm country and may be sweating a lot more than usual. It is very easy to get dehydrated by underconsuming water and overconsuming alcohol, and this can result in serious issues (and it will make your hangovers much worse).

Also, try not to drink on an empty stomach, as this can lead to quicker intoxication and more severe hangovers. Eating a nutritious meal before drinking can help slow the absorption of alcohol.

In summary, while it’s common to consume alcohol at the airport or during travel, being mindful of your intake is important for maintaining good nutrition and health. By reducing your alcohol consumption, choosing healthier options, and balancing the enjoyment of local beverages with your health goals, you can enjoy your travels without compromising on your health and fitness goals.

Disruption of Sleep While Travelling

While this article is most concerned with helping you to manage your nutrition while travelling, managing your sleep is a fundamental pillar to good health, and travelling can really disrupt sleep. This can then impact your ability to manage your nutrition. So it makes sense to at least briefly touch on managing sleep while travelling. 

The exact specifics of how to manage your sleep while travelling will obviously be highly dependent on your unique situation. However, there are a few things that crop up often enough that we can offer some generic solutions, and at least bring your attention to these issues ahead of time. However, if you don’t have generally good sleep hygiene habits in place (like we discuss in our article on how to get high quality sleep), you are always going to struggle with sleep while travelling.

There are basically two situations that we have to deal with when talking about managing sleep while travelling. 

• The first is for shorter travel, which doesn’t really have you changing time zones much or at all.
• The second is longer travel, which has you changing time zones and experiencing jet lag.

Both of these require specific methods to deal with them, and it is really beyond the scope of this article to dive deep into this, but I will provide a rough outline here so you at least have some idea about how to manage your sleep schedule while travelling.

Shorter Travel

Managing your sleep schedule on the day of travel, especially when prioritising health and fitness, involves several strategic steps. I am going to discuss this with the assumption that you have already read our article on foundational sleep management, and thus I won’t be going deep on why these strategies work.

Pre-Travel Preparation:

Ensure you have a healthy sleep routine established before you travel. This includes a consistent bedtime and wake-up time, a dark and quiet sleeping environment, and avoiding screens before bedtime. It is unlikely that you will somehow develop a better sleep routine while travelling, and you will have to have spent some time really optimising this ahead of time for this to be something that you can rely on while travelling.

Day of Travel:

If possible, try to ensure you start your journey well-rested. Avoid starting a trip with a sleep deficit if you can. Going into travel with a sleep deficit will generally just result in poorer sleep while travelling, and for you to not be able to get the most out of your travel. This may mean you have to try and organise a better time for your flight, or it may mean that you do need to do some strategic napping, or altering your sleep schedule to ensure you do get sufficient sleep. 

When travelling, you may want to nap in an effort to try and get more sleep in, but this does have to be done strategically. If you do intend to take a nap, try to keep the nap short (20-30 minutes) to avoid going into deep sleep. Ideally, try to only nap a couple of hours away from your intended sleep time, as this can reduce sleep drive and thus you will find it more difficult to actually get to sleep.

Flying can cause dehydration, which in turn can disrupt sleep patterns, so try to stay hydrated and drink plenty of water. 

Ideally, you would limit caffeine and alcohol on the day of travel, if optimising sleep is the goal. Both can disrupt your sleep schedule and worsen jet lag. You can potentially make an argument for being strategic with your caffeine use, but generally, you are going to want to try and keep your caffeine use as far away from your intended sleep time as possible.

Upon Arrival:

Try to get some form of exercise in. This doesn’t have to be excessive and can be as easy as you need it to be, but getting some form of exercise in when you arrive does tend to result in sleep improvements. 

Ideally, you would also get some sort of exposure to sunlight. Exposure to natural light helps regulate your circadian rhythms, and this can help you to stick to your normal circadian rhythm and thus sleep schedule. 

Evening of Arrival:

Many people have difficulty sleeping in a new environment, especially if they feel unsafe. Part of your brain is still awake and on the lookout for threats (this fear and hyper-vigilance are (partly) to blame for why many people find it difficult to defecate when they travel, as this is a potentially vulnerable time in a hostile environment, especially in our evolutionary past). So doing things that make you feel more secure and safe will help you to get deeper sleep when out of your normal routine. 

It can also be incredibly helpful to make your sleep environment as comfortable as possible, and that will look different for different people. Perhaps for you, it is having a nice set of pyjamas that you place on the radiator before you change into them before bed, or perhaps it is having a white noise generator playing while you sleep. It could also be setting the thermostat to your preferred levels. Ultimately, you are just trying to make the sleep environment comfortable for you.

As part of this, ideally, you would try to avoid blue light exposure in the lead up to sleep. This can be challenging when you are in a different environment than you are used to and you may need to be on your phone later into the evening as you try to plan the next day. But if you can try to minimise your exposure to blue light, you will really help your body to stick to your normal circadian rhythm and sleep schedule. 

Stress management can be necessary to help with getting to sleep in a new environment. Doing stuff like meditation, relaxation techniques or something relaxing like reading can really help to reduce stress and thus facilitate you getting sleep more easily. 

Longer Travel (Dealing With Jet Lag)

Now, with longer travel, those same basic sleep tips apply, but there is potentially a higher likelihood that you will have to deal with jet lag. Jet lag is a temporary disorder that causes fatigue, insomnia, and other symptoms as a result of air travel across different time zones. It’s essentially a mismatch between your body’s circadian rhythm, and the time in your new location. The more time zones crossed, the more likely you are to experience jet lag. To deal with jet lag, we have a variety of strategies that we often use with our clients, although to discuss them all would be another article entirely. However, below are a few tips to help deal with jet lag.

Scheduling

Your body’s internal clock regulates sleep-wake cycles, appetite, and general alertness. Disruptions to this clock lead to jet lag symptoms. So you want to try to shift your circadian rhythm closer to a circadian rhythm that would be appropriate at your destination.

Gradually adjust your current sleep-wake schedule to more closely align with the destination schedule over a period of a few days. This may mean you need to go to bed and wake up an hour earlier or later each day, depending on the direction of your travel. This can be a little difficult to do, especially if you are trying to go to bed earlier, as you may not be tired, but it does help. 

Of course, if you are only travelling for a short period of time, you may just opt to stay on your regular schedule and not shift your circadian rhythm to the destination-appropriate one.

Similarly, when choosing flights, try to choose flights that allow early evening arrivals rather than early morning or middle of the night arrivals, if possible. It’s easier to extend your day into the evening than to try to fall asleep earlier than usual. Obviously, this will be dependent on the exact specifics of your journey, but spending a little bit of time to plan out your flights to account for your sleep schedule can be really helpful.

If you do have less control over your flights, you can still try to account for your sleep schedule. If it’s nighttime at your destination, try to get some sleep on the plane, especially if it is a longer flight. Use earplugs, an eye mask, and a neck pillow to help you sleep better.

When you do arrive at your destination, try to ensure that you do try to utilise sun light exposure appropriately. Exposure to natural light is one of the most powerful ways to adjust your circadian rhythm. Spending time outdoors during daylight hours at your destination will help you to sync to the appropriate circadian rhythm of the destination.

Some people who travel regularly and know they struggle with sleep may opt to use melatonin supplements to help them to get to sleep at the appropriate time. Melatonin is a natural sleep hormone that signals your body it’s time to sleep. Taking melatonin supplements can help adjust your internal clock, but it is illegal in some countries, so do pay attention to local laws. 

Nutrition

Much like with your sleep schedule, you can try to shift your feeding schedule to more closely align with your destination a few days/weeks before travelling. This can help with shifting your circadian rhythm to the appropriate one for the destination.

When travelling, it is important to try and eat at regular intervals, as you are unlikely to be at your best when you are dealing with the stress of flying, while also being hungry too. However, depending on the exact specifics of your flight schedule, it may actually make sense to strategically fast (i.e. not eat food) for the duration of travel. 

For example, if your travel time is actually a time when you are unlikely to be eating at your destination, then it may make sense to abstain from food while travelling. This can help with dealing with jet lag, but it isn’t a protocol we would use with everyone, as it can lead to excessive hunger and potentially disordered eating behaviours in some people.

Staying well hydrated is key to dealing with jet lag; drink plenty of water before, during, and after your flight. This is a baseline habit, but it does seem to really help with jet lag, likely because travelling by plane can result in dehydration, making jet lag feel worse.

Both alcohol and caffeine can affect your sleep, and thus can make jet lag worse. We would definitely recommend avoiding alcohol, but caffeine can be used strategically to help with jet lag. If you know that staying up a little bit later is going to help you to adjust to your destination time zone, then caffeine may help here. It is easy to overdo it though, and you really don’t need a lot of caffeine to get the benefits.

There are more things that we could possibly recommend, and we actually have an entire section on dealing with jet lag in the sleep module of our nutrition coaching course. If you haven’t already, now would be a good time to read up on our comprehensive sleep article.

Physical Activity

While this article is mainly concerned with helping you to navigate your nutrition while travelling, we would be remiss to not at least touch on the physical activity component too. There are a few things that we very often recommend to our clients when they are trying to stay on track with their health and fitness, and I will outline a few below, but do bear in mind that this is obviously going to be dependent on why and where you are travelling.

The things we would recommend to someone who is travelling for a couple of weeks or even months on some sort of backpacking holiday are obviously going to be different than the stuff we recommend for someone travelling for work. So, do try to apply your own best judgement to the following, and if you do need more tailored advice, then consider getting in touch to see if we might be able to help you on a one-to-one basis through our online coaching services.

Pre-Travel Training:

If you know you’ll be travelling, try to get your training sessions done earlier in the week. This ensures you’re keeping up with your fitness routine and not missing out on workouts due to travel constraints. This isn’t always possible, but it can certainly be a big help.

Some people like to also push their training in the weeks leading up to travel, so they are in a state of functional over-reaching. They then use the travel time as recovery time, so that they can then come back from travel actually having improved performance and results. This can work well, but it can also lead people to feel excessively tired and overly fatigued when travelling.

Planning Ahead

If you know you are going to be travelling, then doing some research on the gyms and training facilities where you are going to be staying will allow you to stay dialled in with your training while travelling. 

If there aren’t many options for good training facilities where you are travelling (which is very rare to be fair), you should consider bringing some sort of portable training equipment. You can get a phenomenal workout with little more than a resistance band and your own body weight. You don’t need to break the bank with this, but a little does go a long way, and the better prepared you are ahead of time, the more likely you will be to actually stay on track with your training.

Stay Active During Travel:

It is fairly easy to maintain muscle and strength while travelling. However, you do need to apply some sort of challenge to the muscles, at least once every 7-10 days. If the frequency of exposure is quite low, then you will likely need to take the sets closer to failure than you normally would. This is especially the case if you only have time for a lower volume of training while travelling. 

Something like ~10 sets relatively close to failure, for all the major muscle groups done at least every 7-10 days. 

We also generally advocate that you try to stay active while travelling, even if this is only light activity like walking. You would be surprised at how much benefit you can get from just generally being active and trying to get a minimum number of steps per day. You especially see this when Americans come to Europe, which tends to have much more walkable cities. They find that their digestion is better and despite eating a similar amount of calories, they actually lose weight. Now, some of this is due to differences in food, but a large driving force is simply that they are now much more active than they would be at home. 

So try to stay active while travelling. You can even do this in the airport, and try to get some extra steps in, rather than sitting at your gate. This is especially beneficial if you know you are going to be forced to be seated for multiple hours on a long distance flight.

Now, it is important to realise that you may actually end up in a situation where you are in a pretty big calorie deficit if you are very active while travelling. So it is important to listen to your body and adjust your food intake accordingly. Ensure you’re getting enough calories, especially from nutrient-rich foods, to fuel your activity level.

If you do end up overindulging, it can be helpful to do some sort of exercise. This can really help with overall blood sugar regulation, and put the excess calories you have consumed to good use. So if you do end up overconsuming at dinner time, going for a walk may be very beneficial.

Stress Management

While this article is most concerned with helping you to manage your nutrition while travelling, much like with exercise, stress management is a part of the fundamental pillars of good health, so we need to at least touch on it. 

Travel can be stressful, which can sometimes lead to emotional eating. Having good stress management practices is crucial. Techniques like deep breathing, meditation, or even simple walks can be effective. Additionally, staying organised and planning ahead can significantly reduce travel-related stress.

Stress management techniques can make travel much more enjoyable and relaxed. You would be surprised at how much you can reduce your stress by sitting down and doing some deep, slow breaths. Of course, if you already have good stress management practices in place, as we discuss in our foundational stress management article, then this will likely be easier to put into practice. 

Similarly, stress management techniques may be needed to get good sleep while travelling. A lot of people do find travelling to be stressful, and a lot of people also find that they simply can’t get to sleep when they are in a new environment. Stress management techniques like meditation and deep breathing can really help with this.

We cover stress management in depth in our our foundational stress management article and our nutrition coaching course, if you are interested in learning more about stress management.

Common Pitfalls When Managing Your Nutrition While Travelling

Maintaining good nutrition while travelling involves navigating through common pitfalls that can disrupt healthy eating habits. Here are some of the common pitfalls we have seen in our coaching clients, and some strategies to avoid these traps and maintain a healthy diet while travelling:

Avoiding Unhealthy Temptations:

One of the biggest challenges is resisting the temptation of unhealthy food choices like sugary drinks, high-sodium snacks, and excessive indulgence at buffets. Of course, if you have set up your diet correctly, and you have been practising good nutrition practices, like we teach our clients, this will be much easier to handle. Effectively, you just need to have a plan for how you are going to deal with these things ahead of time. 

For example, when faced with buffets, most people end up overconsuming food. So, to better deal with buffets, focus on filling your plate with a variety of vegetables and lean proteins before exploring other options. This way you at least tick the boxes with your protein intake and your fruit/veg intake, before filling up on calories.

Strategies for Enjoying Local Delicacies Responsibly:

Travel often presents the opportunity to try new and exciting local delicacies, which is a significant part of the travel experience. This can present a challenge when you are trying to stay on track with your nutrition and overall health and fitness. So you will need a plan for dealing with this.

What we generally encourage our clients to do, is enjoy these foods mindfully and in moderation. Instead of overindulging, savour small portions and focus on the quality and uniqueness of the experience rather than quantity. Of course, many people need a significant amount of coaching to be able to actually savour and enjoy food, rather than simply binging on it, but it can be done.

High-Protein Diets on the Go:

While we typically recommend a relatively high-protein diet, this can be challenging to maintain while travelling due to limited food options. However, there are strategies to overcome this. Even in places where you are very limited in your ability to get protein, we have helped many clients successfully navigate the situation. 

Of course, you will have to sign up for coaching to get all of the insider tips and tricks, but there are a few things to keep in mind. For most people, getting protein at the evening meal is going to be the easiest, so you really only need to come up with a plan for including more protein at your breakfast meal and for your lunch. 

Depending on where you are travelling, it is usually possible to get some sort of protein for breakfast. This could be Greek yoghurt or maybe eggs, but there is usually the possibility of getting some protein in the morning.

You may need to bring your own protein powder, or potentially buy some when you arrive at your destination, but this can be a really helpful tool for getting sufficient protein in the diet. 

Lunch can be difficult, and is highly dependent on where you are travelling. However, it is usually possible to get something like grilled chicken or fish for lunch in most places. 

Avoid the All or Nothing Trap:

This is a common trap that people fall into, even when they aren’t travelling, but travelling really seems to increase the likelihood that someone will fall into it. 

So, to successfully navigate your nutrition while travelling, you will have to avoid the mindset of ‘all or nothing’ when it comes to diet. If you indulge a bit, don’t consider your diet ruined for the day or week. Instead, aim for overall balance and make healthier choices at your next meal. This is much easier said than done, and it is something that we do generally have to do a good bit of coaching with our clients on, until they really master it.  

Dieting Into The Trip

I did mention it earlier, but many people shoot themselves in the foot by eating in a deficit right up until they go away. This generally just leads to all the diet fatigue being felt while away, and combined with the fact that you are no longer in your normal environment, it is highly likely that you will end up binge eating. 

So, ideally, try to spend some time at your maintenance calorie level before travelling. This can prevent the sudden onset of intense hunger and diet fatigue that often occurs when people strictly diet right up until they travel.

If you don’t know where your maintenance calories are, then I would recommend reading our comprehensive diet set up article and potentially also using one of our diet set up calculators (the ultimate diet set up calculator would be a good one if you already know how many calories you should be consuming, alternatively our calorie and macronutrient calculator may be more beneficial if you don’t know how many calories you should be consuming for your specific goals).

Mindless Eating

This is also something that people struggle with even when they aren’t travelling. Many people end up mindlessly eating, and they can actually rack up a significant amount of calories in the process. This is especially the case when travelling and when on holidays.

The only really effective long-term solution for this is to learn how to eat mindfully. This involves being fully present while eating, savouring each bite, and paying attention to hunger and fullness cues. This is something you will likely need to work on before you travel, but it is something that will significantly improve your ability to stay on track with your diet, and it will improve your relationship with the diet more broadly. 

Managing Nutrition While Travelling For Special Populations  

Beyond the common pitfalls, there are a few special populations that have specific needs to keep in mind when trying to maintain good nutrition while travelling. We deal with a variety of populations in our coaching practice, so we have seen it all, and certain populations like athletes or individuals with specific dietary restrictions will need more specific help to allow them to stay on track with their nutrition while travelling. 

Athletes

Athletes generally need to pay particular attention to their nutrition, especially around competitions, and even more so when travelling for competition. It’s crucial to ensure that meals are well-balanced, providing adequate carbohydrates for energy, proteins for muscle repair, and fats for overall health. 

Athletes should plan meals and snacks ahead of time to ensure they are fueled for performance and recovery. This might mean they need to pack some meals, or bring specific foods or supplements to meet their unique nutritional needs. But the only way an athlete is going to be able to consistently navigate nutrition while travelling is to do a lot of research ahead of time. 

There are many stories of athletes travelling for very important competitions, and not having access to high-quality food. These athletes had to make do with what was available, such as getting their protein from fast food restaurants, but this is a less-than-optimal strategy.

So, with our athletes, we generally try to develop a plan of action for dealing with food before travelling. If you know where you are going, you can also research and plot contingency plans too (such as knowing where to access high-quality food).

Dietary Restrictions or Specific Diets:

Maintaining a plant-based diet while travelling can be challenging, depending on the destination. Some destinations are very vegan/vegetarian-friendly with numerous options, while others may pose a more significant challenge. You are going to have to do a decent bit of research ahead of time, if you do follow a specific diet. Using apps and websites that locate vegan or vegetarian restaurants can be really helpful. Carrying some non-perishable plant-based snacks can also be helpful.

If you have more significant dietary restrictions, such as food allergies or intolerances, then you are going to need to do more intensive research ahead of time. Some locations are simply not going to be able to accommodate certain food issues, while others will have much more options available. Learning some key phrases in the local language to communicate dietary preferences can be invaluable. 

It is important to keep in mind that certain locations may simply not have the same level of food hygiene standards and may be unable to ensure that there is no cross-contamination occurring. So if you do have a serious allergy, you may need to carry an epi-pen and ideally also know how to get in contact with local medical facilities. 

Ultimately, specific situations will require specific protocols to deal with, and this is something we can help you with via one-to-one online coaching.

Managing Nutrition While Travelling Conclusion

So, hopefully, by now, you have learned a lot about how to manage your nutrition while travelling. We have made a few assumptions about your nutrition knowledge, but if you feel that you need more information of nutrition, then we do have resources designed to help you. If you don’t know how to set up a well balanced diet, then I would recommend reading our comprehensive diet set up article and potentially also using one of our diet set up calculators (the ultimate diet set up calculator would be a good one if you already know how many calories you should be consuming, alternatively our calorie and macronutrient calculator may be more beneficial if you don’t know how many calories you should be consuming for your specific goals).

Travelling presents unique challenges and opportunities when it comes to maintaining optimal nutrition. Whether you’re a frequent flyer, a business traveller, or on a leisure holiday, understanding how to navigate your nutrition choices is key to staying on track with your health and fitness goals. We have covered many habits, tips and tricks that should allow you to stay on track with your nutrition while travelling. It rarely goes perfectly to plan, but hopefully, you are much better prepared to handle your nutrition now. 

If this content is something that you resonate with, or if you want to get your health and fitness questions answered and a comprehensive plan of action put in place to help you, then we might be able to help you on a one-to-one basis through our online coaching services. With coaching, we can look at your overall diet and help you come up with a comprehensive, science-backed plan of action to help you get the results you are looking for.

We also teach people to become nutrition coaches on our nutrition coaching certification course, if you are a coach who wants to upskill or you are interested in learning how to actually coach someone to better nutrition. If you just want to learn more about all things health and fitness, then feel free to explore our free content and subscribe to our email newsletter. If you prefer visual content, then subscribe to our YouTube channel, X and Instagram.

References and Further Reading

Halson SL, Burke LM, Pearce J. Nutrition for Travel: From Jet lag To Catering. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2019;29(2):228-235. doi:10.1123/ijsnem.2018-0278 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30507257/

Forbes-Robertson S, Dudley E, Vadgama P, Cook C, Drawer S, Kilduff L. Circadian disruption and remedial interventions: effects and interventions for jet lag for athletic peak performance. Sports Med. 2012;42(3):185-208. doi:10.2165/11596850-000000000-00000 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22299812/

Reilly T, Waterhouse J, Burke LM, Alonso JM; International Association of Athletics Federations. Nutrition for travel [published correction appears in J Sports Sci. 2009 Apr;27(6):667]. J Sports Sci. 2007;25 Suppl 1:S125-S134. doi:10.1080/02640410701607445 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18049990/

Janse van Rensburg DC, Jansen van Rensburg A, Fowler PM, et al. Managing Travel Fatigue and Jet Lag in Athletes: A Review and Consensus Statement. Sports Med. 2021;51(10):2029-2050. doi:10.1007/s40279-021-01502-0 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8279034/

Janse van Rensburg DCC, Jansen van Rensburg A, Fowler P, et al. How to manage travel fatigue and jet lag in athletes? A systematic review of interventions. Br J Sports Med. 2020;54(16):960-968. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2019-101635 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32303523/