Dieting and traveling

kshardy2

Dieting and travelling has been a nightmare for me. We've been on the road for 2 weeks and having decent meals has been hard. We've managed a few IHOPs for breakfast so I can have something small and healthy, but later meals are harder to stay away from fast food and IHOP gets repetative. We occasionally have a microwave in whatever hotel we stop in, but even that's not a guarantee. Advice?

cmriverside

Buy a small cooler and stop at a grocery store. You can make your own food on the road.

cmriverside

I guess what I'm saying is it doesn't have to be hot, does it? Sandwiches, cheese and crackers, pre-made salads with some rotisserie chicken, fruit plates, I mean there's endless choices at the grocery if you have a small cooler.

ninerbuff

Almost all fast food places have a salad option.

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DancingMoosie

Salad or ask for a grilled chicken sandwich, no bun, extra veggies.

8mae8

I do a lot of driving for work, mostly day trips, but I know the feeling. Besides packing a cooler, you can also look for the healthier snacks at gas stations, a lot of them are getting better at stocking better options. P3 snack packs, low sodium jerky (Lorissa's kitchen is good), popcorn (Skinny pop), protein and fruit bars, cheese sticks. I think the best lesson I learned was I don't have to have high-cal sandwiches for lunch. Having several healthy snacking options was a lot easier to manage calories than stopping at a fast food joint. Also, if you have an idea of where you are going to dinner, look up the menu beforehand. It's less overwhelming and easier to choose a healthy option when you aren't hangry at the restaurant.

AnnPT77

You don't say what your definition of "healthy" is?

There are fast food place options that meet my definition, which pretty much involves getting adequate macros, some veggies/fruit, and proper calories. (I'm also vegetarian, which complicates the protein requirement for me.)

I've found things I can eat at Taco Bell that are calorie appropriate. Be aware that you can order combinations that are not on the menu board. (The web site has a calculator sort of thing where you can add & subtract ingredients and see the nutrition/calorie results). Subway will make any sub into a salad. Dressed with red wine vinegar & oregano, that seems fine to me: Just choose a lean protein. Wendy's still has baked potatoes (not a lot of veg protein, but filling.) Meat-eaters say that Wendy's chili is calorie-efficient.

At sit-down restaurants, ask about diet plates or whether you can order a plate that has all of the veggie sides, maybe plus something like grilled/broiled meat or fish, or cottage cheese . . . even a ground-beef patty. Often, if a sit-down place has the subcomponents, they're willing to plate them in ways that aren't on the menu. It never hurts to ask politely, and see.

As a vegetarian, I will look for coffee places where I can get a big skim latte as my coffee, because there's enough skim milk there to be useful in hitting my protein goals. Even 2% milk can fit in, if necessary, for me.

Even many service area or gas station convenience stores these days have Greek yogurt, hard boiled eggs, fresh fruit, lowfat cheese sticks, cottage cheese, and that sort of thing, maybe tuna packets. If you don't need to avoid sodium, many will have V-8 or tomato juice, or there's always non-sweet tea or flavored waters to drink, if you don't want plain water.

It kind of helps, I think, to look at the stores & menus as a game to be played, or a puzzle to be solved, rather than a pure obstacle. Figuring out a nutritious, adequate tasting, filling, calorie-appropriate meal is winning. 🤣

Diatonic12

All I have is a tiny gas station but I can round up a meal there. Tinned fishes or packs, olive packs, jerky, hard boiled eggs, canned green beans, condiments, protein bars. Most carry the O Snap brand = carrots, green beans, peas and pickles.

I can do even better if it's a larger upscale gas station. I can find everything I need in a grocery store. I've never been to an IHOP but where there's a will there's always a way.