Healthy road trip snacks
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meganreid163
Posts: 72 Member
I go on long road trips 3 times a year and I struggle eating healthy because we often stop at fast food places. Anyone have tips.
Or ideas of what I can premake and bring
Or ideas of what I can premake and bring
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Replies
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*Bring healthy snack foods that travel well, or travel well in a cooler. Apples, hard boiled eggs, veggies and dip, etc.
*Maybe instead of an entire bag of chips/cookies/etc. Buy single serving packets. This way you're limited to what's in the bag.
*Make sandwiches ahead of time, or bring sandwich fixin's in a cooler.
*At fast food places, just pick stuff that fits into your calorie goal. I find the value menu helps me out with this greatly. I can get a cheeseburger and fries and diet soda and typically be under what a regular combo would be. You could also just order a sandwich only and skip the fries. (or mooch them off some one else )
*Maybe just don't have snacks. Just eat when you need to stop and re-fuel and go to a resturaunt.
Either way you slice it, you can have whatever you would like to eat on the road, just count it into your calorie goal for the day. And have fun.0 -
When I did my roadtrip to Florida (15hr), I had a huge cooler and filled it with a bunch of ice. Just make sure your food is tightly sealed. Even if you do go to restaurants, usually they have a healthy options. BUT to save you money, I'd suggest just bringing your own fruits, yogurt, and for meats I had cut up rotisserie chicken, pepper jack cheese, and would add that to my salad.
I'm not much of a salad eater, but I love the Santa Fe style salad, I copied it from Chopt.
-Spring mix (whatever type you like really, but it's better with Romaine)
-Pepper Jack Cheese
-A little bit of chipotle ranch
-Fried onion rings, very minimal. This just adds the crunch
-Chopped up chicken
-Optional(1/2 Avocado)0 -
Being vegan, road tripping means having to be very creative since most fast food joints don't have options (although that's changing rapidly). When I road trip I usually stock up before I go on nonperishable items like jerky, nuts, energy bars, vegan deli meats I can usually eat straight out of the box for protein. I also premake at least a few sandwiches and keep them in a cooler. On the road, I stop at grocery stores instead of fast food joints: I buy crackers, hummus and bean dips, veggies for dipping, premade salads, nuts, fresh fruit, energy bars, fruit cups, peanut/almond butter, occasionally some bread in small quantities, and if the grocery store has a cafeteria/restaurant section, I order food there. On the occasional fast food stop, I look at the menu ahead of time and try and get the item with calories that fit within my budget -- that typically means stopping at fast food joints that have relatively healthier options, like Taco Bell or fast casual places if I can find them, like Panera, Chipotle.
If you're able to take a cooler and stop for ice when you get gas, it helps a lot!0 -
Jerky, fruit, raw veggies, string cheese, raw nuts,1
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The groceries at gas station mini-marts are getting better and better. In those, I go for V8 juice, Greek yogurt, hardboiled eggs, whole fruit, individual pickle packs (both cucumber pickles and others veggies are available, often), unsweetened iced tea, and sometimes *small* packets of nuts.
Others have outlined some good take-alongs, so I won't repeat those.
Fast food is more of an issue (I'm vegetarian), but some useful things are:
* chopped salads at Subway (you can get any sub as a salad instead);
* quite a few items at Taco Bell (use the calorie/nutrient calculator on their web site in advance of going there; there are lots of options that aren't on the menu-board in the restaurant, and you can add or leave out things; avoid the crispy-fried ones);
* McDonald's has some options if you go the add/remove route (now that they have breakfast all day, I often get a two-egg Egg McMuffin with no meat, plus a salad, or oatmeal; but for meat-eaters the smaller burgers are manageable, too, if you skip the bun or eat only half; many (not all) locations have skim latte now, too.
* Wendy's has baked potatoes (watch the topping choices), plus for meat-eaters the chili and some of the burger variations aren't bad.
* As a sit-down chain, Panera has some nutritious lower-cal options;
* Starbucks has some OK things (and I like skim lattes for protein plus caffeine );
Look for salads with grilled chicken at several places, not crispy chicken, to manage calories; and almost all have a low-calorie vinaigrette-type dressing.
It can be helpful to look at some of the web sites, and plan ahead for some options you can order. It's more manageable than you might think.0 -
Cooler with: lunch meat, cheese, bread, fruit, nuts, hard boiled eggs.0
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What do you mean by “healthy”?
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