Traveling and Fast Food

First, if you have a smart phone and have the app, make sure you use it to guide your decisions. If you have a smart phone (or even just an iPod Touch) and *don't* have the app, go download it before you leave. It's free, it's a wealth of information and there's no reason to NOT have it.

Second, go out and look at the various fast food websites and look at the nutritional information. Plan ahead as much as you can, know what you want at 2 or 3 places, that way you're not overly confined if and when you stop. There's generally lower-calorie stuff available almost everywhere. My wife and I prefer stopping at places like Panera (where the calories are right there on the big board) or Chick-Fil-A (Chargrilled Chicken Sammich with a fruit cup side is only 500-ish calories), places we know we can get lower calorie items. Just be careful about the sodium at these places, they're usually through the roof and one meal can be more than your daily allotment!

As for the restaurant salads, the issue I have with them isn't so much the calories, it's how deceptive they are, especially for the uninformed (<--- key word right there). Someone may *think* they're eating something good for them, but when you add up the full-fat cheese, full-fat salad dressings, croutons, usually there's bacon on there, and then the protein (of which they never add "just" 4 ounces and usually there's butter involved in preparing it), the calories, fat and sodium can add up quick.

I'd pack a cooler with snacks and drinks and avoid the fast food.

^^ THIS is a great way to go! My family is planning a trip to a family wedding in September -- takes over 2 days driving. We've been doing research on healthy not-so-messy travel foods and snacks. Here are a few we've found (clearly some a little more calorie conscious than others):
Popcorn
Yogurt & Granola
Apples & Peanut Butter
Mini Pita sandwiches (hummus, for example)
Whole grain crackers
Natural fruit snacks (no added sugar / color)
Jerky (Beef, turkey, venison, etc.)
Grape tomatoes
Chex Mix
Olives
Baby Carrots
Mini-boxes of raisins
String Cheese
Pumpkin seeds / Sunflower seeds
Hard-boiled eggs

Do an internet search on "healty travel snacks" and you'll find even more suggestions. Good luck!

If stopping the car and having a salad sitting down isn't going to work (When our boys were that little, a 6 hour road trip actually became a 9 hour road trip because of diaper changes, feeding them, etc. so we had to stop often anyhow) I would suggest packing your own food in a cooler, food that you know you can eat without making a mess in the car and that will fit within your calorie requirements. Stay away from Starbucks on your travels, though . My husband always gets several coffees or lattes during our long road trips to keep him awake, and last time was the first he paid attention to the calorie count on it! Unbelievably bad!

Do you have a smart phone? Most fast foods have nutrition online that you good look up while on the road.

Good option:

McDonalds Chicken Grilled Cesar Salad without croutons is 190 then I use 1/4 pkg of the cesar dressing for 45 calories, and drink water.

Or pack a cooler then you have control of what you eat, everyone suggested some great options.

So don't order junk at the restaurants.

Buy some convenient healthy food that will keep well to have with you. Apples. Bananas. Bag up some carrots and broccoli and cauliflower (they do fine without refrigeration, but if you have a small cooler and a cold pack, go for it!). Prepackaged string cheese or "baby bell" cheeses. Peanut butter sandwiches. Meal replacement bars or shakes if you need to. There's TONS of reasonably healthy stuff that keeps well without refrigeration.

Pack your own healthy salad dressing and order a salad with grilled chicken, and use your own dressing.

Whenever my wife and I travel, we take a HUGE bag of healthy snacky foods, and our aluminum water bottles.

First thing I do when I walk in anywhere.

Do you have the nutritional facts? Then I look a them for something that work / I can live with.

If Part one doesn't work I look around the menu and look for choices then I use the app on my phone to search for the restaurant or something close to it.

And go from there.

My thing now is that if I have a bad meal I will take a walk later tonight so hopefully it doesn't have an adverse reaction to my entire day.

Eat less / move more and track for yourself what you are eating.

A lot of places have decent options, but you really have to look. Most will have some kind of fruit slices as an option for the kids meals which can be bought seperate. Also, Wendy's chili is not bad- small is 210 calories, large 310. If you aren't sure what to get- stick with a kids meal. Starbucks is another great option with lots of locations- the hummus and chicken lunch box is 270 calories and a healthy choice.

Honestly, Mcdonald's salads have come a long way in the past few years and I would recommend them now. Honestly, for between 200-400 calories for a salad that has grilled chicken you won't do much better. They come with a small amount of dressing on the chicken itself, simply do not add any additional dressing from the packets and you are good to go. Top it off with a water or a diet coke and you actually have a pretty good meal for less than 10 bucks. Or, as someone else suggested, a subway sandwich is great too!

I agree with this. When I joined WW a few years back, we used to go to McDonalds and get the Southwest grilled chicken salad and a parfait for 7 points. It is filling and healthy!

Def Subway or Mr. Sub salads, just skip the heavy dressings (or dressing all together) or have very little italian dressing.

I work at Mr. Sub and our Garden Salad fully loaded with a bit of dressing is extremely low calorie.