How to Eat Healthy Food on a Road Trip

After traveling across the United States and down the Pacific Coast in my car, I have picked up a few tips on eating healthy on the road. With a little planning, anyone can enjoy healthy, easy meals on the road no matter what your dietary restrictions are! I've even included some helpful tips for eating out in rural areas where options are limited. With this article, you will find you can enjoy a trip across the country and still stay on your diet, avoid your food allergies, and manage digestive disorders. All it takes is a little planning and food saavy and your worries are gone!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Cooler
• re-usable ice packs
• protein foods (salmon/turkey/soy jerky, shelf-stable fish/chicken)
• hardy fruits (apples, oranges, pears, grapefruit)
• hardy vegetables (kale,collards,carrots,celery,snap peas,jicama)
• nuts
• dried fruit
• All-natural bars (Lara, Odwalla, Clif, Luna)

1. Freeze the reusable ice packs the night before. If you are staying in hotels en route, you may be able to re-freeze them in the room or ask the hotel staff to keep them frozen for you. If this is not an option, you will need to consume highly perishable items first and fill ziploc baggies with ice at gas station convenience stores. This will keep your perishables cool, prolonging shelf life and avoiding food poisoning in the summer heat.
2. Pack items in cooler vertically according to food type. For instance, begin by placing protein foods that need to be cooled on the farmost left side of the chest, stacking them vertically to the top. Place an ice bag as a wall against it and fill the next 1/4 of the bag with your fruits. Place an additional ice bag wall up and add a wall of beverages (if desired) or vegetables. If you take probiotics, enzymes, vitamins, or have film you'll want to pack these as well during the hot summer months. Packing your cooler in this way minimizing digging around for components to a healthy meal (for instance, if all my protein is at the bottom and my veggies on top I have to tear the cooler apart each time I want to make a sandwich). It also evenly distributes chill across the cooler without making everything wet and soggy.
3. Place non-perishable items in a box or bag to be stored nearby for easy reach. The bars, dried fruits, and nuts are great car munchies. These can be consumed at any time and do not need to be chilled.
4. Supplement with food from "the outside". Every now and then variety is nice! Convenience stores are laden with unhealthy snacks. Some gems that are healthier choices are: corn nuts, buffalo jerky, 100% fruit juices, pretzels, baked corn and potato chips, and trail mix.
5. Healthy restaurant choices: Wendy's has a baked potato and salad option, and is found all along major interstates across the USA. Choose a grilled chicken salad, minus cheese and creamy dressing. If you want, ask for (or bring) fresh lemon to squeeze onto your salad. You may also want to pack salad dressing from home to take on your trip; salad dressing is the top source of fat in a woman's diet, and the quality of oil used is rarely health-promoting! If you dine at a sit-down restaurant, choose options which contain a lot of vegetables, as these health-promoting foods are hardest to find on the road. Save half your meal to take with you so that you can stretch the meal a bit further and avoid overeating. You may want to choose an item which you will enjoy eating cold if re-heating is not an option for you.
6. Restock along the way: All towns have grocery stores! Having a cooler on hand allows you to continue to supply yourself with fresh and dried fruit, veggies, and portable protein sources. A little preparation off-route will save you the trouble of being trapped in the middle of nowhere without anything healthy to eat. Enjoy!

Tips & Warnings

• Portable protein sources: canned and packaged fish, organic jerkies, hummus, Pete's Tofu Spread.
• Use a GPS to find grocery stores, health food stores, and restaurants you prefer en route.
• Ask locals where to find healthy restaurants and grocery stores. It's a great chance to mingle and find hidden gems your GPS may not know about!
• When eating out, choose ethnic restaurants. They usually have more veggies than traditional American far. Some favorites - Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Mexican (fajitas) and Japanese.
• Bring extra ziploc baggies for trash and in case one of your ice bags break!
• Read labels to ensure you do not pick up anything that contains a food allergen (I've found milk in my hummus before).
• If camping, keep food secured in the car so wild animals do not stop by.