Travelling is a fantastic way to see the world and practice yoga. But when you are out on the road, teaching students or just having a holiday, maintaining a healthy diet can be a bit tricky. To help ensure, you don’t lose your sights of good and nutritious food, here are ten healthy food hacks to keep in mind when you’re on the road.
Hack #1: Keep healthy snacks at hand
You want to avoid treating yourself to unhealthy foods and the best way to guarantee this is by keeping healthy snacks at hand. Your journey might take longer and food might not always be available – so ensure your blood sugar doesn’t drop too much and you won’t end up making bad food decisions.
What types of snacks can you carry with you? Nuts are a great example, together with vegetable sticks such as carrots. If you eat meat, beef jerky can be a good option – just try to find jerky with less sugar and salt than in some commercial products.
Hack #2: Prepare portable meals
If you are travelling on a train or driving a car to your destination, you should cook a few portable meals beforehand to ensure you don’t end up eating something unhealthy. There are tons of great recipes that last long even without a fridge and which you can easily eat on the road.
Some recipes to try to include banana bread, frittata muffins and healthy popcorn.
Hack #3: Have your breakfast at hand
Coffee shops offer plenty of unhealthy breakfast options – most treats are filled with sugar. You can still enjoy the coffee but instead of buying the muffin have your own breakfast at hands.
You just need to pack a portion of oats to a zip pouch. Ask for an extra coffee cup with just hot milk or water and pour in the oats for instant porridge. All you need is a spoon, but you can generally find plastic ones at coffee shops. If you want more flavour, add dried banana flakes, raspberries or blueberries to your oats.
Hack #4: Start your journey with fat
Fat is a great way to increase satiety, have more energy for longer, and stall any food cravings. Before you hit the road, have fats (the healthy ones) to ensure your blood sugar doesn’t go up and down during the trip. If you know you won’t be able to eat anytime soon, always find some sort of fat source – nuts, tuna, peanut butter and so on.
Hack #5: Pack your own condiments
Food should always taste good. While many people just add ketchup, mayonnaise and salt to their food, you can change your condiment game with the help of travel-sized bottles.
Wash a few old shampoo bottles well and fill them with healthier condiments to take with you. Extra virgin olive oil, a bit of coconut oil and your own mixture of fresh herbs and spices – you will enjoy eating out more and it doesn’t mean you are being unhealthy. This trick is especially good when it comes to enjoying airline food!
Hack #6: Check the supermarkets
Wherever you are in the world, the supermarkets will have things you can just eat without cooking and they won’t always be unhealthy. Salad bags, healthier sandwiches and so on are everywhere. Instead of hitting the restaurants, visit the supermarket first.
Hack #7: Invest in a good lunchbox
It really is a good idea to have a lunchbox with you when you travel. These magical things help keep things in a better condition – locking in the freshness of the food well. Invest in a good lunchbox from Argos and Marks & Spencer. You can find deals with the retailers at HotUKSavings to keep the costs low.
Hack #8: Get a good thermos
In addition to a lunchbox, you also need to remember to hydrate on the road. Pick a good thermos that keeps your green tea hot for longer (green tea is perfect for travelling!) or which can be used to sipping water later on. Zojirushi has a great selection of thermos products to try.
Hack #9: Use hotel room coffee maker to boil eggs
If you’re staying in a hotel room and it happens to have a coffee maker or a kettle, you are in for a treat. You can use it to boil eggs – cheap and healthy snack to eat on the road and to skip the room service.
The coffee maker eggs work like this: fill the water reservoir, add the eggs in and turn on the machine. Once your eggs are covered in the hot water, turn on the timer. If you want hard-boiled eggs, keep them covered for 20-30 minutes. Soft-boiled eggs can be enjoyed in around 15 minutes.
Hack #10: Stick to your food routine
It’s rather easy to get out of routine when you are travelling. When we skip our routine, we get tired or make decisions that are not so healthy. As much as you can, stick to your routine – eat at the times you normally would. You won’t overeat and you’ll make healthier choices.
So, next time your yoga career makes you travel, don’t worry! The above healthy food hacks will guarantee you stick to your diet – now, you just need to remember to spend time practising yoga instead of just relaxing!
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