Many people think that it is too expensive or time consuming to eat while traveling. It really depends on what kind of trips you are taking, but it IS possible to eat healthy and travel.
For car trips: This is by far the absolute easiest! There is no reason why you should be stopping at gas stations and fast food restaurants for your meals. Having a car makes meals much easier.
Your shopping will be done at local supermarkets, where things are cheaper and there is more variety. Many people think traveling has to be limited ONLY to restaurants, but it is simply UNTRUE. For the same amount of time you can go through a drive through for something frozen and fried, you can go to the supermarket for fresh vegetables, fruit and some decent bread. Even some gas stations offer healthy solutions.
For starters you can get yourself a sturdy cooler. In a cooler, you can store many things that will normally not keep, such as a small pint of milk, hard-boiled eggs, carrots, sliced meat or cheese. You can also keep other fresh veggies, such as lettuce, cucumber or onion. For your car trips, you can include many items such as these for fresh sandwiches. Your bread can stay out of the cooler for a few days. Grab yourself a couple plastic bowls/silverware and you can easily prepare some fresh cereal in the morning or hard-boiled eggs and sandwich for lunch.
You want something warm?? You can easily make something warm, however you will need a place to prepare. You can pick up a burner for around $20. These are the kind that use propane. You simply put the burner on top of the propane tank (small), put the pan on top, and you can heat anything you like. If staying in hotel rooms, there is another solution….
For about $15-30 dollars, depending if you want a single or double burner, you can buy an electric burner that plugs into the hotel room outlet. Voila’, you can make anything warm. Just try not to create too much smoke or you will set off smoke detectors. There was a couple that traveled all over Europe with an electric cookstove in their suitcase and cooked food in hotels. They never had a problem at the airport and never had a problem in the hotel rooms. The stove, of course, needs to be in your check in luggage and needs to be electric.
Traveling by train or bus?? Depending on how long your train ride, you can make fresh sandwiches to take with you INSTEAD of buying them on the train, where they cost 5 times as much. If you have a plan of traveling by train a number of days and have limited time to visit the supermarkets, you can bring: canned tuna/meat (it lasts forever, fills you up quickly, easy to carry around), bagged carrots (great for munchers, fills you up, last a few days out of the refrigerator), apples, pears, oranges cucumbers, bread and cheese will work also. Bread may get too soft and mushy in your suitcase, so sometimes a harder bread such as bagels, work nicely. Hard cheeses, such as parmesan or gouda last for a few days out of the fridge, as well. If unsure, do a sniff test. If its really warm, you may have to skip cheese and go for canned meat. Nuts are also an excellent snack to keep on hand. Full of protein and healthy fat, they are good for you and easy to carry around. Granola is also a great snackfood AND great for breakfast along with a banana!
Plane? Airports are full of places to eat, but are all of them healthy? Not always. The nice thing about flying is that you usually have a maximum of a couple days flying before arriving at your destination. Most overseas flights will feed you, but it doesnt mean the food is healthy. In fact, your body goes through many changes at altitude and its BEST to eat as fresh as possible to compensate for jetlag, headaches, nausea lethargy or sleepiness, or a general sense of feeling “yucky”.
In your carry-on you are allowed items without liquids. For a couple hour flight, its best to not eat, if you can handle it. For a 10 hour flight or longer, try bringing some fresh veggies. Hard vegetables such as carrots,cucumbers,broccoli,cauliflower radishes, turnips, celery or fennel are all vegetables you can eat raw. You can make a small salad on board. Nuts, such as walnuts, almonds or cashews are also great to take along to top off your salad. You can also carry on hard-boiled eggs and canned meat (purchased in the sealed bag is better or metal detector could go off). Fresh hard fruits such as apples, pears, oranges, grapefruits or even grapes work great for a small treat.
Most people that I have noticed, buy a bag of chips for $5 dollars at the airport and it lasts 3 seconds! They could have purchased a much healthy alternative for $2, such as carrots, that could have lasted a day!!