Most of us plan to travel somewhere during this season, whether it’s by plane, train, or automobile. While vacations are fun, the travel part can put a damper on your healthy eating and that’s NOT fun. So, here are a few tips so you can be more intentional during travel days. My number one “go to tip” – Pack Your Bags….with snacks – lots of healthy snacks. Here are a few of my favorite things to pack.
- Trail mix – make your own with raw nuts, seeds, and dried fruit – I personally like to mix raw almonds, sunflower seeds, pepitas, dried apricots, blueberries or cranberries.
- Make individual baggies of sugar snap peas, baby carrots, celery, and cucumber slices.
- ALWAYS have a BPA-free water bottle with you. You may find that your hunger is actually thirst. So, drink and drink often.
- Take sliced apples, strawberries, blueberries, and cherries.
- A banana – is always a good grab-n’-go, out-the-door and eat in the car kind of item
- Take 3-4 small individual jars pre-made with dried oatmeal, dried fruit, cinnamon, chia seeds and walnuts. This is a great way to ensure a healthy breakfast is readily available. Just add hot water and steep for a few minutes.
- Make homemade plant-based protein bars a day or two before travel. These will be a hit for the entire family. One of my favorite recipes:
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw almonds
- 1 scoop plant-based protein powder
- 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries or blueberries
- 1/2 cup flax meal
- 1/2 cup pepitas
- 2 T chia seeds
- 2 T maca powder
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 1/3 cup almond butter
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
Instructions
- In a food processor, grind the almonds into a course consistency.
- Add them to a bowl with the sunflower seeds, maca powder, flax meal, pepitas, chia seeds, dried fruit and sea salt.
- In a saucepan, combine the honey, almond butter and coconut oil.
- Mix until all are well combined.
- Add it to the bowl with the dried ingredients.
- Tear a sheet of parchment paper.
- Line a square pan with the paper.
- Spread in the mixture and pack down tight.
- Place in the fridge to set. About 1 hour.
Store them in the fridge or even freeze them for longer storage. Eat and Enjoy!
Those are just a few ideas…but if you plan ahead then you won’t be tempted to pull into a gas station or go to a fast food restaurant to grab something that you’d regret later. Preparation is the name of the game. Prepare to win the battle over those sneaky extra vacation calories.
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