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If you're determined to eat healthy foods when you're on vacation, you can do it. Some of it requires advance planning and the rest of it requires assertiveness and willpower.
With that in mind, consider these ideas for staying on your eating plan while you're away from home:
Pack your own snacks. If you're driving, fill a cooler full of fruits, vegetables, sandwiches, drinks, yogurt and other smart foods. If you're flying, you can still carry a bag of granola bars, shelf-stable cheeses or even a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Don't forget bottled water!
Hold the extras. If you have to stop at a drive-thru, try to order your hamburger without cheese, skip the condiments, choose grilled meats instead of fried and look to the salad bar for options. Just make sure you don’t drive too long without eating, always stop at a rest area to eat (especially with children, who run the risk of choking when fed while in a car seat) and stay away from sugary snacks.
Eat right at the hotel. When you arrive at your hotel, do yourself a favor and hide the mini-bar key. If your hotel offers a Continental breakfast, stick to fruits, cereals and proteins such as eggs. Low-fat muffins are also a smarter choice than Danishes and donuts.
If your hotel has a microwave or in-room refrigerator, consider visiting a grocery store and getting food with nutrition content you already know. If worse comes to worst, you can always rely on the hotel coffee maker to heat water for oatmeal you’ve brought from home.
Be careful at dinner buffets. All you can eat doesn't mean all you can force down your throat. It's about choices. Pick one steam table and skip the rest, or focus on foods you don't get to have at home. Don't waste calories, sodium and fat grams on foods that aren't worth it. If you have willpower at home, you can have willpower in a restaurant!
Consider ordering half-sized portions, sharing entrees, ordering appetizers as meals, getting a doggy bag and not cleaning your plate.
Don't think of eating out as a special treat. Most of us eat out several times a week, so giving ourselves permission to overindulge leads to huge problems. If you want menu items prepared or dressed a different way than is listed on the menu, ask politely if this is possible. Most special requests can be accommodated. You are on vacation, so it doesn't make sense to deprive yourself of an enjoyable food. Just try to keep your treats to one a day. After that, go for a healthy choice instead. If your diet is based on a medical emergency situation, however, you may have to be strong and resist anyway.
Drink lots of water every day. Traveling can dehydrate you, and so can being out in the sun more than your body is used to. If you can, stock your car, backpack or hotel room with ice-cold bottles of water. Bring water everywhere you go.
Listen to your body. Eating opportunities and celebrations are all around us when we are vacationing, and we're in the "I'm on vacation!" mind set. That's when we will be the most vulnerable to eating even if we aren't hungry and not stopping when we are comfortable.
Learn to decode restaurant menus. Avoid foods with descriptions like buttery or buttered, basted, fried, French fried, crispy, Hollandaise, au gratin or in cheese sauce, scalloped or rich gravy. Try to select foods that include words like stir fried, steamed, au jus (in its own juices), poached, raw and garden fresh. The term "broiled" is tricky. Broiled in butter is not good, but dry broiled is great!
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It's hard to eat smart when you're on vacation. Your routines are disrupted and you have to make do with what's available. If you're trying hard to watch your diet of if you have a health condition that makes it vital to eat carefully, it's more than just an inconvenience to deal with vacation eating—it's a life-or-death matter.
