Vacation and Clean Eating

With the summer rapidly coming to a close most families are trying to get in those last vacations before school starts. I've been getting many questions about how to plan for clean eating while on vacation and tips to share on packing before a trip.

So what are some of the must dos before going on any vacation if you want to stay on your clean eating plan.

1. Check out restaurant menus before you go out: Let's face it. The world today has many restaurant choices and many put their nutritional information on their website. Before you go out sit down with the menu and plan out what you are going to order. This will save you from sitting in a restaurant while you are hungry and trying to make a decision. In the end when you are hungry you will always pick the first thing that looks appealing to you on the menu and it probably won't be the most healthy.

2. Make sure you are eating many small meals a day: Instead of just eating three big meals (ie. breakfast, lunch and dinner) eat five to six small meals a day. Food is fuel. You never want your blood sugar to drop. Have you ever noticed that if you choose the Disney Dining Plan option they build in so many snacks per day. They do this so that they can keep you at the park longer as you will continue to feel good as blood sugar will remain consistent through out the day if you space these out. Most people will eat breakfast around 7, have a snack at 10, lunch around 12:30 or 1, snack at 4, and then dinner around 6 or 7.

3. Drink your water: One of the other big things is mistaking hunger for thirst. Doctors recommend that you drink have your body weight in ounces each day. This means that is you weigh 140 lbs you should be drinking 70 ounces of water each day. This is especially important if you are going somewhere hot and sunny where you will be sweating a lot. Make sure you increase your water intake even more in this case. Also if you are doing a lot more activity than you are used to up the water intake.

4. Carry snacks in your carry on or in a backpack/briefcase for when you cannot find a good choice: I remember being at conferences and there not being many good choices for snack food. You could pick up a hot soft pretzel or tacos or candy bars but nothing that was healthy. Pack some fruit from the breakfast buffet from the hotel in your back pack for later in the day. Purchase bags of nuts or bulk granola before you leave for you trip and place it in individual proportioned baggies for your entire trip. Another easy go to to put in your carry on is oatmeal. Just add water and you have a good meal.

5. Alcohol: With any conference trip and some fun trips you know you will be doing dinner with clients or friends. Skip the alcohol. This will just add additional empty calories. Really want a drink? Then use this as your cheat meal for the week.

6. Exercise: Plan what you are going to do for exercise before you leave. Maybe you take you laptop and DVDS and exercise in your hotel room or the hotel gym. Maybe you plan out a trail to run on. Just make sure if you are used to exercising you continue to exercise. You body and digestive system will thank you.

I hope that these tips help you as you plan your end of the summer vacations. I wish you all a great last few weeks of summer before school starts.