Healthy Eating on Vacation...or Not
I tried and failed to come up with the perfect title for this post. Healthy Eating on Vacation sounds like a good title, but I think you’ll find it’s not very descriptive of my actual advice on this topic. Because if I had to summarize my answer to the common question “How can my family eat healthy on vacation?” I would probably say “Don’t bother.”
That’s a bit of an oversimplification because there’s certainly things you can and should do to make vacations a reasonably healthful experience. But in general, I’m not a big believer in overthinking health on vacation. At the end of the day, America’s health crisis is not the result of all-inclusive buffets or beach-side ice cream shops. It’s rooted in the every day choices we’ve been trained to make - sweetened cereal, sweetened coffee, chips, white bread, deli meat, deep fried foods, soda, fat-free chocolate milk, etc. The things we do every day at work and school and the choices we make at our local grocery store or fast food restaurant are what I focus my energy on. Special occasions like vacations and holidays just aren’t worth over-thinking.
So what does my family do when it comes to vacations?
First of all, I use the fact that my kids rarely get processed chips to my advantage during the actual travel portion. If you ever run into my family on an airplane, you can be certain we’ll be elbow deep in a bag of Goldfish. The salty, cheesy, hyper-palatable snack that many kids eat mindlessly every day is the stuff of legends in my house. My 4 year old sometimes casually muses about our next plane trip and the Goldfish that will magically appear.
My number one “healthy” food goal on vacation, with or without kids, is to maintain our normal eating schedule. Breakfast soon after waking, lunch mid-day and dinner in the evening, just like we do at home. Obviously on an adults-only trip I have a little more flexibility with timing since we’re not napping or going to bed early, but I do still aim for three meals. I’ve noticed that I have to be somewhat determined about this when we’re traveling with others, since not all people operate this way. But I know myself and my kids, and we do best when we eat meals on schedule, so one way or another I make this happen.
The only other “healthy” action I might take is to get to the grocery store upon arrival. This is generally only relevant on trips with a kitchen such as rental homes, hotel suites or visiting friends and family. By no means do we plan to eat every meal at the house/hotel, but it’s nice to have breakfast at home or the option of packing a lunch from time to time, especially on a trip with the kids. When this is the case, I use all of my standard grocery shopping principles. I still read ingredients and use my judgement just like I would at home. I would rather make exceptions for restaurant food than “splurge” on sweetened yogurt or refined bread for no particular reason.
Other than that, we ENJOY the local food! Personally, trying new foods and famous restaurants is one of the main reasons I love to travel. I make a point to avoid national chains when I’m on vacation, even something like a Starbucks. I want to see what the city has to offer! Another reason for travel is to connect with friends around the country, and that’s hard to do if we’re poo-pooing every food idea they have. We’re on vacation to have fun and connect with people and places, so that’s what we do.
All in all, I trust in the well-nourished human body to be incredibly resilient. One of the reasons I try to hard to eat clean, nutrient-dense food most of the time is so that I can enjoy whatever the world throws at me on occasion!