Road Trips can be super fun but how do you manage these getaways and staying on track with your nutrition plan? I mean let’s be honest, a lot of people fall off track when we leave the confides of our home. So is it possible to stay on track when travelling?

It’s definitely a little trickier and requires more planning and willpower, but it’s completely possible to stay on plan, continue working toward your goals AND not feel deprived of the food you love – EVEN on vacation!

When most people trying to make physical and lifestyle changes, they follow a ‘normal’ approach…

THE ‘NORMAL’ APPROACH

• Binge eat on vacation.
• Consume large quantities of sugar on a regular basis.
• Frequent fast food restaurants.
• Exercise at a slow pace once or twice a week.
• Slack off on keeping your body properly hydrated.
• Consume extra large portions of food.
• Eat processed and industrialized “foods”.
• Reduce standards for health and quality of life.
• Put goals and dreams on hold.

If you want different results, if you want to achieve a body that’s lean, healthy, sexy and energetic, then you need the Strong Girls Approach…  

STRONG GIRLS APPROACH:  

• Eat sensibly on vacation, balancing indulgences with activity and calorie control.
• Restrict sugar for only rare and special occasions.
• Stick with simple, wholesome meals made at home (like the recipe for Slow Cooker Balsamic Chicken below)
• Exercise at a high intensity 4 to 5 times per week, always pushing themselves to lift more and go harder.
• Make the conscious effort to drink water throughout the day to maintain proper hydration.
• Live an active life where food is consumed sensibly as fuel.
• Fill diet with fresh, real, unadulterated foods.
• Refuse to peak physically or mentally; always strives to raise the bar.
• Actively pursue goals and dreams.
• Achieve goals and dreams…and go on to set new ones.

So the way to vacation proof your diet is to adopt the STRONG GIRLS MINDSET!

This mindset will carry over into your entire year, not just that week of vacation, and by the time next summer rolls around you’ll be living in a very unreasonably fit and attractive body!

Once you have your mind focused and ready to go, start planning…

STRONG GIRLS TOP 5 ROAD TRIP TIPS

1. Get a cooler (preferably hard-walled so you can put lots of ice in there). Prep your food as per usual. Pack the cooler before you go. You can always stop and get a new bag of ice for your cooler if necessary).  
2. Request a fridge in your hotel room (you can usually call ahead; most hotels will accommodate you, but if there’s any issue, you can just say you have medication that needs refrigeration and most hotels will provide one); OR, arrange for safe food storage wherever you’ll be.
3. Make a rule not to eat what you’d normally eat while traveling. There ARE on-plan options at fast food restaurants, you just need to have the willpower to resist your “treats” and usual order – break the old habits! In a pinch, Starbucks egg white bites are a really good breakfast option on the road. Also, almost ALL convenience stores / gas stations have boiled eggs – also totally on plan. Most restaurants / fast food places have salads too – just remove the toppings that aren’t on plan and always ask for dressing on the side (keep a tablespoon in your purse so you can quickly measure dressing). There are lots of other options, it just requires some thinking and subbing.
4. Have a meal-prep service deliver food to your hotel if you’re away for more than 2-3 days and can’t bring all your prepped food with you (you can also find local meal prep services). OR find a grocery store nearby where you can purchase your on-plan food.  
5. Drink LOTS of water (I keep a flat of water in my backseat so I can just grab a bottle, but also most rest stops have fountains if you prefer not to used bottles).

ROAD TRIP TRAINING TIPS

1. See if your hotel has a gym – if so, what equipment? Make necessary modifications based on equipment available.
2. If no gym at hotel, you have two options: A) Find a local gym you can pay a daily rate for; or B) Modify your workouts to allow for equipment available or bodyweight exercises! Take every opportunity to be active and move – it all adds up! Every little bit counts 🙂

Those are our top tips for staying on track! It’s really more a battle of willpower and just making the right choices, going that extra step to stay on plan, rather than not having any options at all.

Choosing the right food options when you have to and choosing to get your workouts in – CHOOSING THE STRONG GIRLS APPROACH!

Coach Jaclyn