Prevent Health Setbacks and Weight Gain From Summer Traveling

Ever returned from a trip feeling bloated, sluggish, or heavier than when you left?

In this episode of Blasphemous Nutrition, Aimee, our unapologetically candid host and double-degreed nutritionist, dives deep into practical strategies to prevent weight gain and health setbacks while traveling. Whether you're jet-setting across the globe, road-tripping through the countryside, or hopping on a train for a scenic adventure, Aimee's got you covered with tips to keep your health on track without sacrificing enjoyment or feeling deprived. This episode is chock full of tips she uses with her clients and implemented herself on a recent summer vacation. Never one to leave mental matters unaddressed, she also provides some mindset nuggets to chew on if you need to examine your relationship to food while you are on holiday.

Notable Quotes/ Key Takeaways:

• Quote: "Your health is yours. It belongs to you. While you do not have 100% control over it, you do have a great influence on the trajectory that it takes."
• Key Takeaway: Don't rely on airlines or restaurants to meet your dietary needs. Plan ahead and take responsibility for your health, ensuring you have the right foods and snacks to stay nourished.

• Quote: "It is imperative to bring emergency rations with you that are compatible with what your body needs to thrive."
• Key Takeaway: Pack portable snacks like nuts, jerky, dehydrated fruits, and string cheese to avoid unhealthy airport or roadside food options. These will keep you satiated and prevent impulsive, poor food choices.

• Quote: "When you realize that feeling better feels better than the fun foods and culinary opportunities that appear when you're traveling, it becomes much easier to strategize as well as choose foods that are delicious but won't make you sick or won't cause you to gain weight."
• Key Takeaway: Combat FOMO by raising your standards and focusing on quality over quantity. Adopt an 'inner Frenchman' mindset to savor and appreciate high-quality treats while passing on the mediocre ones.

• Quote: "Pull up the menu to a restaurant and ask yourself the two questions: Where will I get my protein? Where will I get my produce?"
• Key Takeaway: Plan your meals in advance to avoid impulsive eating. Focus on protein and produce to keep your meals balanced and nutritious.

Resources:

Blasphemous Nutrition on Substack

Work with Aimee

Photography by: Dai Ross Photography

Podcast Cover Art: Lilly Kate Creative

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Transcript

0:01

Hey Rebels, welcome to Blasphemous Nutrition. Consider this podcast your pantry full of clarity, perspective, and the nuance needed to counter the superficial health advice so freely given on the internet. I'm Aimee, the unapologetically candid host of Blasphemous Nutrition and a double degreed nutritionist with 20 years experience. I'm here to share a more nuanced take. On living and eating well to sustain and recover your health. If you've found most health advice to be so generic as to be meaningless, or so extreme that it's unrealistic, and you don't mind the occasional F bomb. You've come to the right place. From dissecting the latest nutrition trends to breaking down published research and sharing my own clinical experiences, I'm on a mission to foster clarity amidst all the confusion and empower you to have the health you need to live a life you love. Now let's get started.

MacBook Air Microphone: 1:00

Welcome back to Blasphemous nutrition. I'm your host, Aimee and I've just returned from 35 days of traveling. In the us visiting friends and family. This trip, utilized trains. Planes and automobiles, involved three different states for different lodgings, a wedding, a reunion four to six family dinners, 12 dinners out with friends and zero meals prepared by yours truly. Do you remember that string cheese craving that I told you about a couple of episodes ago? Well, I had 130 sticks. String cheese in total. For those of you who are dying to know. While I am no longer having strong cravings for those rubbery salty sticks of creamy goodness. I did not get sick of them by the time I finished the last few at the Dublin airport. Now on this lengthy trip, I avoided digestive distress and weight gain. Despite a significant decrease in physical activity. And nearly all of our meals being eaten out. There were a couple of instances where my guts ran into something they did not care for, but these instances were three in total and very short-lived. Which I consider a massive success given how often I was in areas where food quality was not as high as I generally prefer it to be. In today's episode, I'm going to give you my best tips for navigating travel with minimal setbacks. Now this information is going to be by its nature rather general. So if you have specific challenges that are not addressed in this episode, You're more than welcome to reach out to me for a strategy session to create a customized plan that takes your unique situation into consideration. You can do that by texting me. And the link to text is in the show notes or by reaching out to me directly. And that link is also on the show notes. Now, when it comes to safe and healthy traveling. The magic really is in your mindset. What is true at home is especially true. When traveling, you cannot expect health to magically appear on your plate. I was somewhere online a couple of weeks ago. And someone had posted about how terrible it is that they ordered this gluten-free menu for a flight. And then when they got on the plane, it wasn't available when they got there. This post ended with a question akin to, do you think it's okay to be upset by this, which then prompted a litany of self-righteous entitled responses about how horrible airlines were, because they don't have gluten-free all the time. They don't have extra meals available on short notice and they never pair gluten-free and dairy-free in a meal without it also being vegan. It's as though people expect airline carriers to also be excellent full service restaurants. I'm sorry, people, but the airline industry can barely get you from one area to another on time, fully staffed with all pieces of the plane intact. If you happen to be on a Boeing aircraft, yet you expect them to take better care of your health than you do. I swear, those who are the most entitled in life are doomed to be the most disappointed. So here's the thing. Your health is yours. It belongs to you. While you do not have 100% control over it, you do have a great influence on the trajectory that it takes. If you relinquish full responsibility to anybody else, you're at their mercy. You're at the mercy of whatever knowledge they have, whatever beliefs they have, whatever their priorities are and whatever information they choose to tell you or withhold from you. Now, if you're in excellent health, you may not ever think about that, but. When your health comes into question, you need to be thinking about this. Hands down. Every single one of my clients who does well while traveling takes responsibility for their health. They understand and integrate the idea that taking care of yourself is not something that you ever want a vacation from. Even if managing your health is a pain in the ass, the consequences of neglecting it for them have become non negotiable. They understand that, how they eat impacts how they feel and they don't want to feel bloated, tired, achy stopped up or on the other end, afraid they'll shit, their pants while traveling. They don't want to come home to clothes that fit too tightly due to meals. They can scarcely remember So it is in this mindset where the magic lies. When you realize that feeling better feels better than the fun foods and culinary opportunities that appear when you're traveling. It becomes much easier to strategize as well as choose foods that are delicious. But won't make you sick or won't cause you to gain weight. So let's talk about some different strategies that you may want to implement depending on how you're traveling. First let's talk airlines. You need to let go of the expectation that any airport or airline is going to have what you need. It is imperative to bring emergency rations with you that are compatible with what your body needs to thrive. Even if there is an airport that has what you need. If a flight is delayed. Or you arrive at a time where nothing is open. You are going to be thankful that you have those emergency rations on hand. Now there's new technology being beta tested in select airports in the United States, as well as Europe. And so TSA will be loosening restrictions over the next couple of years. I have high hopes that hummus will no longer be deemed an existential threat to national security. But until that day comes snacks like nuts. Jerky, dehydrated fruits and veggies, like think kale chips, right. Fresh veggies like carrots, celery, cucumber, protein bars, and string cheese. Is highly portable and not likely to get you pulled over in security. I did hear from a colleague that freezing items like hummus and soup and yogurt will allow them to pass through security. So that may be a tactic to try if you're taking a longer flight and that food has, you know, time to thought out. Or if it's a food that you're going to use wherever you land. If you do give it a try and it works. Let me know if you give it a try and it doesn't work. Let me know. I won't be traveling for a while. So I definitely want to hear your experience. If you give this a go. Now, if you're going through an airport that you're familiar with, you probably already know what meals or snacks you can get. Well, there. If you are at an airport with options, count your blessings because not all airports have them. It is best to have some backup items. Regardless. I do have my go-to restaurants in the airports. I most frequent and I make note of choices that are available to me when I'm traveling in case I happen to go through that area again. I also make note when I travel through an airport that is a healthy food desert. Houston. I am looking at you. It is especially important in those situations that you have enough food on you to get through that food desert without getting hangry. Now if you're traveling by rail or by road. You have a bit more flexibility than airline travel. While traveling by rail is similar to airline travel the exception is that you can bring scandalous items like yogurt and hummus through security. And if you do get to travel by rail, enjoy that opportunity to pair your fresh veggies with hummus. You could also wrap leftovers in a Ziploc bag with a stay chill pack and toss it in your backpack to have on the train. Road trips, especially in the USA often feel like the death knell of any progress you've made with your health goals. But I'm willing to bet that is because you are not thinking about all of your food options. Having extensively traveled by car throughout the states from the north end to the south end, from the west coast to the east coast and all throughout the Rockies. Not only do I fully realize how crummy and random the options for food are in many areas of the United States. But I also have a very reliable backup plan, no matter where I happen to be. Firstly, if you're planning a multi-day trip, you already likely know roughly where you'll be stopping for the night. Utilizing Yelp or Google. Look for restaurants in the area that have menus with options that can work for your specific needs. And don't forget that you can usually edit a meal to leave out the cheese or substitute. Veggies for rice if you have food restrictions. Pull up the menu to a restaurant and ask yourself the two questions. Where will I get my protein? Where will I get my produce? And let that guide your decision making for that meal. An additional benefit to this level of foresight and planning. Is that when you decide what you're going to eat before you get there, you're less likely to be seduced by what looks good in the moment, because you have made an agreement with yourself about what is best for your health before you have even stepped through the door. Now it may be that you're going to end up in an area where there's not much available or you're driving through an area and and there is nothing much available. In this situation, there is always a backup option that most people do not even consider. Every town has a grocery store. And every grocery store has veggies and pre cooked protein. If you're lucky the grocery store will also have a fueling station to fill up the tank while you fill up yours. In my interstate travels, I intentionally stop at grocery stores with gas stations whenever I can. And I use that opportunity to run in and get some veggies and dip, hard-boiled eggs, deli slices, a pre-made salad or sushi from the deli. And so on. People often feel that their only option is a drive-through meal when they're on a road trip. And yet they zoom past dozens of grocery stores without a second thought. It's always worthwhile on a car trip to bring a small cooler with chilled snacks also. So that way you stay satisfied on the road and you never reach emergency levels of hunger. Now, these strategies will help you ensure that you have access to healthy foods that your body needs, but it doesn't address the number one Saba tour of every vacation. FOMO. FOMO or the fear of missing out is a pervasive and prevalent experience. Our modern marketing is all about activating our FOMO. This keeps the pump primed. And it also leads to subconscious beliefs that we should be able to have whatever we fancy when we stumble upon it. Living in a culture of instant gratification has horrific outcomes for our health and wellbeing. But it is what it is. And we all have to work around that beast. Right. Each person's FOMO is rooted in a unique way, and it shows up in a multitude of different ways. Working with whatever your FOMO looks like and how it presents itself is something that might take time, repeated lessons, some regrets, and lots of tenacity. But it can be tamed and kept on a leash with lots of attention and intention. Some general tips for dealing with FOMO that have worked well for my clients or the following. One: accessing your inner Frenchmen. Two: putting it into perspective. Three: remembering the consequences. And four: keeping the payoff and mind. Now accessing your inner Frenchmen is often a client favorite, and it's a trick that I've used with my clients for well over a decade now. I'm a huge fan of archetypes and utilizing archetypes as inner guides to better knowing ourselves and learning new behaviors. Once in a session, I was speaking to a client about her chocolate habit. And I encouraged her to focus on quality over quantity. At the time all chocolate was chocolate. She could not say no to easily. So I was encouraging her to raise the bar and set some standards instead of abstaining completely because it was a situation where she felt it was all or nothing for her. But ultimately. Raising the bar. And having some guidelines about what chocolate was worth it and what wasn't was going to be a more sustainable option for her. So I related this concept to behaving like a French person who would not dare to eat the Kroger's chocolate Easter bunny that was mostly wax because. That is simply unacceptable. The French would forego this, but perhaps take an opportunity for a small square of imported. Artisan chocolate offered by a friend. The inner Frenchmen or inner food snob is an archetype that you can adopt to live in your brain and basically act as the part of you with high standards that will not simply eat something because it's there. The inner Frenchman easily passes over Hershey's chocolate on the co-workers desk because eet eez of low quality and is not worth sullying zee, precious body with such nonsense. A small batch, Belgian chocolate truffle, however Z sees marvelous. And it's such high quality. Usually. Only takes one or two truffles to be satisfied. But most people end up eating 6, 7, 8, 10 Hershey's kisses on their coworkers desk throughout the day, because. It doesn't actually satisfy you. Now, the second thing is to put it into perspective. In the moment, treats are highly appealing. And if you're hungry, it's even more so. We have so many cues to eat, regardless of whether or not we're hungry. And we have so many rituals around specific foods. Some of them are cultural, like the obligatory wedding cake. And some of them may be very specific to you or your family, like the one ice cream shop that you always go to and route to the summer cabin. Fun celebratory foods attached to our customs can be painful to let go of whether or not you need to is of course, entirely up to you. Oftentimes on vacation, our culinary indiscretions are not. That important. They're predominantly opportunistic. Like, let's say you've been swimming in the ocean all morning or you're on a road trip and you've been driving all day and you finally get to a restaurant and you are famished. Even if you've planned ahead, your eyes spot a deep fried appetizer. That sounds like it would really hit the spot. This is a moment of high vulnerability and it's one where it's very easy to just cave in. Even worse, when someone else at the table, who's just as hungry as you orders an app to share. And it sounds amazing, but it's not aligned with what's best for you. What do you do? What do you do in that situation? Most of us are kind of like, well, fuck it. Let's go for it. Right. When we are hungry, our ability to rationalize and think logically is highly compromised. So first off, if you have emergency rations on hand, Have some! Grab a string cheese before you get to the restaurant or a protein bar to take the edge off so that you can think more clearly before you sit down and open up the menu. Now, at the table there are some things to consider. One have you had it before? I mean, I love jalapeno poppers as much as the next Mexican, but I've had them before and they're not aligned with what I need to do to feel my best. Sometimes I'm sad to say no, but remembering for the most part, that once you've had one popper, you've kind of had them all. Allows me to keep the opportunity. In front of me in proper perspective. While, I have never regretted saying no to a plate of poppers after the fact. Caving in and having some has led to some regrets. Now the same thing is true for wedding cake. It can feel almost sacrilege to say no to cake at a wedding or a birthday party. But by and large. Most of these cakes tastes like. Cake. And it's pretty easily forgettable. Plus no one actually notices. If you pass up a slice. Just keep a beverage in your hand and you pass the plate on to the next person. I cannot remember anything about the cakes that I've passed up. But I still remember the very first time I said no to cake at a wedding. Because I was so damn proud of myself. The other thing to take into consideration. At the table are the consequences. Now if you have food intolerances or food allergies or GI issues, the consequences of having something you shouldn't have. Usually makes it easier to pass up once loved foods. I mean I'm gluten-free and the continent of some of the best pastries in the world. And that was not an easy transition. Let me tell you. I've had to relive a lot of the initial grief that I had 20 years ago. When I first discovered I had a gluten intolerance. But the consequences of ignoring what my body needs is, what keeps me on the straight and narrow. Now that said, when there's an especially gorgeous French pastry or my husband is enjoying a particularly fine piece of pizza. I might ask them if it's worth it. Or. Sometimes he'll catch me looking longingly at whatever he's eating and he'll let me know whether or not it's worth it. Now since I'm not severely intolerant, I can get away with a couple of bites of pizza or pastry now. And then. There are times when I feel the indiscretion is worth it, but most of the time it isn't. My threshold of tolerance has been honed over many, many years, and it has changed since I've entered my forties. So know that the consequences you may suffer and how much you can get away with, if any, may take time to discern and may need to be revisited after a big life event like childbirth surgery, a period of intense, emotional distress or a peri-menopause. Big physical or psychological stressors. Like these can alter how our body metabolizes certain foods and our immune system's ability to tolerate certain foods. And so something that you may have been able to get away with before you may not be able to get away with now. That doesn't always mean that it will be forever more. But it could be. Every body is different. If you're working with weight and not an intolerance or a disease, it may be even harder to discern when it's worth it. And when it isn't. The consequences of weight gain tend not to be sudden nor extreme so we can easily fool ourselves into having just a little bit. Just this once, because it won't matter. On vacation though, just this once, once a day or more can add up to several pounds by the time you come home. So, what are the consequences for you? Decide if it's worth it to work that much harder when you get home to lose regained weight. Decide if that temptation in front of you is going to be worth the extra work later. And bring in your inner Frenchmen to help you decide. It's also worth considering whether a specific temptation becomes a trigger for future cravings. In that case, it may be best not to go there at all. One of my clients who I'm going to call Sally, not her real name. Recently went to Europe for three weeks. Her trip included, travel with friends as well as a guided multi-day tour where she had no say in what was served. Now her mindset was in the right place. And her goal was to maintain the weight that she had lost while she was away. We talked about her inner Frenchmen. She named him, John. and she planned out her backup snacks for travel and even brought extra emergency rations for the guided tour part of her trip in case what was served was going to be a no-go. I had her go to a grocery store upon arriving in Europe to get food that she could keep in her hotel room. Ensuring that she had sufficient protein at breakfast because the protein well, all portions in Europe tend to be smaller than American portions. And when you're focusing on increasing your protein. It can be particularly hard in Europe and Asia. To get substantial protein at each meal. When she was out with that tour and there were sandwiches offered, she consumed the inside without the added bread. Whenever there were vegetables available, she had extra at every single opportunity. And she chose to abstain from alcohol for most of the trip, aside from two to three times where she had decided in advance, it was going to be worth it for her. She came back from Europe without any weight gain. And without any feelings of deprivation. One of the reasons for this is that before Sally left, we had conversations about how often she would indulge. how much was worth it. And what the payoff was going to be for her. She got to decide. What was worth indulging in and what wasn't. How to work around the situation where she didn't have many food choices at her disposal. And what the payoff for that work was going to be. Sally had set up guardrails in place. To keep her on the trajectory that she had started. But. you know, loosen those guardrails a little bit, offered a little bit more width, so she didn't feel excessively restricted. Now the payoff for her was to be able to come back to the states and feel like she hadn't backed, slid. The payoff for some of my clients in doing that hard thing of minding their food and tolerances while traveling. Is to be able to travel without pain and discomfort. And some people really do struggle at first to ask for what they need. Especially if they're trying to do it in a foreign language. But they find that with practice, it does get easier. And the result is both they and their families are better off for them investing the effort, despite any inconvenience to prioritize their health, even while traveling. Now for many people, vacation is a time to let loose and have fun. And you might be asking, how do I let loose if I can't eat what I want? This holiday mindset of letting loose is the result of living a daily life that is too restrictive and too confining. In the longterm finding ways to relieve your stress. To increase the joy and laughter in your life. To find or connect to greater meaning and satisfaction in the day to day, mundane is key to preventing every vacation from being some rehash of middle-aged moms gone. Wild. You don't have to have an Instagram worthy life to have more peace within the life that you do have. Even five minutes of meditation locked in the workplace. Toilet stall can make a difference when done consistently. I spoke with a client this week. Who's working on reducing stress related cravings that are triggered from a highly stressful work environment. What he's doing is he's taking a brief walk directly after work to release that stress of the day from his body. So we drives home parks, the car steps out and immediately leaves the house to walk the neighborhood, like exit the car, walk the neighborhood. For 15 to 30 minutes to just let go of the day before transitioning into the house for family time. Not only has this reduced his cravings, but he's noticed it allows him to show up for his loved ones in a better place than he was before he started doing this. Little gifts. Like this can go a long way to keeping us in better balance as we navigate. All of the immense responsibilities that we are tasked with. If you find yourself stepping into every vacation with an all bets are off attitude, you are likely going to have some regrets coming out of that trip. Sometimes we can get away with that while we're young, but. As we age, we have less and less. wiggle room to throw caution to the wind. Part of preserving our health for the future comes from proactively preventing situations where. Extreme solutions feel like the only suitable solution. So as you work on adding in layers of calm and joy into your life, so you no longer feel the need to go hog wild on vacation. You can look for other indulgences during vacation that do feel a bit extra, but aren't food related. Maybe you indulge in a special tour or an add on to your trip to make it feel extra special. You can ask yourself. If. Food did nothing for me. If food wasn't a thing. If we just like, took that off the table, how else could I make this trip special? Maybe you pay for a spa day to relax instead of. Putting that money to cocktails and a fancy meal. Maybe you release stress by going parasailing or jet skiing or taking strenuous hikes and the nature that surrounds where you're traveling to. Brainstorm ways and ideas to get what you need from your vacation time that is completely independent and unrelated to food. So that way you can come back to your real life refreshed. And recovered. But without regret. Folks. I do hope that my treasure trove of self-preservation tactics has been helpful for you today. If you like what you've heard, you can be a good Samaritan and rate and review this podcast in your app so that others can also find this episode and this podcast. Your reviews are the number one way to get discovered on podcast apps. Additionally, you can share this episode with your travel buddies or your family members and utilize it as a way to support one another this summer. As you all go about traversing, the planet, looking for fun. Until next time, my dearest of listeners stay sassy, stay skeptical and stay strategic.

32:22

If you have found some Nuggets of Wisdom, make sure to subscribe, rate, and share Blasphemous Nutrition with those you care about. As you navigate the labyrinth of health advice out there, remember, health is a journey, not a dietary dictatorship. Stay skeptical, stay daring, and challenge the norms that no longer serve you. If you've got burning questions or want to share your own flavor of rebellion, slide into my DMs. Your stories fuel me, and I love hearing them. Thanks again for tuning in to Blasphemous Nutrition. Until next time, this is Aimee signing off, reminding you that truth is nuanced, and any dish can be made better with a little bit of sass. Any and all information shared here is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is not to be misconstrued as offering medical advice. Listening to this podcast does not constitute a provider client relationship. Note, I'm not a doctor nor a nurse, and it is imperative that you utilize your brain and your medical team to make the best decisions for your own health. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked to this podcast are at the user's own risk. No information nor resources provided are intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Be a smart human and do not disregard or postpone obtaining medical advice for any medical condition you may have. Seek the assistance of your healthcare team for any such conditions and always do so before making any changes to your medical, nutrition, or health plan.