Whole Food Plant Based and travel

[Minerva]

First and foremost, to all of you who have shared your WFPB experiences here, thank you! In February, after feeling really inspired by you folks, I switched to a mostly WFPB diet. It has absolutely changed my life for the better. 

I am looking for some travel tips. Your favorite on-the-go snacks or meals for long travel days and also staying WFPB when you are away from home for a long time or eating out frequently. I need both psychological strategies and easy meal prep ideas. It is very easy for me to stay WFPB when I'm at home, but when I have less control, I am prone to eating less well. I will be traveling for a  month, and I am nervous that I will fall into bad habits. 

Thank you!

[Laura Corin]

It's hard. If you can eat nuts and dried fruit, those  are useful snacks.

If eating out at a sit-down place,  I often found that two starters rather than a main fit better - often a veggie soup and a salad. Good luck!

[73349]

I'm not all the way to WFPB, but what I have to do is think several meals ahead. I plan to bring food unless I have found another option, and I look today at what I'm going to need to do tomorrow. I don't walk into a restaurant without knowing what I'm ordering.

[SHP]

I buy veggie trays at grocery stores as well as fruit. I buy salad mixes and have a bowl and utensils with me. If eating out I order take out to allow me to plan.

[regentrude]

On road trips, it's easier than on planes. We travel with a cooler full of fruits and veggies. Grapes, apples, bananas, carrots. Plus nuts and dried fruits. Hummus. Peanut butter.

If we stop to eat, it's usually Panera which have good soups and salads. 

Will you have a kitchen/fridge, or will you be on the go the entire month?

[HomeAgain]

You might check if there's a Trader Joe's around the areas.  They usually have some good options that come in single servings or small containers. I tend to eat more vegetarian/vegan when we travel, and places like Q'Doba or Chipotle, where I can build my own burrito bowl are a steady option.  Panera introduced their plant-based bowls as well, and they are very, very good. I had their Baja warm grain bowl and it was a pleasant surprise with how tasty it was.

 

[Selkie]

As long as you have access to grocery stores along the way, you will have plenty of food readily available - fresh fruit, salad greens, canned beans, nuts, tofu, hummus, guacamole, etc.

Meals that can be easily made in a hotel room:

Oatmeal with fruit, nuts, and seeds

Ezekiel bread with nut butter and fresh fruit, or avocado

Salads with all kinds of veggies, beans, tofu, nuts, seeds, etc. You can get travel bottles of balsamic vinegar to use as dressing, or just squeeze a lemon, lime, or orange over the salad. (Another option is finding a grocery store with a salad bar.)

Wraps with hummus or guacamole and whatever filling you like

Burritos with beans, veggies, salsa, guacamole

Veggies and dip or hummus

If you have access to a stove or microwave, you can make tons of things like simple soups, grain bowls, etc.

For restaurants, check the menu ahead and make sure there is something that you can eat. If you call a day ahead of time, many restaurants will make food to your specifications without oil or salt.

As far as psychological strategies, I just draw a line and don’t cross it. I’m very motivated by my health and the way I feel. I know that if I were to slip into unhealthy eating, I would feel gross and my health would suffer - so I’m not tempted at all.

 

 

[Indigo Blue]

This is what I do, being a bit more restricted because of gluten and fodmaps. 
 

Premeasure oatmeal in ziploc bags with whatever things you normally put in, such as pecans, dried blueberries, cinnamon, raisins, etc. Prepare in hotel room. If you have to eat on the road, then baked oatmeal made ahead of time and cut into squares. It’s fine eaten room temperature. I love my big cookie-shaped oatmeal bars with blueberries and macadamia nuts (sweetened with bananas). 
 

Roll oats, cinnamon, and peanut butter into balls. You can freeze them and eat them later on the road. 
 

Prepared ahead and frozen in meal portions in ziploc bags: quinoa, kale, sweet potato. Keep in cooler. If you will be heating it, just thaw a bit and heat. If on the go, then a small bowl of edamame eaten room at temperature, a banana, and nuts. 

Stop at Chic Filet  and buy two kale salads. 
 

Stop at grocery store and buy raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, or grapes if you have a way to rinse them. 
 

Chipotle can be doable and WFPB. (I can’t eat there). 
 

If you are near a Clean Juice, get a hugely overpriced but healthy smoothie. 
 

This is all stuff that’s quick and easy to eat in the car, except for the quinoa which you’d want to heat. But….you could easily find a quinoa/veggie bowl recipe that is meant to be eaten cold. I just don’t have one. If I had to, I’d eat the quinoa/kale/sw potato thawed to room temp. 
 

Quinoa and edamame are good because they are a good source of complete protein. You just pair them with fruit/nuts and you can get by with that for a few days. Easy.

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Indigo Blue

[Faith-manor]

In a pinch, I eat Panera Bread because I can get nice salads. I am not entirely meatless, so often I get the Mediterranean chicken bowl which is quinoa, arugula, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and black olives with some chicken and topped with hummus plus either Greek yogurt or sour cream.

I usually make some stir fry rice and veggies to take, and have an Rtic cooler for the back seat. I also make broccoli pasta salad which Mark and I really enjoy when we road trip. If it is too cold or stormy to eat at a picnic table at a rest area or park, we just eat inside the car. Mark makes homemade gf bagels, and we keep peanut butter and cream cheese to go with them, and those are very filling.

I make dehydrated fruits, and we take cashews and almonds, pretzels and hummus (I travel a LOT with hummus), veggie sticks, usually some cheese sticks, and I make gf cookies to take for a fun dessert. 

I have also been known to eat at Cracker Barrel if it is too nasty out to picnic, and I am tired. I get the country side platter which is six sides, and have cooked carrots, two of the pinto and beans, two of the green beans, and mashed potatoes without gravy. It comes with biscuits (which I can't have but Mark enjoys). Cracker Barrel coffee is pretty good so it makes an okay stop.

[Sunshine State Sue]

Lots of great ideas already shared.

I almost never eat breakfast out.  If I have a stove available, I bring oatmeal, cinnamon, nuts, and buy fruit and plant based milk for it.  I bring homemade granola with me (thank you Laura Corin for sharing the recipe). Add some plant milk and it is breakfast. Eat as is for a snack.

If I am eating out both lunch and dinner, I make sure one meal is a big salad. I will check the menu ahead of time and resolve myself to it. A lot of times, something else looks more appealing. If only sides salads are available, order two.

[Minerva]

7 hours ago, Laura Corin said:

It's hard. If you can eat nuts and dried fruit, those  are useful snacks.

If eating out at a sit-down place,  I often found that two starters rather than a main fit better - often a veggie soup and a salad. Good luck!

This is so smart. I cant believe I've never thought of this before. 

[Minerva]

6 hours ago, Selkie said:

As long as you have access to grocery stores along the way, you will have plenty of food readily available - fresh fruit, salad greens, canned beans, nuts, tofu, hummus, guacamole, etc.

Meals that can be easily made in a hotel room:

Oatmeal with fruit, nuts, and seeds

Ezekiel bread with nut butter and fresh fruit, or avocado

Salads with all kinds of veggies, beans, tofu, nuts, seeds, etc. You can get travel bottles of balsamic vinegar to use as dressing, or just squeeze a lemon, lime, or orange over the salad. (Another option is finding a grocery store with a salad bar.)

Wraps with hummus or guacamole and whatever filling you like

Burritos with beans, veggies, salsa, guacamole

Veggies and dip or hummus

If you have access to a stove or microwave, you can make tons of things like simple soups, grain bowls, etc.

For restaurants, check the menu ahead and make sure there is something that you can eat. If you call a day ahead of time, many restaurants will make food to your specifications without oil or salt.

As far as psychological strategies, I just draw a line and don’t cross it. I’m very motivated by my health and the way I feel. I know that if I were to slip into unhealthy eating, I would feel gross and my health would suffer - so I’m not tempted at all.

 

 

Thank you for saying this. I am similar, and I think if I just set my resolve, remind myself that I feel so much better when I eat this way, I will be less likely to make bad decisions.

[Minerva]

Thanks everyone, so many good suggestions here.

I will be traveling abroad, so some of the ideas wont work for this trip, but I do take a lot of road trips, and this will help me a lot in the future. I have never eaten at a Panera which seems to be a good staple for many of you, and sounds like it might be a good road trip option for me too. I  have a mini cooler that I can keep full of healthy snacks, and I like the idea of keeping some premade salad and picnic gear so that I can eat well when everyone else wants to stop for a burger.

I am mostly nervous about being in airplanes and long waits in airports. My teenagers, who are good about eating healthy most of the time, will want to indulge in airport food. I have to really plan ahead and not fall for the easy instant gratification of a meal that will make me feel bad later. I notice that letting myself get overly hungry is a recipe for making poor decisions. My carry on bag will have to be smorgasbord.

We will have a small kitchen when we arrive to our destination and access to a market with decent fresh food. Eating well wont be too hard once we arrive unless we eat out a lot. I do like having the break from cooking when we travel, but maybe that's just not going to be a reality anymore. 

I especially like what @Selkie said about drawing a line and not crossing it. This will be my travel mantra while I get the hang of things. 

Many thanks! 

[prairiewindmomma]

We do a lot of pre scouting if we know an itinerary—restaurants often post their menus online, many grocery stores allow preorders online where you can set a pickup time, and we tend to choose airbnbs or hotels with fridges. When we road-trip, we travel with a mini kitchen: cutting board with a sharp knife wrapped in a kitchen towel, a small bottle of dish soap for washing up, a mixing bowl that doubles as a salad bowl, and sometimes an instant pot. If I pre-plan meals, I will often pack up a little ziplock with little pouches of premixed seasoning as spices are expensive to replace and take up a bit of room to pack. 

[Minerva]

53 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

We do a lot of pre scouting if we know an itinerary—restaurants often post their menus online, many grocery stores allow preorders online where you can set a pickup time, and we tend to choose airbnbs or hotels with fridges. When we road-trip, we travel with a mini kitchen: cutting board with a sharp knife wrapped in a kitchen towel, a small bottle of dish soap for washing up, a mixing bowl that doubles as a salad bowl, and sometimes an instant pot. If I pre-plan meals, I will often pack up a little ziplock with little pouches of premixed seasoning as spices are expensive to replace and take up a bit of room to pack. 

I love the commitment! 

[Selkie]

1 hour ago, Minerva said:

Thanks everyone, so many good suggestions here.

I will be traveling abroad, so some of the ideas wont work for this trip, but I do take a lot of road trips, and this will help me a lot in the future. I have never eaten at a Panera which seems to be a good staple for many of you, and sounds like it might be a good road trip option for me too. I  have a mini cooler that I can keep full of healthy snacks, and I like the idea of keeping some premade salad and picnic gear so that I can eat well when everyone else wants to stop for a burger.

I am mostly nervous about being in airplanes and long waits in airports. My teenagers, who are good about eating healthy most of the time, will want to indulge in airport food. I have to really plan ahead and not fall for the easy instant gratification of a meal that will make me feel bad later. I notice that letting myself get overly hungry is a recipe for making poor decisions. My carry on bag will have to be smorgasbord.

We will have a small kitchen when we arrive to our destination and access to a market with decent fresh food. Eating well wont be too hard once we arrive unless we eat out a lot. I do like having the break from cooking when we travel, but maybe that's just not going to be a reality anymore. 

I especially like what @Selkie said about drawing a line and not crossing it. This will be my travel mantra while I get the hang of things. 

Many thanks! 

This woman travels a lot and has some great tips for airport and airplane food:

https://pblife.org/lifestyle/how-to-mix-travel-with-plant-based-eating/

[Minerva]

Wow, @Selkie, that blog post was super helpful. 

[GoVanGogh]

Oh, this is super timely for me. I may need to take a longer road trip soon and I am dreading the food options. Love all the suggestions and ideas. 
 

We recently went on a short road trip. I looked at restaurants ahead of time and found some real gems. I often will order several side dishes, such as steamed broccoli and a salad. On that trip, we were at a huge tourist attraction and the food options were dismal. (Hot dogs, fries, nachos with cheap artificial cheese, etc) I suggested we leave and walk across the way to a hotel, as I thought I could just order a plain salad if nothing else. I ended up ordering two different side salads and combined them in to one salad. It was amazing. Like they were meant to be eaten that way! I also ordered a small fruit salad, which ended up being quite huge and very fresh. It was a great meal and cheaper than the food at the tourist place. 

On that trip, I packed a small electric kettle to heat water for oatmeal. I took carrots and apples, nut butter, nuts and dried fruits, hummus. I am prone to digestive issues so also packed kombucha, which I find filling. This wouldn’t work for airline travel, but I do take a paring knife, bowls, etc so I have a mini kitchen. 
 

I love going to regional grocery stores and buying fresh foods when we travel. My DH doesn’t care for it because it reminds him too much of his childhood vacations but he is slowly warming up to the idea. I also look for juice bars, as many of them also offer smoothie bowls which make a nice meal. 
 

I have not traveled abroad since going wfpb, but I have found Canada and France to have lots of healthy food options. 

[YaelAldrich]

Just be careful of what you bring depending on where you travel.  Australia and NZ will be very grumpy (and you will be very much poorer) if you bring in most fruits and vegetables. 

[prairiewindmomma]

59 minutes ago, YaelAldrich said:

Just be careful of what you bring depending on where you travel.  Australia and NZ will be very grumpy (and you will be very much poorer) if you bring in most fruits and vegetables. 

Also, California. Even if you arrive by car, there is border control with car checks. They don’t even like it if you bring in an already prepared salad. https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/factsheets/BringingFruitsVeggies_to_CA.pdf

[regentrude]

1 hour ago, YaelAldrich said:

Just be careful of what you bring depending on where you travel.  Australia and NZ will be very grumpy (and you will be very much poorer) if you bring in most fruits and vegetables. 

So will the US. No agricultural products. All must be eaten on the airplane or discarded. And yes, the dogs smell them out.

[Kidlit]

Thank you for this thread.  
 

I have a question about WFPB but I'll post it in its own thread.  

[livetoread]

11 hours ago, regentrude said:

So will the US. No agricultural products. All must be eaten on the airplane or discarded. And yes, the dogs smell them out.

We came into the US from Mexico years ago and I declared the cans of soup we bought in Mexico and hadn't opened yet because you declare all food, right? The customs person told me it was canned so no problem. Fast forward a few years and again we are entering the US from Mexico. We had one can of soup in our luggage that I didn't declare because canned. The customs agent had a fit and my husband was glaring at me like I was trying to smuggle drugs. Just can't win.

[Minerva]

2 hours ago, livetoread said:

We came into the US from Mexico years ago and I declared the cans of soup we bought in Mexico and hadn't opened yet because you declare all food, right? The customs person told me it was canned so no problem. Fast forward a few years and again we are entering the US from Mexico. We had one can of soup in our luggage that I didn't declare because canned. The customs agent had a fit and my husband was glaring at me like I was trying to smuggle drugs. Just can't win.

I would never have thought of declaring canned soup.

Once, when my dd was around 11yo, she noticed that the line to declare items at the airport was much shorter than the line to have nothing to declare. We went to the short line and told them that we were unsure if our bag of almonds was a declarable item and we sailed through. 😉

[Stacia]

On 4/30/2023 at 8:40 PM, Selkie said:

This woman travels a lot and has some great tips for airport and airplane food:

https://pblife.org/lifestyle/how-to-mix-travel-with-plant-based-eating/

Traveling on airplanes with some of your own food is a good idea.

I was on an international flight a few years ago. Dinner service was starting but we hit turbulence so things paused for a bit. During the pause, I heard a crash from the galley. Turns out that my "special" (vegan) dinner hit the floor & shattered. The flight attendants were nice & tried to cobble something together for me -- some extra salad stuff, a roll, a few of the snacks. And it was fine but it definitely helped that I had my own stuff with me to snack on too.

Echoing lots of what has been already said.

[Stacia]

On 4/30/2023 at 11:08 PM, regentrude said:

So will the US. No agricultural products. All must be eaten on the airplane or discarded. And yes, the dogs smell them out.

My ex once got tagged by a dog at the US airport. (Had an orange in his bag from Spain.)

You will get caught even taking fruit between the Hawaiian islands. I had to throw out my uneaten apple (that I bought on one island & was planning to eat on the plane while going to the next island). 🙁