Eating Healthy on a Road Trip

whiteandlight

Hi everyone,

I'm heading to England/Wales for a 10 day trip (in our own car). I've revamped my diet in the last 6 weeks and have been eating properly for the first time in a long time. I'm really worried that now I'm on the road on holidays I'll fall back into bad habits. My breakfasts will be fine because we have breakfast in each location and I'll eat the healthy options. Its lunch, dinners and snacks I'm concerned about as we aren't staying anywhere with our own kitchen access.

We're thinking of getting a powered cooler for the car so we can have lunches at least without eating out all the time.

I'm looking for suggestions as to food we can eat easily while travelling without a kitchen/proper refrigeration so I don't fall off the bandwagon!

El_Dangeroso

It's so incredibly difficult to eat well on the road I have never managed it.

One piece of advice is don't let perfect be the enemy of good. Just go for the least-worst thing on the menu, hopefully with some fresh protein and vegetables.

Snacks are key so bags of nuts, beef jerky etc. If you don't go for the cooler option, tinned fish (in water not oil) will tide you over for a few hours until you can get something healthy.

swansea

Why not tinned fish in oil? I regularly have tinned sardines in olive oil...

doctorwhogirl

Facing into the same issue myself! 10 days in Europe! Excited but will try and do my best. Don't want to undo all my hard work.

But, not matter what, I'm not falling into my old trap of coming back, weight on, and then drastically cutting calories to try and get back to the weight I was. I'm just going to try and eat as healthily as I can over there and straight back into the normal routine when I get home!

El_Dangeroso

swansea wrote: »

Why not tinned fish in oil? I regularly have tinned sardines in olive oil...

Most are packed in sunflower oil, so that's just a rule of thumb..

thegreatiam

farms and markets. England and Wales (and most of Europe) will be packed to the rafters all summer with farmers markets, you'll be able to get food fresh on the side of the road directly from the farmer.
Smoked meats and fish, cheeses and veg will do for afternoon and evening meals, then whatever breakfast you get from the BandB's.
Most smoked meats will keep for a day or 2 in a chiller or shaded box. (maybe invest in a small cooler from aldi for around €30)

Plenty of restaurants will have whole foods on the menu, you can figure the ingredients pretty easily or ask. Go for simple items with 1 or 2 ingredients like steak etc rather than more complex dishes which could contain a lot of extra calories.

munchkin_utd

Drove across the continent for a 10day holiday in England there a couple of weeks back and have done it a few times in the past couple of years with 2 kids that wont eat the greasy spoon type of stuff that you are often faced with in britain.

Anyhow, theres plenty of salads on the menus across England. Unfortunately thats nearly their definition of healthy with everything else being burgers and some other stuff to go along with chips. The service stations arent great for lunches but if you find a chain pub/ restaurant like Weatherspoons or Beefeater then from memory of looking at the menu (which are to be found on the web) they do make an effort for healthy eating and can be great value.

For snacks, just like in Ireland - Boots, Marks and Spenser and the likes have all classes of salads, bean salads and whatnot which are at least claimed to be healthy. You'd also get the lunch deals including fruit juice and a portion of fruit there. The motorway service stations are now mostly renovated and lots of them have a Marks and Spenser food outlet or Waitrose so you dont even have to divert.
If you get an uptodate Britain road atlas should have the details of the motorway stations and exactly what shops are at each one.
We have the slightly older version of the Collins atlas and its worth every penny and is far handier for journey planning than a satnav. This is the latest version, which should be available also in Easons or bookshops handy to you.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Essential-Britain-International-Atlases/dp/0007497091/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

whiteandlight

Thanks everyone! I'll do my best