Traveling with Dietary Restrictions

One of my many legions of fans (OK, it was my cousin Jean) posed a reader question:

"Since you have discovered your food intolerances, how do you handle them while you're traveling? Do you take special foods with you or just eat whatever is available and suffer the consequences?"

A very good question given that we were just on the road for three weeks in two different foreign countries.

First, let me say that Jean is one of my idols in the food label reading departments. She was way ahead of me in getting heavily processed food out of her diet. When I used to do Jenny Craig, I suggested it to her one time. She had discovered through her doctor (I think) that she had all sorts of food intolerances. So when I was talking about Jenny Craig, Jean said she couldn't eat all of that processed stuff.

Hmmm. Here I was, eating Jenny Craig food and losing weight and not AT ALL paying attention as to what was in the food.

Thus ended my love affair with Jenny.

Anyway, that was a huge wakeup call for me. I still get tripped up--buying something marked "natural" only to discover the FDA lets you label stuff natural and you can STILL put crap in it.

Go figure. I won't waste any air space on the FDA today. I'll just go on to talk about what I do when I travel.

My "system" for travel has kind of evolved over the years. Now, remember that I have never been diagnosed with Celiac or gluten intolerance or anything like that. In fact, when I did my witch doctory stuff many years ago, the biggest intolerance I had was to...wait for it...chocolate. No lie. That was a bummer and I had it reversed immediately. I had always wondered why I had a stuffy nose when I ate chocolate. All is revealed.

Anyway, I do tend to take a lot of my own snacks with me whether I'm just heading to Denver for a soccer tournament or wandering further afield. And since I started drinking Shakeology about a year ago, I take that along with me. It keeps me in a happy place. Plus, if I let myself get hungry and I don't have something with me, I'll make bad choices--like a candy bar instead of nuts and dried fruit--and that will just start a whole cycle of bad eating. Best to just avoid it altogether.

The key is to remember that I don't have to worry about miniscule traces of gluten or stuff like that. I've read articles about people who if they have even an exposure to gluten, they get sick. I'm lucky--I don't have a situation like that. I just have noticed that I feel better without dairy and wheat, and frankly, most grains, so I work to avoid them.

I have watched friends who do have more severe food intolerance and I've stolen ideas some of their ideas so I can eat at a regular restaurant and not have to worry--like ordering a hamburger or sandwich and then not eating the bun. It's a really easy switch--just use two lettuce leaves instead. The bun has a zillion calories anyway and I'd rather waste it on fries or something! Smashburger has a burger you can actually order without the bun, all wrapped up in lettuce for you. Another reason to love Smashburger.

When we're going someplace where we're taking our own food--picnic, camping, skiing, etc.--I make my own sandwich on gluten free bread, or make whatever I want to accomodate no wheat, no dairy.

When we were just at my sister's house for Memorial Day weekend, it was pretty easy--she also avoids gluten, so there were plenty of choices. A great sandwich option is to make a rollup/sandwich taco in a corn tortilla. Do they sometimes break apart? Yes. And it's a little messy. But it's worth it. The change in taste and texture does take a little getting used to.

As for England/Germany in April, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to avoid gluten. We ate many, many lunches that we just picked up at a grocery store and ate picnic style. There were always really yummy pre-packaged salads to choose from. My favorite was one I ate the very first day: watercress, salmon and new potatoes. My stomach just growled.

If I wanted something and it had gluten in it, did I eat it? Sometimes. Did I notice it? Sometimes. It kind of depended on what it was and how much I ate.

As an interesting aside, Eamonn and I had a date night last night and we ate at an Italian restaurant. Linguine with clams is one of my most favorite Italian meals ever. However, I don't think I'll be doing that again anytime soon. Bloated, gassy. Ick.

So, overall, I try to avoid gluten when I travel, and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how well I could do it.

If any of my other zillion fans has a question, feel free to let me know! I hope all of the requests don't crash my e-mail...

Getting Back on Track Update
So that date night last night screwed me up. I only ate half my dinner, saving the rest for lunch today, but I did come home and eat popcorn while we were watching a movie. I burned said popcorn so badly that I only had a partial batch and felt deprived (as if), and so I ate ice cream. Yes. You read that right. Popcorn followed by ice cream after I had told myself I would be getting back on the bandwagon.

Sigh.

Today was better. Much, much better. Despite having wicked bad gas after the linguine last night and for lunch.

Workout: None, rest day

Breakfast: Shakeology, almond milk
Snack: Banana
Lunch: Leftover linguine, cherry tomatoes, pear
Snack: 2 figs
Dinner: 3.5 oz. steak, grilled veggies...1/4 cup ice cream

Came in at about 1694 calories, which would be fine if it had been an exercise day AND if I hadn't been sitting on the couch working all day. I do suspect that count is a little high. BodyBugg assigned a huge amount of calories to the leftover linguine, but I'd rather it show me too high rather than too low.

I'm having trouble getting back through that detox phase--the one day of suffering that I always feel goes with getting back on track. It's like I'm not really achieving that "mental reset." But, it was better today. Progress, not perfection. I love that saying. It's the one thing I retain from Jenny Craig.