Top 5 Reasons Healthy Eatings Habits Fail While Traveling

When I’m traveling, in most instances, I will choose healthy over nonhealthy foods. However, during our big meeting ever year, I find this extremely challenging. Everywhere – and I do me everywhere – I go there is food. Not just a little food, but a LOT of food. And, unfortunately, much of this food is the unhealthy version that on any given day would remain right where it was and never reach my lips.

In regard to healthy food choices, today was not a good day for me. Although I started with a great 3-mile run (I could have run way more but I didn’t have time), I proceeded to eat probably twice the amount of food I would normally eat on a regular day. OK, maybe not twice the amount, but quite a bit more food than I’m used to, especially in the “junk” food category. Take a look at what I had:

• Breakfast: 2/3 of an egg white omelette with ham, veggies, and cheese; one slice of bacon, a muffin top, and fresh fruit
• Snack: a small bag of potato chips and a chocolate chip cookie
• Lunch: a small salad with lettuce/veggies and a scoop of chicken salad; 2 slices of salami; 1 piece of chocolate cake (as if the cookie wasn’t enough)
• Snack: a small bag of potato chips and a chocolate chip cookie
• Dinner: 2/3 Mediterranean salad with chicken; 1 potato skin; a few fries
• Dessert: Fried pound cake (I’m not kidding – it really was fried!) topped with caramel sauce, butterfinger candy, and whipped cream

I know, I know, I can hardly believe it either. How in the world can I eat this much junk food in one day? Well, that is a very good question. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there really are definite triggers for making me eat this way…

1. Convenience – when I’m crazy busy at work and especially during the annual meeting, I sometimes grab whatever is closest, whether it’s chips, candy, or cookies.
2. Variety – When I’m at home, I eat, for the most part, many of the same foods each week. My food is sort of reliable that way. But at our annual meeting there is such a wide variety of food to choose from that, unconsciously feel like I have to sample everything.
3. Abundance – Again, the annual meeting is never at a loss for food. There is always food and plenty of it. And, when you’re faced with food around every turn, it’s hard to always say no.
4. Stress – When I’m tired or stressed – and I am currently both – I find that I have poorer judgement when it comes to food choices.
5. Reward – So, after working through the stress and the craziness all day, my subconscious tells me that I need to treat myself. But seriously subconscious – did you really need to have 3 desserts today?

So as you can see, despite all of my efforts to maintain a healthy lifestyle, I am very human, just like everyone else. No matter how hard we try to live out our ideas – be it healthy living or anything else – our plans and ideals are not foolproof. But the key is to recognize that we’ve strayed from our plan and try to get back on the path to being healthy. Sounds perfect – But I may need to postpone that thought until after the annual meeting 😉

Night everyone!