I mentioned Sunday that we have been able to connect with a bunch of friends and family over the last few months.  If we are lucky our route crosses with the great folks at GoPetFriendly.com and a dinner full of “have you tried this ensues”.  Outside of our coworkers, there aren’t many people we know who really understand the love and difficulties of living and working on the road.  We usually exchange woes and any cool gadgets but this time it was a little more focused on what we have been trying to maintain a healthy diet.

Amy and Rod are always looking at new options for low-calorie, high protein, whole foods that are convenient.  After looking at their list of gems and some of my own staples I thought it might be interesting to share a little on here.  It is a struggle to maintain a healthy diet when so many of our meals come from a restaurant.  Like many of my fellow road warriors we often start the day with a shake, having access to a refrigerate in our truck these have gotten fairly good by adding things like coconut water and lactose free milk.  Using a protein powder is all well and good but no one wants to haul those giant container around, so my pro-tip here is to invest in a powder container like this one from Jaxx, this gem holds three days worth of powder.

Now that breakfast is covered lunch is a whole different struggle.  When we are set up for a show it is easy to take the time during lunch to make a good choice and many of the places we end up are nearly amazing restaurants.  The hard part is staying on pace during travel days.  Truck stops are not known for their low-calorie selections, I’m not going to claim we don’t eat fast food (some days you just need fries) but we always have other options in the cabinet.  We love GoPicnic meals, Josh is addicted to the hummus one.  I’ve preached about these before and highly recommend trying one.  They are moderate in calories and match a number of dietary needs.  We also pack plenty of meal bars that are made with whole ingredients.  Seeking to stay organic and simple.

And this brings us to dinner time.  Now after a shake for breakfast, a bar for lunch, and a light snack it’s time for something hot.  I will admit that 90% of the time we order takeout, thank you Grubhub!!  This is where we struggle, often ordering too much food and the wrong kinds.  I would like to say that we make the better choice and stop at a grocery store after work instead of ordering pizza but it just doesn’t happen enough.  That is actually a great option for itinerants like us, take advantage of the portioned fresh choices and even some spectacular deli options.  We do try but after a long day we often just want to get check into the hotel and shower, figuring out dinner comes second.

The one thing I would absolutely recommend adopting is the use of a calorie counter, at least when you start making diet changes.  Not only will you get a picture of your calories but some trackers like MyFitnessPal are full of nutritional info.  Being a pescaterian I struggle to get enough protein.

I don’t think there is any one perfect method but putting any effort into maintaining a balanced diet is going to make road life better.  No one enjoys a day of driving with a funky tummy.  I’d love to hear tips you have.

***This is part of a series of posts called “Travel Tuesday“, each covering topics unique to our lifestyle***