Show Notes

Is maintaining a healthy lifestyle while traveling an impossible task? We thought so until we figured out some tips and tricks to stay on the wellness track, even when we’re on the move. This episode is a survival guide for staying fit, hydrated, and well-rested on your journeys.

Check out the blog post this episode is based on: Healthy Travel Tips

Full Podcast Transcript

VeGAINS: Hi. Welcome to episode four of the VeGAINS Fitness and Nutrition podcast. I am VeGAINS, and I’m here with the awesome Protein Deficient Vegan. You want to say hi?

Protein Deficient Vegan: Hi.

VeGAINS: So this week, we’re going to talk about trying to stay healthy while you’re traveling. Maybe that’s for the holidays or on vacation. The same kind of things apply to both or any other kind of travel you’re doing, maybe even for work. So there’s a lot of things that can kind of get in the way of your normal routine. On a trip, you’re usually pretty short on time because you’ve got something you want to do while you’re there, so you’re out and about on the town. Also, there’s a lot of stress in general with just being in an unfamiliar place. You’re not sure what your food options are, what your maybe gym options are,

Protein Deficient Vegan: how to drive

VeGAINS: how to drive, how to figure out how to get around the place where you’re going, and you’re maybe more tempted to order in delivery food or something like that. So there’s just a lot of things that feel a lot different from being at home that maybe you want to try to prepare for or plan ahead to make your life a little better. So the first important thing is to try to stay hydrated on your trip. This might seem like a pretty basic thing, but I found at least when I’m traveling, it’s a lot harder to remember to just drink water throughout the day, whether that’s because I don’t have my normal water bottle with me or I’m not at home or I’m just used to going in the kitchen and getting water. It seems like it should be really easy, but it’s just one of those things that really tends to slip. So you want to try to stay focused on that, maybe a little more than normal. I like to use a Hidrate bottle. So it’s like a bluetooth bottle basically hooks up to your phone, tells you how much water you drink throughout the day.

Protein Deficient Vegan: It lights up at the bottom! And you can make it rainbow lights.

VeGAINS: Yeah. What’s your favorite color?

Protein Deficient Vegan: The rainbow one. Oh, yeah. And then everyone’s like, why is your water bottle lighting up? And I’m like, the robots tell me when to drink.

VeGAINS: You got to listen to them. It is important to drink.

Protein Deficient Vegan: They know best.

VeGAINS: Yeah. You can just get a normal plastic water bottle, too, but just remember to drink out of it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: Make sure your bottle has stickers.

VeGAINS: Yeah, that part is important.

Protein Deficient Vegan: And you could get, like, one of those filtered water bottles if you don’t want to buy a bunch of bottled water and you’re somewhere you don’t want to drink out of the tap. OOH. Hidrate might actually have a sale right now, too, because Black Friday yeah. So get your hidrate drape bottles now, kids. We’re not sponsored because no one listens to us.

VeGAINS: There’s a couple of different kinds. The metal ones tend to keep the water colder.

Protein Deficient Vegan: Oh yeah, they keep it cold for like several hours. Yeah, I’ll go to bed with water in my bottle and I wake up and it’s still cold.

VeGAINS: Next up, you want to make sure you get as much sleep as you can. Try to stick as close to your normal routine as possible as far as bedtimes and waking up times both because it will keep you more energized during your trip but also it won’t be as jarring when you get back from your trip. In a lot of cases this won’t be super possible because of time zone changes and activities you have going on and stuff but it’s a good idea to try to stick to it as close as you can. It can be pretty hard to fall asleep in a new place anyway. Unfamiliar lights and sounds and obviously the bed being different and uncomfortable. A couple of things you can kind of do to mitigate a few of those issues. One you can get one of those sleep eye masks. You can get them pretty cheap off of Amazon. It basically just turns every room into a dark room. Some places, even if they have like blackout curtains or whatever, they’re not put up right and light seeps in and a light can be pretty disruptive to your sleep. Another one we like to do is basically use an app on our phone for sleep sounds or sleep stories or something along those lines just to drown out all the little weird noises.

Protein Deficient Vegan: Yeah so we do thunder sounds. So literally anytime there’s a storm we almost fall asleep. We pavloved ourselves into not being able to be awake during thunderstorms.

VeGAINS: So you might want to pick a different sound if you’re going to Seattle.

Protein Deficient Vegan: Maybe like the beach, I don’t know. Or like weird womb sounds I guess people like those.

VeGAINS: I don’t think I’ve heard of that one. Yeah, what does a womb sound like?

Protein Deficient Vegan: Wum-wum-wum

VeGAINS: That’s exactly it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: Yeah, I think it’s just like that. I remember from back when I was in the womb. also if you’re old like us, your back can get really fucked up just sleeping in a different bed for 8 hours. You can wake up not being able to walk. So we would recommend stretching or just bringing advil. Also bring a pillow that’s yours if you can because most pillows suck ass.

VeGAINS: Next up we want to talk about kind of food on the road. So not necessarily at the destination but while you’re on the way to the destination. I mean this is a pretty short period of time so it doesn’t matter too much but you want to try to make sure you start your trip off in a good headspace.

Protein Deficient Vegan: It’s not always short.

VeGAINS: That’s true.

Protein Deficient Vegan: What if you’re driving somewhere?

VeGAINS: Yeah, I mean it could be pretty long. That’s a good point.

Protein Deficient Vegan: Could be a whole day.

VeGAINS: Could be a whole day.

Protein Deficient Vegan: Could be two days there and back.

VeGAINS: Yeah, but you want to just make sure you don’t start out the trip with a whole bunch of on the road junk food and by the time you get to where you’re going you’ve just totally given up on any semblance of healthy food. So a couple of options that we like to do basically we have dry roasted Edamame that we get off of Amazon. It’s a little package. It’s like 200 calories, 20 grams of protein fits in your pocket. It’s just kind of a crunchy, dry roasted bean type snack. But make sure you drink a lot of water with it. But other than that, they’re really good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: It will help you get your water because it will make your mouth really dry.

VeGAINS: Yeah, you probably can’t actually swallow it if you’re not drinking water. So it’s a requirement. It’s not as bad as it sounds.

Protein Deficient Vegan: It’s actually pretty nice in your mouth.

VeGAINS: Yeah. Next up there’s like a cereal thing called Catalina Crunch. It’s actually about the same macros as the Edamame. Maybe a little less protein, but not much less at all.

Protein Deficient Vegan: It’s like a healthy Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

VeGAINS: Yeah, you just eat it kind of out of the bag. Obviously you don’t need milk in a bowl or anything while you’re driving. It’s just another grab and go type snack.

Protein Deficient Vegan: It’ll actually make your mouth less dry than Edamame, oddly enough.

VeGAINS: Then also if you’re driving, you can go to gas stations. If you’re flying, maybe there’ll be some convenience stores in the airport that have kind of the same thing as a gas station. But basically gas stations are actually kind of a pretty good option on a trip because they have the same things at most gas stations. So they have nuts. And if you kind of go in the protein bar section, you’ll find a couple of protein bars. You’ll even find a couple of vegan protein type things. Lenny and Larry’s a good vegan one. The macros aren’t great, but it does have protein and it’s kind of like more of a meal replacement cookie. It’s like 400 calories, so you could use that for a meal. If you had a Lenny and Larry cookie and a bag of Edamame, that would be a pretty decent meal, just protein wise. And you’d be pretty full for a while, I think.

Protein Deficient Vegan: Or deez nuts.

VeGAINS: What are the macros on deez nuts?

Protein Deficient Vegan: Why don’t you ask your mom?

VeGAINS: Wow. Okay, so moving on from that, another good option actually, is if you don’t want to carry any of that stuff with you and you are maybe even a little more short on time. You can find a Taco Bell. You can find Taco Bell sometimes in airports and definitely, obviously on the road. So this should be another pretty reliable option. They have a lot of good options for protein. Basically, if you make something fresco style at Taco Bell it takes off the cheese and sour cream and just replaces it with like a pico de gallo. So you can do that with like hardshell tacos, bean burritos. They even have great vegan vegetarian options. All the bean burritos or bean tacos or anything like that, fresco style are vegan. The red sauce, all the little hot sauces, they’re all vegan. So, yeah, pretty good. High protein option. Probably the best option you have for fast food, for clean, high protein food by far. Yeah. Next up, once you actually get to the destination, you’re going to have to eat as well. So we recommend ahead of time before you even go on your trip, you kind of research the local food options at the destination you’re going to be going to. You can use normal apps for this, like Yelp, DoorDash, Uber Eats that’ll also give you an idea of what maybe you can get delivered or you’re going to have to go pick up. And you can look through all the menus there and kind of at least have a few staples that you’re going to see nearby that you can rely on for a meal that kind of fits your goals. Bonus, if you are vegan or vegetarian, we love using the app called Happy Cow.

Protein Deficient Vegan: Happy Cow is the best life changing.

VeGAINS: Yeah. So basically this is like a Yelp for vegans and vegetarians. It specifically shows vegan and vegetarian options around an area and has reviews and the menus and pictures and all that kind of thing. So we use that really heavily to try to find vegan restaurants around any place we go and it’s really great.

Protein Deficient Vegan: Our next tip is to find an airbnb or like a hotel that has some kind of a kitchen situation, even if it’s just a hot plate and a good sized fridge.

VeGAINS: Yeah, a good hotel for that is home2 suites. We’ve stayed there a couple of times. Airbnb is a better option here because typically you can find one for about the same price as a hotel. And you get a whole ass house with like a kitchen refrigerator, a stove, an oven, like the whole situation. So we’d really recommend trying to find one of those probably. And then also another benefit of like an airbnb is you’ll be maybe in a neighborhood with a sidewalk. You can walk around and get some steps. Try to stay active before and after the stuff you have to do while you’re on vacation.

Protein Deficient Vegan: And then once you know where you’re staying, you can kind of plan out. Is there stuff I can make here? Some of our go to are smoothies in the morning and we like to use extra firm silken tofu with some frozen fruit and like spinach, a little bit of milk, vegan milk, maybe some protein powder too, but that’ll keep you full in the morning. Another really easy thing to make is like shredded barbecue tofu. You can throw that in tortillas or whatever you want yeah.

VeGAINS: As far as the smoothies go, if you’re doing the airbnb, you might just want to look through the listing or reach out to the host and see what kind of a kitchen equipment they have if they have a blender. If they don’t have a blender, you might bring your own. We actually bring a whole Vitamix because we’re a little extra, but you can just bring a little NutriBullet type smoothie blender, and they’re pretty easy to pack.

Protein Deficient Vegan: If you don’t have a Vitamix, you should probably get one on Black Friday because they’re life changing. As a vegan, we use it every other day, at least.

VeGAINS: Yeah. I really always thought Vitamix was, like, just overhyped marketing stuff, but it actually makes a big difference in the smoothness of the stuff you mix in.

Protein Deficient Vegan: It’s actually really unfortunate that it works so well because it’s expensive as fuck.

VeGAINS: Yeah. Next up, when you’re packing for your trip, you probably want to make sure that you bring some protein powder. Protein is a goal that most of us are going to have. If you’re listening to this podcast, you probably have some kind of interest in fitness. So protein powder is nice. We don’t want to rely on it, but especially in a travel situation, it’s nice to just have something you can make in 10 seconds that you know is going to give you some protein for the day.

Protein Deficient Vegan: Better than nothing.

VeGAINS: Yeah. So on top of just bringing your own protein powder, you probably don’t want to bring a whole bunch of other stuff, and we’re talking about, like, an airbnb with a kitchen and things like that. So you’re going to want to have stuff to actually make in this kitchen. So we’d recommend as soon as you get to the destination, you just go on a grocery run at a local grocery store, pick up some things that you can use to make food throughout the couple of days or whatever the duration of your stay is. That way again, you have some guaranteed healthy options. You can make food you know you like, because I’m sure everybody has gone to a new town and tried out some restaurants that look good and they end up being not so good, and then you don’t really have a backup plan. So it’s nice to have some things around in the kitchen that you know how to make.

VeGAINS: Okay, next up, we really like a Planet Fitness membership, especially the Planet Fitness Black membership. The benefit of that, even if you don’t use Planet Fitness at home, or a lot of times, planet Fitness might not have some equipment that you need for, like, a whole free weight workout or something like that. But a Black membership has the benefit of being $25 a month, and you have worldwide access to Planet Fitness. And Planet Fitness is, like, everywhere. So pretty much anywhere you stay, there’s going to be a Planet Fitness within ten minutes. You could even just get the membership for the month that you’re going to be on vacation and then drop it. They don’t have any kind of contract thing or anything like that, so it’s a really good place to just go and get some cardio or even you can do a really good weightlifting session in there. It might just not be some of the stuff that you’re used to doing with, like, a free barbell.

Protein Deficient Vegan: And they have the hydro massage.

VeGAINS: Oh, yeah. Planet Fitness hydro massage is worth the membership alone.

Protein Deficient Vegan: It’s warm, and you can play solitaire.

VeGAINS: Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: When’s the last time you played solitaire that wasn’t in a hydro massage bed?

VeGAINS: I’ve never won solitaire in the hydro massage bed.

Protein Deficient Vegan: You’re a loser. I win it every time.

VeGAINS: Okay, so that’s pretty much the tips we have for travel. We had a bunch of Thanksgiving recipes come out, and we talked about those in the last podcast. We’re kind of shifting gears now since yesterday was Thanksgiving, shifting gears into Christmas recipes. So we’ve got a lot of stuff of our own coming up soon, but we wanted to see maybe if any of you have ideas for Christmas recipes.

Protein Deficient Vegan: You like, any recipes that you would want a vegan or a high protein version of. Let us know if there’s anyone out there actually listening to this, because we don’t really do, like, big Christmas things at our family, so we don’t have a whole lot of these. What do people eat for Christmas? I have no idea.

VeGAINS: Yeah. All right, so you can reach out to us on our social medias. You’ll be able to find links in the show notes for those. You can also just maybe comment on the blog post or the podcast post on the website. Any of those ways is equally fine with us. And we’ll see it, and we’ll reply to you. All right, I think that’s it for this week. Thanks for listening and we will see you next week. You want to say bye bye? All right, bye.

Vegan that likes to pick up heavy things and put them down again.
USAW Level 1 Coach
NASM CPT

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