Road Food: "Convenience" Foods

I'm on the road again and this trip will be a little longer than usual at 6 days.  That's a lot of potential for naughty eating!  The typical hotel room I where I stay isn't an efficiency and there's no kitchen, but I can ask for a fridge if there's not already a small one in the room.  Convenience foods become a more integral part of my eating plan.  The phrase convenience food has typically been rather negatively applied when it comes to nutrition, but it doesn't have to be.  After all, what's more convenient than a banana?  It comes in its own biodegradable packaging, needs no refrigeration and packs away into any travel bag or purse.  When I got settled in my hotel, I made some inquiries about nearby markets and discovered a Walgreens less than 1/2 a mile away, so I made the walk over and stocked up.  Here's a list of my healthy "convenience" foods:

 Fruit, including bananas, apples and grapefruit, salad, cereal, granola bars, peanuts, cheese sticks, yogurt, peanut butter, whole grain wraps, hummus with pretzels, tuna and sardines, juice, milk and bottled water. 

With these nutritious options, there are no excuses.  I can prepare breakfast, lunch and  snacks every day, avoiding the trap of unhealthy convenience foods while I'm on the road.  By the way, some people turn up their nose at sardines, but if you like tuna, you will like sardines! They are an easy, portable source of nutrition and are a great source of omega-3 fatty acids.

Road Food: City of Angels

My job allows me to travel a lot.  Some of it is to very cool places with great restaurants and fun things to see.  Some of it isn't.  But I still think that road food is interesting!  To that end, you can count on some posts from the road when it applies.  This weekend I hopped a jet plane and traveled to the other side of the country to promote Peanut Butter for Breakfast with the National Peanut Board.  (Disclaimer: I work for the National Peanut Board, but this is my personal blog.  Nothing here is meant to represent the National Peanut Board in any official capacity.  I do genuinely love peanuts and think they are exceptionally nutritious! =)

Anyway, when it comes to road food, I'm in a hurry a lot.  And there's also some waiting.  It's often the wrong time of the day (for instance, I'm writing this and my body things it's 8:30 and I haven't had dinner yet...it's only 5:30 in LA and dinner's still an hour and a half away).  My schedule isn't my own.  So what's a girl to do?  Here are my top priorities when I travel:

• Take every opportunity to get something nutritious in me, including packing snacks.  
• Drink lots of fresh water.
• Workout.  Run if the city is a good one for that (BTW - LA is not).
• Stay in my timezone (as much as possible).
• Sleep.

Before boarding the plane, I hit the Starbucks to fuel up and to get a liter of water.   Airplane air is SO dry.  Two bev service meant I had peanuts and coffee twice, plus Bloody Mary mix (no vodka, of course...I'm working!) which is high in vitamin C, and Biscoff.  I also packed snacks - a peanut butter Clif bar.  Before I knew it we were on the ground.  And it was only 9am in LA.  TBC...