I traveled more in 2025 than I have in my lifetime, covering over 56,000 miles in 30 flights. I spent over 5 days in the air, goodness knows how many hours in airports, and circumnavigated the globe 2.3 times. This was not intended at the start of the year; it was due to circumstances which are not mine to tell publicly, but it was a fine practice in dialing in travel nutrition and navigating jet lag.
While 2025 was exceptional, I’ve been a traveler since I’ve been a young adult, traversing the coasts of the USA north to south (and back) as well as west to east. I’ve trained it, planed it, driven it and car camped, hotelled it, and resorted my vacations as well. I’ve navigated catered meals beyond my control, gas station meals in Wyoming and all-you-can-eat buffets in Mexico.
Being a nutritionist and also a foodie may seem contradictory, but it offers ways to master the messy middle that never shows up in an online algorithm because it just isn’t extreme enough to generate clicks. What I want to offer to you are my “anchor rules” that I aim to live by no matter where I am, suggestions to eat better than ‘winging it’ no matter where you may be and the encouragement to just not fret too much about the other bits that you cannot control. In the bigger scheme of things, a few meals off plan is not going to destroy your goals unless you tell yourself it already has. Getting back on track is as simple as seeking out these anchor habits at your very next meal, thus doing damage control at the first possible opportunity.
The Build-Your-Own Travel Plate
Travel derails good intentions faster than almost anything else. It’s impossible to foresee every obstacle, so even if you do not subscribe to the “vacation calories don’t count” lie, the two usual strategies both end up failing. Rigid rules break the moment your flight gets delayed or the only restaurant option is a gas station. And “I’ll just wing it” leaves you running on convenience food and crashing by 3pm just two days into your trip. (been there, done that!)
There’s a third option that does not require the rigidity of tracking nor the free-for-all of winging it: build every plate around two anchors – protein and vegetables – no matter where you’re standing when you order it. Gas station, airport, resort buffet, foreign menu you can’t fully read: the formula doesn’t change. Get those two dialed in and you’ve done the part that matters the most, whether you are aiming to mantain your weight while traveling or striving to get the most nutrients you can. Everything else on the plate can be genuinely yours to enjoy.
The Formula:
Protein: one hand-length portion (roughly 5 oz)
Produce: at least one fist-size portion of veggies (or fruit at beakfast/snacks)
That’s it. Two things to actively look for in meals, wherever you are.
Why Protein Is the One to Watch
Restaurant and travel food environments are built around carbs and fat because these ingredients are cheap, shelf-stable, and crave-worthy. Protein often gets shorted. However, protein is what preserves muscle, blunts cravings, and keeps blood sugar from swinging hard between meals, and these three things that get harder to maintain when your schedule, sleep, and stress are already off their normal rhythm while traveling!
Aim for roughly 5 oz per meal to get those benefits. This is a minimum to aim for, not the end goal (unless you’re under 5′ tall).
When you’re dining out, this often means asking for more than what’s served:
- Asian, ethnic, and international menus frequently under-portion protein relative to what’s filling. Ask for double protein; most kitchens will do this without issue.
- Salads ordered in the U.S. – same principle. Add or double the protein.
- Steakhouses and seafood restaurants are the exception. Standard portions here (5 oz+) already hit your target, so no upgrade needed!
Why Fat Doesn’t Make the List
It’s not that fat doesn’t matter; you’ll just rarely be short on it while traveling. It’s the ingredient used most liberally to carry flavor, in nearly every cuisine, at nearly every price point. Unless you’re managing fat intake for a specific medical reason, this one takes care of itself.
What About Carbs?
No fixed target here, individual carb needs vary too much to give a blanket number here. What’s more useful while traveling is thinking about quality over quantity: when you have a choice, favor unprocessed starches (baked potato, brown rice, whole fruit) and minimally processed options (corn tortillas over flour) over highly processed ones (bread, pasta, pastries). Focus on unprocessed carbohydrate sources to get more fiber and nutrients per bite when the rest of your intake is already less predictable than usual.
International Travel: When You Can’t Just Ask
Substitutions aren’t always culturally welcome: North American habits of customizing every order don’t translate everywhere, and parts of Europe in particular can find it an odd or even rude request. Instead of asking to modify a dish, add to the meal rather than change it:
- Order a protein-rich starter alongside your entrée (charcuterie, seafood starters, egg dishes)
- Order a starter salad or an extra side of vegetables
This closes the nutrient gap without requiring an alteration to what’s already on the menu.
Real-World Examples
🚗 Gas Station
- Protein: hard-boiled egg or a pre-packaged protein pack; jerky is often available and will get you to 20-30 grams of protein more easily. Hot dog (bun optional) or burger with double patty might also be available.
- Veg: pre-cut veggie cup or fruit, if available
- Skip the chip aisle – walk straight to the refrigerated case first!
🛒 Grocery Store
I choose grocery stores over gas stations whenever possible. Sometimes grocery stores have gas stations attached, and this can serve as my fuel stop as well as my lunch spot so I seek these out on road trips. No one ever thinks of the grocery stores as a possible lunch spot, but like gas stations, they are prevalent even in remote towns in the mid west and offer the best options to get your protein and produce needs met.
- Protein: rotisserie chicken, pre-cooked shrimp, a deli protein pack, Deli meat slices or Greek yogurt (double up: most single containers won’t hit 5 oz-equivalent alone)
- Veg: pre-cut veggies, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes (eaten with hummus) or a fruit cup or individual piece of fruit
- This is your best option for stocking a hotel mini-fridge for multiple days at once, or for filling up a cooler for road trip snacking.
✈️ Airport
The most reliable options are to bring TSA compliant protein and produce options with you on your flight. While American restrictions have loosened up a bit the last two years, each airport seems to be on a different trajectory. I know for certain that new technology will allow us to bring more than 100 ml of liquids on future flights (Rome already lets you bring bottles of wine on carry-on bags), but for now best to play it safe with single servings of protein powder, protein bars, jerky, nuts, seeds, kale chips, single serving packets of hummus and raw veggies (more ideas below). Some airports are getting paranoid about powders, so dumping your protein powder into a ziplock baggie might delay you. Best to keep it to travel packs that are sealed by the manufacturer. Feel free to bring produce on an international flight so long as you eat it before you touch down outside your home territory. Forgetting about it in carry ons *will* cause delays at customs/passport control because those dogs can sniff out anything! You won’t get in trouble though; they will just pull you aside, pull it out and throw it away.
Already at the airport? Here’s your best bet:
- Protein: a protein box (nuts, cheese, hard-boiled egg) from Starbucks, grilled chicken from a sit-down option, jerky or pepperoni sticks
- Veg: the hardest one to find here: a side salad or fruit cup if a sit-down restaurant is available; otherwise treat this as a gap to fill at your next stop. If in Europe, you have so many more possibilities. If you are in the USA it varies widely!
- American airports run more protein-friendly but veg-scarce, so plan accordingly!
🚂 Train Travel
Trains in both Europe and North America don’t offer much by way of food unless you are on a luxury train with full meal service. Fortunately, security is way more lax so stock up on protein and produce from your nearby grocer before you board. I have been known to dip an English cucumber in a container of hummus in public, without shame. Let the French judge me! They do anyway, given my loud, brash American accent.
🏖️ Resort Buffet
- Hit the protein station first and go for grilled chicken, fish, or eggs before your plate fills up with everything else. Aim for a hand-length portion of various protein and notice how satisfied you are!
- Load at least one fist-size portion of vegetables, cooked, or two fists of raw veg in salad form
- From there, everything else is genuinely open: choose the roasted potato over the dinner roll when both are available, but don’t overthink it beyond that. Totally go for dessert if it is worth it to you. This is vacation, after all!
What to Pack: TSA-Compliant Protein & Veg for the Plane
Security lines don’t have to mean starting your travel day with pretzels and a candy bar. These get through TSA without issue:
Protein:
- Beef, turkey, or salmon jerky
- Hard cheese (cheddar, gouda; these are solid, not soft/spreadable)
- Roasted edamame or chickpeas
- Individual nut butter packets (1 oz or under fits standard liquid rule limits; check current TSA limits before travel)
- Protein powder (dry powder, sealed. No volume restriction; you may want to bring your own shaker)
- Hard-boiled eggs (pack in a container, eat within a few hours)
- Leftover burger patties or other prepared meat from home (again, eat within a few hours)
Vegetables:
- Baby carrots, sugar snap peas, cucumber slices, baby bell peppers: anything solid and pre-washed is welcome
- Whole fruit (apple, banana, orange): it’s a solid, so no restrictions
- Dried veggie chips (not fried) as a lower-priority backup. Trader Joe’s goes beyond kale chips with dried broccoli and other veg. Asian grocers also are great sources for dried veggies. Rhythm Superfoods is my fave – their Ranch carrot sticks are addictive!
Skip: hummus, yogurt, and anything spreadable. These count as gels/liquids and are subject to the 3.4 oz rule. If you catch someone in a bad mood, you lose your lunch.
Pack a small resealable bag with 2–3 protein items and a piece of fruit before you leave for the airport. It’s a five-minute habit that solves the entire “there’s nothing good at the gate” problem before it even begins.
Get stuck with a bad meal or two? Don’t worry!
If Dad wants pasta for dinner or kid’s choice is pizza, don’t panic! Do the best you can to fill in the gaps with an additional side salad if possible and at your very next meal go protein heavy. This will stabilize your blood sugar and dampen cravings that can fuel the “F-it” mentality that is so pervasive when traveling.
Eating well on the road doesn’t mean bringing a cooler of pre-made meals, nor is it an impossible achievement. You just need to anchor your meals and snacks onto the two things (protein and produce) that you look for on every plate, and the confidence to ask for more of one of them when a restaurant serves you less. That’s the whole system!
If you’re heading into a trip or traveling a lot for work or family care and want a plan built specifically around your schedule, your health goals, and where you’re actually going, well, that’s exactly the kind of thing we can work through together.
