Guide To Eating Bone-Healthy While Traveling - Save Our Bones

It's quite easy to follow an 80/20 pH-balanced diet at home, but many Savers find that traveling can pose challenges to making bone-healthy food choices.

But there's no need to compromise your bone health when traveling. With a little foresight and a few tried-and-true tricks, you’ll enjoy your vacation knowing that you won’t be harming your bones.

The following tips will keep you on the path to stronger bones while you're on the go, whether you're traveling by plane or car, across town or across the world.

1. Know Your Intentions

The most important task you can do to support your bone health while traveling happens before you even pack your bags. When you're in the planning stages of a trip, start thinking about how you'll maintain your bone-healthy habits while away from home.

When you set boundaries in advance, you can indulge and enjoy yourself more fully because you know where your limits lie. That might mean that you’ll decide what treats you will or won't allow yourself, or that you’ll set the parameters of your moderation before you're in the moment.
In other words, don't wait until you're face-to-face with a temptation to decide where you draw the line.

And don't forget that your intentions should include allowing yourself to take some liberties, try something new, have fun, and do things you wouldn't do every day. The point of planning ahead is to enjoy yourself safely, not to squelch enjoyment.

Synopsis

Plan ahead and know what special treats you'll enjoy on your trip, and what temptations you'll avoid.

2. Bring Your Own Snacks

Eating healthy while traveling can be a challenge, especially between meals when your pantry of wholesome snacks is miles behind you. There's always that moment when you're in an airport, a bus station, or a train station, and you absolutely must eat something! You look around, and the options are never healthy, and rarely appetizing.

The solution is simple: pack snacks. No matter how short or long your trip might be, you'll always be happy that you've tucked away a pH-balanced bit of sustenance to hold you over until your next meal, or to help you stay energized throughout a day of travel or sightseeing.

Here are some bone-healthy snack ideas:

  • Fresh fruit. Apples, oranges, pears, or a container of cut melon or berries make for a tasty treat.
  • Veggies and hummus or peanut butter: These alkalizing combos are easy to bring in separate plastic containers. Use an insulated bag and an ice-pack to keep veggies crisp and hummus refrigerated.
  • Make your own easy-to-bring energy bars for a boost on the go. This article offers three alkalizing energy bar recipes: Snack Idea: 3 Delicious No-Bake Recipes For Bone-Smart Energy Bars
  • A bag of unsalted nuts, such as almonds, walnuts, or cashews, provide sustained energy from protein and healthy fats. Remember that cashews and walnuts are acidifying, and should be paired with an alkalizing food.

Synopsis

Always have bone-healthy snacks ready so you don't wind up eating junk food from a vending machine as your last resort.

3. Pick The Right Hotel

Hotels don't advertise their bone-healthy amenities, but a little research will reveal which lodgings provide the resources you need to meet your goals.

  • Pick a hotel that's near a grocery store so that you can stock up on distilled water, fresh fruits and veggies, and bone-healthy meal options.
  • Make sure you can get a room with a mini-fridge. That way you can keep some healthy food on hand, in case dinner comes up short, or you make it back to the room hungry. Room service, besides being expensive, doesn't always have pH-balanced options.
  • If you can, pick a hotel with in-house food choices that fit into a pH-balanced diet. Ask about the breakfast, if one is provided. Are there bone-healthy choices like fresh fruit? Plain yogurt? Smoothies? Or is it all premade packaged pastries and sugary cereals? Choose a hotel that aligns with your dietary values.
  • Choosing a hotel with a gym that has treadmills or ellipticals, a swimming pool, or other exercise amenities can make it easy to keep up with your exercise routine while you're away from home.

Synopsis

Choose a hotel with amenities that support eating a pH-balanced diet (like a mini-fridge for healthy food) and proximity to useful resources (like a market with fresh produce).

4. Be Ready For Restaurants

Traveling almost always means eating out. Trying the cuisine in a new part of your home country or the world is a great joy of traveling! However, eating at a restaurant can be difficult when you're following a specific diet. Fortunately, a pH-balanced 80/20 diet has a lot of flexibility, and almost anywhere you go, you'll be able to find great options. Here are some tips for managing meals out:

  • Do your research – Look up the restaurants you want to eat at before you leave for the trip, and choose places with appealing bone-healthy options. That way you know you'll be able to order a meal you can feel good about.
  • Order bottled water – many places have heavily fluoridated tap water, and filtration systems don't usually filter fluoride. You're better off ordering bottled water.
  • Ask for extra vegetables – Choose a dish that includes a vegetable, either as an ingredient or a side, and ask your server if the chef could double the vegetable portion. This is a great way to help balance the pH of even the most acidifying dish.
  • Ask for the sauce on the side – Just like with a salad dressing, a dish with a sauce can likely be prepared with the sauce on the side. Since many sauces are full of sugar, salt, or butter, it's good to be able to choose how much makes it onto your plate.
  • Pick a healthy salad dressing – Most restaurants will happily provide you with olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice for salad dressing. Ask about the options. Don't be afraid to request a healthier dressing option and to get whatever dressing you choose on the side so that you can control how much of it you eat.
  • Order healthy preparations – Choose healthier cooking options like grilling or baking, instead of pan frying or deep frying. Request that very little salt be added to your dish, since high sodium intake is bad for your bones.1
  • Don't be afraid of dessert – Sweets are not off limits! And on a trip, a treat is a fun way to end a meal. Choose to share a dessert with the table and that way no one eats too much. Look for dessert options that include fresh fruit, or request some on the side. Also, ask how big the portions are, and whether a half portion is available.

Synopsis

Research restaurants before you leave on your trip so you’ll know which ones have bone-healthy options, and be prepared to ask for what you need to feel good about your meal.

5. Stay Hydrated

Be conscious about hydrating throughout the day. Most grocery stores sell distilled or reverse osmosis water and you can bring a refillable water bottle to carry with you. Remember to order bottled water at restaurants, even if you also order another beverage.

Synopsis

Stock up on distilled or reverse osmosis water when you arrive at your destination and carry a refillable water bottle to stay hydrated throughout the day.

6. Prioritize Enjoyment

Try to not get stressed. Excessive stress has been scientifically proven to damage your bones.2 It's also bad for your vacation!

Remember that perfection isn't necessary, and you deserve to enjoy your trip and treat yourself during this time off from work or your obligations of daily life. With a little advance thought and planning, you should have everything you need to stick with your bone-building habits, even while you indulge and enjoy.

Synopsis

Stress damages your bones, and it can ruin a vacation. Be sure to prioritize enjoying your time away.

Bon Voyage!

You have the tools you need to build your bones while you build memories, whether it's on a day trip or a cross-country journey.

Your summer vacation shouldn't be any less enjoyable because you're prioritizing your bone health. When you plan ahead to strengthen your bones while traveling, you’ll fully enjoy every moment!

Eat Your Way to Stronger Bones!

Discover over 200 mouth-watering bone healthy recipes for breakfast, smoothies, appetizers, soups, salads, vegetarian dishes, fish, and plenty of main courses and even desserts!

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References

1 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s001980170047

2 https://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-3223%2804%2901376-9/abstract

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Comments on this article are closed.

  1. Frieda Bear

    I bought a Lifewater machine which changes the ph in my water changing it from acidic to alkaline is this a big help? I have 4th stage osteoporosis and can’t get another decascan for 18 months ? Did I waste my money? Does it really help?

  2. joy Markman

    As usual an outstanding article – thank you so much Vivian to you & your team.

    Joy

  3. Linda

    Something I’ve been trying to figure out: which is better for my health, water with fluoride or bottled water with in plastic with tiny pieces of plastic that gets ingested?

  4. Michelle

    Good morning Vivian,

    Thank you very much for all the great articles.
    I enjoy very much,thanks.
    I would love to buy Bone Appetit book ( in paper cover)not a digital this time ( I already have the digital one)
    Please let me if is available in paper.
    Michelle

    • Vivian Goldschmidt, MA

      Hi Michelle,
      Thanks for your kind words! To answer your question, Bone Appetit is only available in digital format. But each page is printable, so you can easily compile your own favorite recipes into a booklet 🙂

  5. Marlene Villar

    Good morning Vivian,

    Thank you very much . A timely reminder.

    Have a wonderful day,
    Marlene

    • Vivian Goldschmidt, MA

      You’re welcome, Marlene 🙂

  6. Carol Hill

    Thanks for all the tips! I’m always looking for ways to continue my diet when away from home. I was recently out of town for a reunion. I baked Crunchy Cupcakes that Save Institute had posted as well as Banana Quinoa Chocolate Cookies. The cookies were the BEST! I shared a room with a friend who I offered a cookie to. When she was getting ready to leave at the end of the reunion, she asked for a couple to help tide her over on her 3 plus hour drive home!

    I also brought my breakfast which had to be refrigerated. However, I discovered that just like so many other hotel chains, the refrigerator stays on for only two hours and shuts off before you have to hit the button to turn it back on. Not convenient at night. I used a small ice chest with freezer packs that came with mailed medication- very good ice packs, and covered the ice chest with several layers of towels – left the ice chest in our cool room. I didn’t need ice replacement for 48 hours.

    Thanks for the delicious and not-overly-sweet recipe! The cookies were filling and tasty!

    • Vivian Goldschmidt, MA

      You’re welcome, and I’m so glad you’re enjoying our bone-healthy recipes while away from home, Carol! The Banana Quinoa Chocolate Cookies are one of my favorites… it’s hard to believe when you taste them that they don’t contain any added sugar.

  7. Ann

    Hi, thanks for the great article! I have been checking
    my urine with pH strips and find that I am always
    acidic when I wake up. Is there a way to prevent
    this? Thank you!

    • Save Institute Customer Support

      Hi Ann,

      Please check your inbox for an email from us within the next 24 hours.
      We’re happy to help you!
      Customer Support

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