67: Traveling on an Anti-Inflammatory Diet

You likely know by now that anti-inflammatory nutrition in midlife is a non-negotiable. But let's be honest, we all get tripped up when it comes to traveling!

Whether you're heading off for a family vacation, a holiday visit, or a packed work trip, it can feel impossible to stick to your healthy eating habits when you’re away from your own kitchen.

And I hear you thinking, "Ashley, why bother? I'm supposed to be having fun!"

But when you're off your regular schedule, moving less, and forgetting to drink water (you know you do!), your body gets seriously inflamed and puffy. This leads to exhaustion, headaches, and just plain feeling lousy. That is no way to enjoy a vacation, and it’s certainly no way to be on your A-game for a work trip!

In this episode, I'm walking you through the simple, actionable steps you can take to stick with your anti-inflammatory nutrition, even while traveling. This system works whether you're staying at a five-star hotel, an Airbnb, or crashing at your sister's house.

A little bit of pre-planning will save you so much time and energy, allowing you to be your most vibrant, present self for your family and friends. And spoiler alert: you're going to have to make a mindset shift and advocate for what you need!

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

✅ The 3 Items I Never Travel Without: I’ll share my absolute favorite travel essentials, including a lightweight water bottle and the one food that instantly boosts energy and kicks cravings.

✅ My Anti-Inflammatory Snack List: Discover how to make your own healthy trail mix for the airport, other snacks that travel well, plus the single-serve dark chocolate that cures your late-night cravings (bye, Milky Ways!)

✅ Your Destination Grocery List: The exact list of packable, anti-inflammatory items you need to order to your hotel or Airbnb to fuel your body with zero stress.

✅ The Mindset Shift to Unlock Success: Why your fear of being a "bother" to your family is holding you back, and how to advocate for your health so you can be your most energetic, best self. (Hint: Nobody is thinking about your food as much as you are!)


Links Mentioned and ways to connect:

📌 Get the extra anti-inflammatory travel guides inside the Supper Club
📌 Tap here to work with me
📌 Mindset Frameworks to stop relying on motivation
📌 Connect on social

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Transcript

Hello there and welcome back my friend. So we have talked about in so many episodes that eating anti-inflammatory nutrition in midlife, that's just a given. You have to do that. But I find that women get so tripped up when it comes to traveling and trying to figure out what you're gonna eat when you're on the go.

whether you're traveling for work or it's a holiday or a family trip, it really can feel like it is impossible to stick to your anti-inflammatory diet when you're away from your very own home kitchen. And why bother eating anti-inflammatory anyway when you're traveling? You're supposed to be out having fun, right?

But no matter why you are traveling, whether it's for work or for vacation, you're gonna be off your regular schedule and you probably won't be moving as much as you do at home. And I guarantee you, you will forget to drink water. So all of this is going to leave you really inflamed and puffy. And that is going to lead to feeling exhausted and having a headache and not feeling energetic overall. So if you're traveling,

for vacation, this is really no way to have fun. And if you're traveling for work, you're not gonna be on your A game if you're super tired and you're struggling through a headache. So today I want to walk you through some very simple and actionable ways that you can stick with your anti-inflammatory nutrition while you are traveling.

Now success, honestly, it's going to depend on where you're staying at your destination, but the tips that I'm gonna give you here are enough to help you be successful if you're staying at a hotel, an Airbnb, or at a friend or a relative's house.

So I've broken this episode down into four different categories, what to bring, what to plan for, tips on the ground, and mindset shifts that you must have to unlock success. So let's start with the first category, what to bring.

I promise you a little bit of pre-planning is going to save you so much time and give you so much more energy once you finally get to your vacation spot. So there are three things that you absolutely cannot travel without. And I should say quickly, you're gonna want a pen and pencil or paper and something to, know, some way to write notes, cause this entire episode is filled with some great information. Okay, so.

three items you cannot travel without. The first one is protein powder plus a blender bottle. So that kind of goes together. When you are eating protein, it's going to give you instant energy. And the really cool thing about protein is that it's going to help you kick cravings. And when you're traveling, you're probably gonna have a lot of cravings. Again, because you're somewhat off schedule.

but also because you're gonna be somewhere different and there are going to be new temptations and things that look really good. So what I like to do when I travel is I bring my protein inside of my blender bottle. And what I actually do is I will measure out the amount of protein that I need for each day or each serving and I'll put that in a small Ziploc bag. So I don't have to bring the scoop or anything, it's just already measured out for me.

Also, if you ever add collagen or creatine or something like that to your protein, just be sure to add that into the pre-measured bags. Now, I know some people like to have their protein powder with like an almond milk or something. When you are traveling, just put it in your mind that you're gonna drink your protein with just plain water. Now, I get it. It may not be ideal.

especially if you're used to using like a really thick almond milk, a creamy almond milk or something like that. But this is only gonna be for a few days. And I promise you, if you can get that protein in, even if it doesn't taste the best with just water, you're going to feel a lot better, okay?

All right, the second thing you absolutely cannot travel without is a lightweight water bottle.

So you know, anytime that you travel on an airplane or even a train or in the car, you get really dehydrated. And anywhere, whether you're in a convention center or an event center or a hotel, the air conditioning is dehydrating. There's gonna be weather changes. You might be running to your gate in the airport. So you are going to get dehydrated.

So if you have a lightweight water bottle with you, it's easier to stay hydrated, which is going to allow you to be more alert and more energetic. Personally, my absolute favorite water bottle that I travel with is a SIGG S-I-G-G. It's a Swiss company and they make a particular water bottle that is aluminum. So it's super, super lightweight. I don't know about you.

Those Stanley mugs, like if you carry a Stanley mug empty, it's heavy. But once you add water to that, it's like carrying around a dumbbell. They're so heavy. So do yourself a favor, have one of the SIG or a very lightweight water bottle with you. You can travel with it empty and then fill it up at the airport and they're easy to tuck into your travel bag or just carry along with you.

All right, the third thing you must have, probably my most favorite, is travel snacks. So when you are trying to stick to an anti-inflammatory diet, it is really important that you make sure that you have your food on hand when you travel. Eating this anti-inflammatory approach or nutrition is really going to help you from feeling bloated and sluggish or exhausted.

And it's amazing that food, just picking the right kind of food has the power to do that, but you want to feel good. So once you're at your destination, it's going to be a lot easier to get the food that you need, but you need to make sure that you are well fueled while you're on the way to your destination.

So here are a couple of things that when I travel, this is the list of things that I always travel with. First of all, dry roasted nuts, usually like pecans and cashews. So what you wanna do is you wanna buy raw pecans and raw cashews and then you wanna roast them yourself. It is super easy. Put your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, put the nuts on a baking sheet and pop them in for like 13 to 18 minutes. That's all you have to do.

literally nothing else. I like to take those roasted nuts then and make my own little trail mix. So you can buy those trail mixes at the airport, but they're usually filled with lots of sugar and inflammatory oils. So you can make your own. So take the dry roasted nuts that you just made and add some dried cherries, some Hu kitchen chocolate chips, and some sliced coconut.

And one of the things that I've been adding to my trail mix lately is lovebird cereal. It's really, really crunchy. And it just gives me that extra crunch that I really love. So you have your own homemade trail mix. It's super easy to put together. Another thing that I always bring, which is weird, but I always have grilled chicken always. So I buy these like pre-grilled chicken skewers from Costco, or you can just grill your own chicken breasts.

I personally never use ice packs when I'm traveling because usually I'll be eating that chicken within an hour or so. It's usually like my lunch or my snack on the plane. But you can certainly use ice packs if that makes you feel more comfortable.

You can also add in some Simple Mills crackers. So they have a couple of different options. They have some that are, I think they're like a hexagon and they're garlic and herb. Those are delicious. And most of the Simple Mills crackers, they're really like salty and flavorful. So they're going to be something that's going to cure your cravings as you're traveling. And then if you're still doing a little bit of dairy, I know for me personally, it took me like eight years to go dairy free.

⁓ But if you are still eating some dairy, I want you to opt for a very, very sharp cheddar cheese that would go with your crackers. So the harder the cheese that you choose, the less lactose it has. And the lactose is actually what's inflammatory in cheese. ⁓ So just be sure to check for a cheese that's a really hard, like sharp cheddar. And then the last thing that I like to tuck in is those little single serve containers of

guacamole or hummus. Those are going to travel really well and don't really need to be refrigerated. ⁓ I do add one more thing to my snack bag when I travel. ⁓ You've heard me talk about this on many episodes if you've been listening for a while, but Hu Dark Chocolate Bars, HU. The salty dark is absolutely my favorite. It is so good. It's easy to pack and just one little square will really cure your chocolate cravings almost instantly.

Truth be told, I used to love, love, love three Musketeers bars and Milky Ways. So for me, the Hu chocolate is really like a fantastic option and it's just a really good anti-inflammatory upgrade. If you need some other options for travel snacks, be sure to check out the Supper Club. Inside of the Supper Club, there are three different guides that help you to find anti-inflammatory options at the grocery store, at convenience stores,

and at fast food restaurants. So I'll be sure to link to that in the show notes. But for all of the foods that I've mentioned here, all of this is going to travel easily just in Ziploc bags and it will make it through TSA. So there was a time in my life where I used to travel about every six weeks and this literally is the list of things that I brought with me every single time. Occasionally I would get pulled aside

for them to like look at my protein powder because that was usually like densely packed in a Ziploc bag and it definitely looked sketchy. But otherwise none of the other food was a problem.

Okay, so you're packing your protein powder with a blender bottle, your lightweight water bottle, and your travel snacks. And I want you to put one more thing in. I want you to bring a couple of Ziploc bags in different sizes. You're going to want to have these with you at your destination. It's going to be easier for you to like portion out snacks and other things once you arrive. So we'll talk about that more in a minute, but I want you to make sure and tuck in a few Ziploc bags.

Okay, so that covers what you need to pack and bring with you. So next, let's look at what you need to plan ahead for and maybe what you need to order in. So at your destination, I want you to make sure that you have a fridge handy. So let's talk about the hotel first. If you're staying at a hotel, oftentimes there's like a refrigerator with a mini

that's like the mini bar, you can easily just take all of that stuff out and set it aside. As long as it's sitting on top, you're not gonna get charged for it. And then you can pack that fridge with the things that you actually want to have in there. ⁓ But hopefully, either they have that or you can order, you can call ahead and ask for a fridge to be included into your room.

you're going to need that fridge. And so we'll talk about that in a minute. the other thing you want to make sure is that if you're at a hotel, that they have a coffee maker in the room, this is going to be a really great way for you to get hot water. And when I travel, I use the hot water for two things. One, I use it to make a like protein coffee, which literally is just my protein powder and hot water. So not very exciting, but it is kind of nice to have like a warm

coffee fueling drink in the morning. The other reason I use the hot water from the coffee maker is for making oatmeal.

At a hotel, you can put your oatmeal into one of those paper cups that they provide, pour some hot water on it, and then put something on top and your oatmeal will be done in just a few minutes.

Now, if you are staying at an Airbnb or with family and friends, of course, you're going to have access to a fridge already. wherever you are staying, you want to have a list of groceries, a list that you've made ahead of time, right? That you can either pick up on the way to the hotel or that you can order in to wherever is your final destination. So I have a grocery list that

I use that really includes foods that keep me full and that are protein rich when possible. And also a lot of the foods ⁓ on this list are going to pack really easily into a large purse or a large bag that I would be carrying for a particular day on my vacation.

So here's the list of things that I usually buy when I'm at my destination. Baby carrots, some sort of fruits or a variety of fruits like apples, bananas, grapes, clementines, those are all going to be super packable. ⁓ Again, those single serve hummus or guacamole containers, rice cakes, oatmeal, you could also bring oatmeal ⁓ depending on how much you eat, but you can buy it there. ⁓ Some sort of non-dairy yogurt and almond milk, nuts,

butter packets. So Justins, the company Justins makes some that are my favorite. They're just these like single serve almond butter packets. ⁓ Tuna pouches are an option. I don't really love tuna and I definitely don't like eating it plain. So I wouldn't opt for that. But it's definitely something if you like tuna, that's a great option for you. And one thing I don't recommend that you buy is

nitrate free deli meat. I really when we're at home, I really like that Applegate brand for my deli meats. The problem is that sometimes the refrigerators in a hotel aren't staying cold enough to keep your deli meat at the right temperature. So yuck, you don't want to give yourself food poisoning. So I don't recommend any of their pre packaged deli meat. But

With this list, it is enough items to get you through breakfast and some of your snacks so that you don't feel like you're stuck with a bunch of inflammatory options.

Plus, remember how I said I want you to bring Ziploc baggies? Because you brought those, you are gonna be able to pack any of these snacks to travel with you for the day if you're doing some sort of outing. So by having groceries available to you at your destination, you will definitely have the foods that you need. Now,

depending on your transportation arrangement, you can either have your groceries delivered from like Instacart or Uber Eats, or you can pick up the groceries on your way to your hotel or your Airbnb. Now, if you're not at a hotel or Airbnb and you're staying with friends or family, I don't want you to be shy about having some of these food items delivered as you arrive.

We're going to talk more about this in a minute, but I want you to remember that you are on that vacation or at that destination to have fun and you really want to be your most energetic, lively self. So garbage food is going to make you feel like garbage. So just these really easy things that you can do to plan ahead is going to set you up for success by having all of those right foods on hand.

All right, our third category is tips that are going to help you have success on the ground or at your destination. So when you're traveling, I get it. There's a high likelihood that you're going to be eating out. And eating out, honestly, it can be really tricky because oftentimes restaurants cook with a lot of inflammatory ingredients and oils. So I have a couple of tips here to help you out.

I want you to research the restaurants ahead of time before you get to your destination to just see like which menus would fit your anti-inflammatory lifestyle best. I promise you, it's gonna be a restaurant that like just has good, healthy food.

So the rest of your party, whoever you're traveling with, they'll be able to find something to eat too. So it's not like you're putting anyone out. Now, once you get to the restaurant, or if you didn't have time to review ahead of time, I want you to just make sure that you're looking over the menu options really carefully and at a bare minimum, be sure that you're picking gluten-free. This is gonna help you. Again, remember it's not about deprivation or about

not having the fun foods, it's about being able to feel your best while you're traveling. Also, make sure to ask to have the sauces put on the side. A lot of times sauces that feel a little bit thick have actually been thickened with flour. So that is a place where hidden gluten can be sneaky.

And then I want you to make sure that you're requesting grilled or steamed veggies on the side of your main course and fill up there first. Fill up on your veggies, fill up on the protein that's offered, and then you can kind of fill in with what else is being offered.

Now that covers restaurants, but if you're gonna be eating with your friends or your family, just be sure to let them know ahead of time what some of your dietary restrictions might be. If you're eating at your family's house, it's not that they necessarily need to cook to accommodate all of your dietary needs, but this way they'll really understand and they'll get it when you get to a meal and you're kind of just picking the protein and the veggies.

and maybe you have some extra snacks tucked in your purse. I know I do this all the time. So if they know ahead of time, it's just not gonna be a big deal when you get there. And this will allow you to focus on the fun that you're having and the conversation and the people and not focus on your food.

So outside of eating at restaurants or eating at a family or a friend's house, be sure that you are checking your itinerary the night before so that in the morning you can pack some of the snacks and the things that you ordered in with those Ziploc bags that you brought. Because remember, the more you stay on track with anti-inflammatory nutrition, the better you're going to feel.

and the more you will love having that vacation. And at the end of the day, when in doubt, just don't stress, okay? Just give yourself some grace. There are gonna be those moments because it's vacation where you're going out for ice cream or you're doing a fun event and having hot cocoa and marshmallows. Just enjoy it. Enjoy that with your friends and your family. If you have stayed on track with the rest of your meals and your snacks,

your body is going to have a much easier time being able to handle a few things like the ice cream or the cocoa that just aren't on your plan.

Okay, so you have some solid plans for what to bring and what to plan ahead for and what to do when you get to your destination. But here is the biggest shift you need to make. You need to think differently when you're traveling as it relates to your anti-inflammatory nutrition.

So when I work with women inside of the Method or the members in the Supper Club, I hear women saying things like this. Like if somebody's going to their in-laws, they'll say, no, no, I don't want to put them out like that. Or I don't want to be a bother or an inconvenience. Maybe you have traveled and you've said, you know what, it's okay. They just, they don't eat that way and they wouldn't understand what I'm doing. So I'm just going to eat the way they do. But the worst thing of all to me,

is when women stay quiet and they don't speak up at all for what they need. I want you to hear me. It is more than okay for you to advocate for your health and wellbeing.

your family, your friends, they are all going to have a much better time with you if you're energetic and feeling really good and you are going to enjoy yourself so much more. You know, I remember one time that I was visiting my sister, I was on a vacation and every afternoon I started feeling really bad. Like I was really exhausted and I had a horrible headache.

And when I looked back, I realized it's because we weren't eating very much for breakfast compared to what I was used to. And so by the time the afternoon rolled around, I didn't feel very good. think my body was kind of hungry and wanting more energy and more veggies and stuff. And so if only I would have spoken up, we could have shopped for exactly what worked for my breakfast, which is usually like,

a big bowl of protein and veggies. It's so different than what my sister was eating. And I know I would have felt a lot better and enjoyed my vacation so much more. So please hear me when I say this, you must advocate for your health. There is nothing wrong with that. And I kind of want to put this in perspective for you.

Say that your brother and your sister-in-law are coming to stay with you and your sister-in-law, calls you and she says, hey, you know, is it okay if I order in a few groceries before we come? Think about that. Would you get mad? No. Would you tease her? Absolutely not. You would actually be really happy to accommodate and you would probably say, hey, just tell me what you need and I'll pick it up for you. Or at the very least, you're gonna make room in your fridge for what your sister-in-law needs to eat.

The thing is you worry about what other people are going to think because you believe that your relatives are going to judge you or that your friends are going to tease you. But I'll be honest, this is just your brain's way of trying to protect you from feeling embarrassed that you're eating a different way or that you're focusing on your health. These aren't always things that we talk about with our family members. And so your brain

is just saying, no, we're just not gonna say anything, because we don't wanna feel embarrassed. So truth be told, I really don't like Dr. Phil, but he used to say this really great phrase that I still use to this day. You wouldn't worry so much about what people thought about you if you realized how little they did. Do you want me to repeat that? You wouldn't worry so much about what people thought about you if you realized

how little they did. People are too busy. They don't have time to think about you or judge you. They don't have time to judge what you are eating. And honestly, if your family or your friends are teasing you because of what you're eating, just remind them that you are eating this way so that they can have the best parts of you. Who's gonna argue with that? Nobody.

So now you know exactly what to bring with you in terms of anti-inflammatory foods and you know what to order in once you get to your destination. You have very actionable tips for navigating eating in restaurants and eating at your family's house. And you also know how you need to think in order to stick with your plan while you're there.

I get it, anytime you travel, it can be really tough to stay on track. So I know these tips, it's exactly what I used to use when I traveled every six weeks. And I know it's gonna make it so much easier for you.

And remember, there's a huge upside to planning ahead and for advocating for what you need. You are going to have so much fun on your vacation and your family and your friends. They get the very best parts of you. And when you look back years later at this vacation, you're not going to have those memories of like, ⁓ I didn't feel well on that vacation. So make your grocery shopping list for your snacks.

get things prepared, and know that you are going to feel healthy and energetic on your vacation. And that's all thanks to all of the delicious and anti-inflammatory food that you are eating.