Low Carb Diet Plan and Keto When You Travel

Sticking to a keto diet is hard enough when you have a full kitchen and can cook from your keto meal plan at home. But sticking to a high-fat, low-carb diet is a different story when you’re on traveling for work or pleasure.

Keto while traveling may seem like a huge challenge — but it doesn’t have to be. Read on for the best keto foods for the road and low-carb snacks you can find almost anywhere.

Whether you’re on the ketogenic diet for weight loss or better energy — there’s no reason to compromise ketosis just because you’re on the road.

#1. Eat well before you leave your home

A low carb diet means consuming the foods that don’t possess a high amount of carbohydrates that are mostly found in sugary foods, pasta, bread, etc.

One of the foremost tip that you could follow to maintain your low carb diet even while traveling is to fill up on your low carb food items before you leave your home.

This could be significantly helpful as your home is the only place where you can eat enough of your low carb food. Don’t be in a hurry, start your journey feeling nourished and satisfied.

You can have boiled eggs, cooked bacon, reheated egg muffins, fruits like berries or nuts. Apart from this, you can also prepare a meal for yourself if you have enough time, which includes sausages with mushrooms and tomatoes or avocados with mayonnaise.

#2. Master the art of dining at the restaurants

While traveling, the only source of food that we could have is restaurants or food stores. It an art that you should master if you want to live a healthy lifestyle and follow your low carb diet plan.

Eat out with confidence and keep in mind the following points while ordering your food. Say a big no to bread instead, you can ask for some extra veggies. This is how we substitute starch with lots of healthy minerals and vitamins.

In order to spice up your food, you can also add butter. Try to skip eating dessert, however, if that is difficult, order some berries garnished with heavy cream.

Luckily, there are many keto friendly restaurants that you can find. Make sure to ask them to customize your meals so you can keep it low carb.

#3. Pack few packets of low carb snacks for the journey

Many of us have a temptation of munching over something while traveling. However, it is quite challenging to find suitable food items according to your diet plan while traveling in the railways or on a plane.

Therefore, it is always very wise to carry your snacks with yourself to avoid the temptation of eating easily available edible items on the railway station.

Tuck some nuts or nut butter in your bag while traveling. You can also pack the peeled hard-boiled eggs from home. Don’t forget to add some salt to enhance the taste.

Cheese could also be an option in your list. Ham with cheese roll-ups could be your thing. Carry chocolate that has more than 70% cacao or olive oil for salads or veggies for some additional quick bites.

#4. Use coffee to keep your hunger away

Caffeine not only cures the cravings of consuming a beverage but also helps to diminish the hunger. Therefore, don’t forget to carry tea or coffee with yourself.

Your coffee could be either black or loaded with heavy cream or melted butter. A single cup of coffee will easily help you to edge off your hunger.

Take a cup of coffee or tea(whatever you have) every time you feel like eating something. This technique will help you to control your food cravings until you make it to a place with better and healthy food.

#5. Try fasting

If you follow your low carb diet religiously, then it is very easy for you to do intermittent fasting on a regular basis.

If you need to board a flight or train to catch early in the morning, then fill up yourself will proper diet food and don’t eat even a bit till the time of dinner.

Or you could do it any other way that suits you the best. This strategy not only makes your traveling simple but also helps you to avoid unhealthy diet.

Fasting could be done anywhere and at any point in time. Therefore, trying to inculcate this as a habit could really be beneficial for you and your health. more here.

Low carb travel snacks

Snack It Up: You can’t carry full low carb meals with you everywhere you go, so a wide selection of low carb snackage is critical. Air travel is particularly tricky in this regard because you are a captive audience, both at the airport and in the air. Depending on the size of the airport(s) and the length of the flight(s), you may have to rely solely on your snack items. Consider packing a selection of things like:

• Nuts – I highly recommend hitting Trader Joe’s if you can…I love the truffled almonds!
• Pumpkin Seeds – I’ve totally fallen for these Super Seedz, which have very few carbs. I love the Curious Curry, as do my kids. Stick with the savoury varieties, as the sweet ones contain a little sugar.
• Jerky and Pepperoni Sticks – some choices are better than others. New Primal has some good low carb jerky, and Grass Run Farms has beef sticks that are grassfed and gluten-free.
• Nut butters – I always fill up a small container of peanut butter to carry on the plane, along with a small plastic knife. To make things even easier, you can get the squeeze packs of Justin’s Peanut Butter or Almond Butter. Or if you’re allergic to nuts, Sun Butter has squeeze packs too (they do contain a little sugar, just FYI).
• Sugar-Free Chocolate – What else are you going to spread your nut butter on? Carrying a little chocolate and peanut butter with me on trips helps me not feel deprived. While other people are eating dessert, I know I can go back to my room and have a little sweet treat too. I often carry Lily’s Milk Chocolate with Salted Almonds but Chocoperfection has some great options as well.
• Swerve packets or other packets of your favourite sweeteners – I keep a few on hand at all times to sweeten teas and coffees while on the go. Although I usually drink my coffee unsweetened, a cappuccino after dinner with a little sweetener is a great low carb dessert.
• Cheese Snacks – there are plenty of cheese-only snacks to choose from these days and they’re great when you need some crunch. Try Moon Cheese for a really unique little snack.
• Pork Rinds – serious crunch for your salty cravings. I love the little packs that come from Bacon’s Heir as they are the perfect size for traveling.
• Coconut oil packets – Kelapo has little tablespoon sized servings of coconut oil, to keep you fuelled on the go.

Cool It! For the plane ride itself, I always take a little insulated cooler bag, one that fits inside my carry-on, along with me. That way, I can carry a few more perishable items for the day. Cut up veggies and dip, cheese sticks, or even a small salad and dressing. I’ve also been known to take along leftovers from dinner the night before I leave, like cooked sausage or steak. Make sure you pack some napkins and plastic utensils. And try to avoid stinkier items like tuna salad or egg salad, so as not to offend the olfactory senses of your fellow travellers.

Home Away from Home: Going somewhere with a kitchen? Perfect! Set aside some room in your luggage for your favourite low carb ingredients. I go up to Canada every year with my family, where we rent a large cottage. I always pack some almond flour and sweetener in my suitcase, as well as some Lily’s Chocolate Chips, as these things are hard to find and/or extremely expensive up there. Then I purchase other ingredients like eggs, cocoa powder, butter and cream, and I am all set to make my own muffins and quick breads. And since rental kitchens may not have a great selection of baking pans, I also bring along muffin cups that can stand by themselves and don’t need a muffin pan. You can use silicone or stiff paper baking cups.

Maria of Keto Adapted says ” We always get a place with a kitchen. The extra cost usually works out by the time you save on eating out. Plan plan plan. We even find services that fill the fridge before you show up. Last winter when we stayed in Maui they called to double check we wanted so many eggs and butter!”.

Food Options

Non-refrigerated foods

Think about ways that you can change your food delivery; for example, if eggs are a big part of your diet, consider hard-boiling a number of them. These are easy to store, flexible, and can keep you on track. Beef jerky or canned salmon, tuna, and chicken are your friends here. Canned olives and protein shakes are other options.

Snack foods (such as dried nuts, string cheese, and pepperoni slices) are great options to consider; not only can these satisfy instant cravings in small amounts, these can easily be turned into a complete and robust meal option.

Fresh produce (keep your macros in mind!) such as avocados are a great option that can be purchased at your location and will store well in an unrefrigerated environment as long as you don’t cut into or prepare them beforehand.

Refrigerated foods

Most places you would stay in will offer some refrigerated options. Purchasing cold cuts and block cheese will help satisfy your meat and fat options. Think about making egg salad, tuna salad, or chicken salad; these can even be prepared in a hotel room if you plan ahead (e.g., bringing boiled eggs, canned meat, and storage containers from home, then mixing the salad at your destination).

If this trip will be a multi-day stay, consider prepping a number of meals and freezing them, then transferring the next day’s meals from the freezer to the refrigerator every morning.

Fresh meat options, such as a rotisserie chicken or chicken wings from a deli, are other things to consider; these items are prepared for you and can add a significant level of variety to your prepared items. Hummus and cheese are other great ideas.

Restaurants

Many restaurants (fast food, too) have low carb mains and sides. If you’re craving a burger, ask to have it lettuce-wrapped or to leave out the bun. Steak, fish and other meats are generally low carb. For sides, avoid things like fries, rice and beans by replacing them with common items like salads, asparagus and roasted veggies. And make sure to go to Chipotle! Get the bowl, no rice or beans, and fill up on as much meat, cheese, guacamole and sour cream as you’d like! You’ll be surprised just how many keto options are available out there.

You’ve Got This!

Traveling can either be a reason to quit your diet, or an exciting opportunity to discover new foods and ways to prepare them. Remember that any problem can be overcome with the right amount of preparation, and successfully staying on the keto diet while traveling is no exception. Carpe diem!

Takeaway:

Travelling could really be food to your soul, however, don’t let the food that you eat destroy your body.

Follow your low carb diet religiously by following the above-mentioned tips to travel when you’re dieting in this guide.

Meanwhile, don’t forget to drink lots of water. Traveling is not an excuse to cheat on your low carb diet, make health your priority and enjoy your holidays.