Next week I am headed out to Southern California to the Natural Products show Expo West – I’ll be gone for 5 days and you know what that means? I’ll be using all the tricks up my sleeve to eat organically as possible and stay chemical free while eating on the road.   This trip is bound to be easier than most – I’ll be surrounded by tons organic products for goodness sakes! I am planning to blog my daily eats and trip report – so you can see all the details of how I travel and the cool seminars, products and people I encounter… To say that I am excited is an understatement!

Last month I received an interesting email from the singer of the band Rehab – He asked me for tips on how he can eat more vegetables and be healthier on the road.  He said sometimes the only option to find something to eat is a truck stop. Whoa. Can you say nightmare!?!

I immediately sent him the following links of past posts about eating while traveling.  If you haven’t read these yet – please take a moment and get caught up!

• Food Babe Travel Essentials – Part 1
• Food Babe Travel Essentials – Part 2: Eating Outside Your Home
• Organic Trip Tricks
• Food Babe Travel Essentials Part 3: No Reason to Panic on the Plane
• Travel Food to Pack Before You Go
• A Huge Lesson I Learned From Traveling

I’d like to think one of my special talents in life is eating healthy while traveling… Because I am so passionate about it. Eating healthy + traveling = true love!

Back in the day when I didn’t know what to eat or how to eat or find good food, I would get total crazy anxiety about traveling.  Thinking I would have to “diet” before and after just to maintain my weight and always do some sort of detox after I came back because of all the foreign substances I was going to be putting into my body.

That was then… because now travel is an absolute breeeeeeze…

When I have more time one day – I’ll tell you a horror story that led me to live the lifestyle I am living now.  A crazy work schedule with lots of travel , serious weight gain and appendicitis…. all the ingredients for the making of one Food Babe.

In an effort not to repeat myself in earlier posts – I’d like to share three more tips to help you when you find yourself on the road again and when options are limited. These tips are in addition to all the other tips I’ve said before and strategies I deploy while traveling.

1. Make your smart phone your best friend. It will find you the nearest grocery store, farmers market, vegetarian restaurant at the touch of a finger… You may think your only option is a truck stop – but I bet you that you can find a grocery store just as easy – access to fresh produce (maybe not organic – but better than eating processed foods, transfat and preservatives from a truck stop). Many grocery stores have a salad bar – make a big one – make two or three, for goodness sakes! Stick them in a cooler in your car or hotel fridge for later. You can also buy pre-washed salads easily too. Bring ready made bags of black lentils, nuts, brown rice for added protein. (Trader Joe’s carries a great variety.) Don’t have a smart phone? Be best friends with Google before you hit the road and do some planning before your next destination.

2. Always bring your staples – Bring it all with you – your favorite almond butter, salad dressings, grains, cereal/oats, fruits, nuts, protein powders, anything that won’t spoil. Dedicate one whole bag or suitcase to your staple foods. Load up a huge zip lock bag full of whole food based snacks. When you find that grocery store on the road – restock! My most important staples on the road are my individual packs of almond butter, chia seeds, and green vibrance.

The green vibrance packets filled with super greens are a literal life saver, especially when you don’t have access to a wide range of vegetables on the road.  Why are supergreens so important when traveling, you ask? They counteract toxins your body encounters on the road – one of the best foods to combat free radicals and will keep you forever young! With your suitcase full of goods,  you will have no excuse to pick up that bag of genetically modified mutant foods at the gas station.  You’ll have organic nutrient dense snacks in the car already.  No temptation = no sabotage. You see?

3. Don’t leave home without your gear – Anything from an electrical car cooler, flexible cutting board, or a portable blender and/or a juicer – If you are serious about your health and being on the road is your life – you’ve got to be serious about your routine and that means bringing the right gear with you.  Have you seen Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead yet? Did you see how Joe traveled all over the US with a juicer in his trunk?  You can do it too. You just gotta be dedicated. Obviously a blender is much easier to deal with and easier to clean in a hotel or rest stop sink.  Remember those veggies you got from the salad bar at the grocery store?  Get a good combo you can blend with some fruit to make a Hari Shake or something similar.  Ok – fine – you don’t want to carry a juicer with you – I get it, you think that whole scene in the movie was a stunt…I know. Use that best friend again and find a place that sells fresh green juice and go get one every chance you get. There are lots of Smoothie Kings and Jamba Juices and other places that serve wheat grass shots – get one or two ounces as often as you can.  Also consider trying a mail order juice service like Blue Print Cleanse that you can get delivered to you wherever you are…. talk about easy breezy.

Below is a great example of some things you can pack to take with you…

• Box of Organic Yogi Ginger Tea
• Organic Go Raw Spriulina Bar
• Cleanwell Hand Santizer
• Travel Packet of Green Vibrance
• Bag of my favorite Organic Calimyrna Figs
• Bag of Organic Eden Foods Trail Mix
• Organic Righteously Raw Goji Cacao Bar
• Organic Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Cereal

Here’s to eating healthy on the road or BUST!

Food Babe

P.S. If you are going out to Expo West and would like to meet up – let me know, I would love to meet ya!