We’re busting the myth that a vacation has to throw off your diet and showing you how to eat healthy while traveling. Yes, you want to try the local cuisine, and indulge a little, but if you’re trying to stick to certain health and diet goals, let the travel tips in this episode prove to you that you can eat healthy while traveling no matter where you go in the world.

We find the cuisine in other countries to be far more fresh and natural than in America. Many cultures shop at local markets for their daily meals and don’t incorporate much processed  food.

We give recommendations for healthy foods to eat while traveling on a road trip, in an airport or plane, in a hotel or Airbnb, and when you go out to eat while traveling, plus healthy snacks to bring.

How to Eat Healthy While Traveling – Episode Transcript

4 (54s):
Welcome to this weeks episode of the Travel Squad Podcast. In this episode, we’re going to give you guys tips about eating healthy while traveling and show you guys just how easy it can actually be.

3 (1m 7s):
People like to create barriers in their mind about why they can’t travel. And there’s all kinds of different barriers. And one of them are that I’m on a diet or I’m trying to eat healthy, or I’m trying to live a certain lifestyle. And traveling is going to get in the way of that. But this episode, we’re going to be debunking that myth and showing you how easy it is to eat healthy while traveling, if that’s what you want to do.

2 (1m 26s):
Yes. So today we are going to be talking all about eating and traveling because that’s the two things that we love to do.

3 (1m 34s):
That’s right.

5 (1m 35s):
And people often think that vacations mean you have to indulge. And yes, that is a perk of vacations and traveling. But I really think it’s all about balance and mindset and you really can eat healthy while traveling. And we’re here to show you how it can be done.

2 (1m 49s):
Not only can you eat healthy, you can drink healthy to help you just want to throw that out there.

4 (1m 56s):
And we’re not here to try and to shame anybody, because believe me, you guys know the squad indulges on a free breakfast buffet when they’re all out and about pre COVID days. But sometimes, you know, you do feel the effects of having been on vacation for a while, eating a lot of fast food on the go or lots of things unhealthy. So we just want to share with you guys tips and tricks that we have to help you guys eat healthy while traveling, if that is what you want to do.

2 (2m 26s):
And of course that’s what you want to do cause you’re listening to this episode.

3 (2m 30s):
So in this episode, we’re going to round off some quick tips on how you can eat healthy throughout your trip. Our first tip is to stay hydrated, prioritize drinking, water over most other things while you’re on your trip, Brittany and Jamal loved this. They like to bring their own reusable water bottle. They don’t go anywhere without it.

5 (2m 48s):
No, we can’t go anywhere. We can’t go on hikes. We can’t go. And planes, boats, it’s always with us. And it’s so good because you never know when you’re going to run out of water or when you can get water next, especially if you’re in a foreign and you can only drink bottled water. So I love having just like a big 20 ounce thing of water with me at all times and quick squad tip. If you bring it on the plane and you ask them to refill your water bottle, they will refill your water bottle to the top. Instead of giving you those shitty plastic four ounce cups.

2 (3m 17s):
I always feel like my biggest challenge is to drink as much water as I do back home in San Diego because you’re traveling. And so I like to really, really load up because I would rather have more than less. And I can’t tell you how many times we are getting to the airport to go home. And I am chugging water because I have a little bit of an extra in my bottle. And it’s just so much better to have extra because you never want to be without

3 (3m 42s):
And traveling dehydrates you. And when you’re dehydrated, your body can sometimes confuse that for hunger. And then you may eat unnecessary calories that you actually could have drank. So squad tips, something that we do for every one of our trips is that immediately once we get into town, the first stop that we usually make is to the convenience store or grocery store. Whatever’s closest that we can find. And what do we get

5 (4m 6s):
A mosque, a water.

3 (4m 8s):
We have a funny story about that in our Mexico city episode, where we asked for a mosque on day water and it was mucho MAs.

2 (4m 16s):
Yeah, well, we, you know, we thought it was going to be like a one liter or two liter water bottle. And instead they brought a five gallon water from the back and we’re like, oops, not that

3 (4m 25s):
Very, each of us,

5 (4m 28s):
We asked for one for each person.

2 (4m 31s):
Yeah. And they looked at us like we were crazy. And we were looking at them back. Like, it’s not that big of a deal to have a one liter bottle

5 (4m 37s):
Of

2 (4m 38s):
Water. And the poor guy literally is carrying four, five gallon, plastic containers of water, struggling to come to the front. And that’s when we burst into laughter. And we’re like, oh my gosh. So sorry. Yeah, we definitely don’t need the mosque ground day.

4 (4m 54s):
Yeah. But just always having the water on you as good, like Kim said, you can mistake dehydration for hunger. So again, avoid those unnecessary calories, but just in general, traveling definitely does dehydrate you. And on top of that, experts do say that you should drink half of your body weight in ounces. So as an example, if you’re 200 pounds, you should be drinking a hundred ounces of water. So staying hydrated all around, definitely helps with your metabolism, helps with your gut and makes things go a lot smoother when you’re traveling.

2 (5m 26s):
I’ve also heard that the reason why people crave coffee in the morning is because they’re dehydrated. So if you wake up in the morning and drink water, instead, you aren’t going to need coffee. I don’t know. I’ve heard that, but I love my coffee. So I’m not willing to,

5 (5m 41s):
I feel like when I don’t drink coffee, I get hungry faster.

3 (5m 45s):
Oh yeah. It’s an appetite suppressant

2 (5m 47s):
And a metabolism booster

4 (5m 49s):
All around combo.

3 (5m 51s):
All right. Moving on to our next tip. This one’s about road trips. And obviously no road trip is complete without snacks in the car. And usually those snacks are things like chips and candy and other convenience where items like beef jerky. Yeah. But they don’t all have to be unhealthy. In fact, there’s many healthy versions of road trip snacks that you can take.

2 (6m 14s):
I think the biggest thing is when you’re on a road trip and you don’t plan, then the only place to really stop are fast food places along the freeway or a convenience store. And that’s where you end up picking up a whole bunch of chips or whatever it is that you pick up. And, you know, we’ve, we’ve done that too. No shame in the game, right. But if you’re looking to eat healthy, you have to plan ahead. Otherwise, no one plans to fail. People fail to plan.

5 (6m 42s):
That’s so true. whenever we go on a road trip and we’re leaving from home, what I like to do is pack a cooler. When we went to Vegas recently, we packed a whole bunch of grapes. We packed chips and salsa. I was putting the chips in the salsa and the guacamole and I was feeding Jamal in the car. So we had healthy snacks along the way. You can put lots of fruits or like easy to pack veggies, or Kim likes her hard boiled eggs when she’s Quito so many different options.

3 (7m 9s):
And even if you have run out of the snacks you brought, or you, maybe you didn’t plan as much as you should have, you can choose a lot of these things at the convenience store too. They have a lot of these little like beef jerkies and nuts and healthier options.

4 (7m 24s):
Yeah. You could always find the trail mix and things like that at the convenience store. But we’re talking about going to convenience stores because we just associate that with a gas station. If you’re on a road trip, you’re getting gas, but be on the lookout also for actual grocery stores. Cause there you can go ahead and get some produce. You can get some cherry tomatoes in the store to snack on with little bits of a cheese or something carrots, or you can always pick up bananas, apples. So I think a grocery store is highly underutilized as a place to stop, to get food on a road trip when that’s, where we get food all the time when we’re at home.

2 (8m 1s):
You know, and one thing that I want to say that I learned from Brittany is big shout out to Costco. I mean, what other store has all that goodness in bulk and they have these huge veggie trays with just all these different veggies and then veggie dip. And Brittany was saying that she likes to buy the big tray and then she portion sizes out the veggies in different Tupperwares. So every single day of the week, she can just like pull and grab veggies to go. And so that’s another alternative, you know, getting a big veggie tray at Costco and putting that in an ice chest or something like that

3 (8m 39s):
Is so smart.

5 (8m 40s):
Yeah. And if you’re in a big group, everyone has plenty of veggies to eat and it’s so healthy and so refreshing and delicious can’t go wrong.

4 (8m 47s):
That’s good for a road trip. And I’m glad you mentioned that last Ana, because that segues us into the next thing that we want to talk about as a tip is book an Airbnb timeshare or extended stay America. If you’re going to stay at a hotel and why do we say those three things in Airbnb, more than likely you’re going to have a kitchen timeshare. You’re going to have a kitchen extended stay Americas, even though they’re hotels, guess what they have many kitchens. So even if you’re staying someplace and not necessarily being on a road trip, that Costco tip that you gave is really good for the healthy snacks. But also if you’re going to be somewhere for a long time and have the kitchen, then at that point you can actually meal prep and cook a lot of stuff in the timeshare, Airbnb, or kitchen that you have.

2 (9m 36s):
And you know, I just want to give a shout out to our COAG episode because we used the Costco there on the island of Kauai, quite a bit.

5 (9m 46s):
We would pre plan our meals, go to Costco, get the things we need. Go back to the timeshare. We were able to store it all in the fridge meal prep for our lunches every single day, have a breakfast at home. And then just have to worry about dinner. When we got back,

3 (9m 59s):
We not only meal prepped our lunches, but we made sure to pack along some beer to drink after the trail. Now that is planning for you guys.

4 (10m 8s):
That’s planning at its finest. I always bring the beer with you on that one. But yeah, that’s what I just love about staying at Airbnb’s timeshares. Having a kitchen is that meal prep planning. I mean, I made breakfast every morning. We did a lot of hiking on that Kauai trip. So we took sandwiches that way. We wouldn’t have to find someplace to eat outside after our hike. So they really do come in handy. But the point of it being as you really do have to do a little bit of meal prepping and figure it out. But it definitely goes a long way versus picking up some fast food or eating out at a restaurant. You save money that way. And a lot of times stuff you get at a restaurant may seem healthy, but a lot of times they’re really fattening and unhealthy.

5 (10m 51s):
And oftentimes these places the Airbnb is, or the timeshares, the timeshare we stayed at had a cooler. So we had a place to pack and store and cool all of our perishable items and in the timeshares, there’s oftentimes barbecue areas. So if you just want to grill some chicken veggies and have that as a meal, that’s a great option as well.

4 (11m 12s):
Yeah. And I just want to throw out to you don’t have to be a timeshare owner to stay at a timeshare. A lot of these places that are timeshares, they rent them out as if they are hotels just as well, just, you won’t necessarily see them listed as a hotel because they are timeshares, but they are available to the general public. So no worries. If you don’t own a timeshare,

5 (11m 33s):
Kim don’t you have a story about looking in the kitchen for what supplies you need before you go shopping.

3 (11m 39s):
Yes I do. So we were in Venice, Italy, and we wanted to make our own dinner. And in this two bedroom apartment that we were renting, it was so cute. The kitchen was great. The guy was great. He said, yeah, use the kitchen. So we went to the store, got a bunch of stuff to make pasta. And I was going to make prosciutto wrapped asparagus in the oven. But when I went to bake it, I realized they didn’t have a baking sheet for the oven. So I was like, oh, this is fine. I’ll just do it in the skillet. But then I didn’t have any oil. And then I was trying to steam them with water and it turned out to be one of the worst dishes I’ve ever made in my life. So just pro tip, like look at what kind of cooking utensils you’re working with before you go menu create

2 (12m 22s):
Very good tip. Yes.

4 (12m 25s):
So moving on, the next tips we want to talk about is when we’re staying at hotels, why don’t you ladies, tell us a little bit about that.

2 (12m 32s):
So pre COVID in case you weren’t familiar with us, we love our breakfast buffets. We have a highlight reel on our Instagram dedicated to breakfast buffets. So we would always pick out fresh fruits, eggs, yogurt, stuff like that. And you can take it with you. So it’s a win-win.

4 (12m 56s):
And when you say fresh eggs, you referring mainly to the boiled eggs or something to that effect, right? Zainab, most other eggs at a breakfast buffet are real scrambled eggs if you’re lucky, but they’re loaded up with butter. So simple boiled eggs, fresh fruit, the yogurt, et cetera. Yes. But unfortunately, nowadays we’re hoping the breakfast buffet makes it come back real soon. Don’t know if it will, but if you are staying at a place that has it do choose the healthier items and you know what, if you’re staying there multiple days, the next day splurge and get those pancakes or waffles. Cause you know, I am, you know, balances everything. I love it. I I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. I judge a breakfast buffet by if they have a waffle maker, they don’t, it’s not up to par in my book.

2 (13m 40s):
Holiday ends are the ones that always have waffle makers.

3 (13m 44s):
That’s what’s up.

4 (13m 45s):
And you should always look to see if the hotel that you’re staying at has a refrigerator. And if they do stock up on those healthy snacks. So if they don’t have the breakfast buffet or even if they do, you know, you can always pick up yogurt, you can get cheese and meats and things like that that you can put in and just little healthy snacks. And obviously as always do get some fruit from a grocery store. I know I mentioned it a little bit back when we were talking about road trips, but it plays well here too. If you’re staying at a hotel, do pick up some fruit. That could be your breakfast in the morning, banana, apple, orange. So simple.

5 (14m 21s):
So who goes on vacation and doesn’t go out to eat no one, we’re all going to go out to eat sometime at some point. And like we said, it’s okay to indulge somewhat, but a lot of it is about balance and mindset. And when you’re out at a restaurant, you still have healthy choices. You can always sub a salad instead of fries or get fresh fruit and yogurt with your breakfast. If you’re out on the road and you’re stopping at a little diner, there, you have healthy options on the menu. Some menus even show like low carb or healthier options on them. And it’s easier for you to choose and pick something that pertains to your diet at this time.

2 (14m 58s):
I always like what Jamal and Brittany do because they each order something and then they split it. And so if you’re with another person, then you can always order something healthy and then another, whatever it is, and then split that. So you have a little bit of savory and a little bit of health

3 (15m 12s):
Zayna since you haven’t gone on the last couple of trips with us, we replaced you with Charlotte and her and I get one meal and split it. So not only is it cheaper, but it’s healthier because of the portion size, being much smaller.

2 (15m 28s):
I very much look forward to splitting our next meal together.

3 (15m 34s):
And

5 (15m 34s):
Another thing too, you never know how big the appetizers are going to be. Like you should ask in advance. Cause we were at a brewery and

3 (15m 44s):
In Jackson,

5 (15m 45s):
Jackson hole, Wyoming and Kim and Charlotte wanted the cauliflower bites and Jamal and I wanted the cauliflower bites, but we were convinced that they weren’t going to be big enough for the four of us to share because we were really hungry after a hike. So we both ordered the cauliflower bites and it was enough to feed all four of us plus them,

3 (16m 5s):
A small army of people.

2 (16m 6s):
I’m actually surprised that you Jamal for not asking because you’re the king of asking. And remember when we were in South Africa, is the baboons enough to feed for sir?

4 (16m 16s):
Yeah. I remember asking that and it was actually five you’ve lost count. I should have asked that, but you know, I was hungry from a long day of hiking. I thought, you know, even if they’re big, how big can it really be? I could put these down, but no, these ones were massive. This was a one-off you know, this was the outlier. If we’re going to go statistical terms, this was the outlier here, guys. This one was huge, but it’s still a good point. You should always do some asking. And like Kim said, you know, with Charlotte, as of late on the last few ones that you’ve, unfortunately haven’t been able to make it on Zena, Britney and I have started to do that too. And split as a matter of fact, we just got back from Yosemite, not too long ago, just Brittany and I, and we ended up splitting a meal just as well.

4 (17m 2s):
So saves money, saves calories. It’s good. All around if you’re willing to do it and traveling with somebody.

3 (17m 7s):
Yeah. And if there’s nobody that wants to split with you, you can always take half the meal home and just eat the one half. And most of the time that’s perfectly fine because the portion sizes are so big. And then for your next meal, you don’t have to go out and find something else to eat. So it’s convenient to

2 (17m 24s):
Yeah. And squad tip asked for a to go box when they bring it out. So you can automatically put half into the to-go box. Cause a lot of the times you’re going to eat because it’s there in front of you and you know, what else are you going to do? And so at least this way you eat half. And then you realize that you’re full and then you have the other half for later because for me, otherwise I’ll eat it all.

3 (17m 46s):
And you’re traveling through your move and moving. And that’s why you need that to go box.

5 (17m 50s):
And Jamal is notorious for snacking at the table. Like if there’s food in front of him, he will eat it 100% of

3 (17m 56s):
The time. So ally,

4 (17m 58s):
Th that’s that’s one thing that I can’t control myself on. You know, if I have fries, I eat every last fry. If there’s chips, I keep going for the chips. I don’t even care if I’m full and I’m done with my meal. If they’re, if it’s just left there, I’m going to eat it. So I struggle with that and need to take you up on that tip. But usually, like I said, I’m doing half my meal with Brittany. So even if we’re not sharing one, we get two things and split. So it’s hard for me to do in that respect. So something I need to work on for sure,

2 (18m 26s):
Me too Jomo. I remember recently we were recording for the podcast and we picked up a whole bunch of Chinese food and I’m not even halfway through my play. And I was like, oh my goodness, my stomach is going to burst. I can’t eat another bite. And Jamal’s like, are you going to finish that? Can I finish that? And I was like, oh no, I’m going to fucking finish this. And then I was uncomfortable because I was so stuffed, but it was in front of my face.

3 (18m 56s):
All right. So we went through meals. Now let’s talk about drinks. Water is my favorite thing to drink. I’m not a soda or a juice drinker in general, but definitely not. While traveling also something that I am so hyped on is liquid Ivy. I love this stuff. You can actually get it at Costco. It’s a little powder packet of hydration, multiplayer. So we, we were talking earlier about dehydration. This also puts a little flavor in your water, so it tastes better if you’re not big on water drinking. Absolutely amazing. I love it. It’s great for traveling. And it’s also really great for hangovers, which brings us to our next drink on the list,

2 (19m 31s):
Vodka, soda, water, or vodka water. I’ve never had either of these

3 (19m 37s):
Soda. Water’s nice. It’s a little bubbly, but if you can literally drink vodka water with a lot of lemon and lime squeezed in and it is so good and refreshing, like it doesn’t sound good, but trust me, it is,

4 (19m 48s):
You know, it’s really funny. You were saying that about the vodka Kim. I used to love vodka back in the day. I mean, I still do with that was originally like my favorite hard alcohol and everyone would always give me trash. So I’m actually excited to see somebody who’s into it. But it’s really funny that you say that because you know, a lot of times when people are on low, low carb or dieting, they stay away from the beers and they get those types of drinks like vodka, tonic, vodka, water, et cetera. So

3 (20m 15s):
Tonic is actually pretty sugary

4 (20m 17s):
Clubs, sodas. What I mean to say versus the tonic, but nonetheless vodka and some sort of water is a good one for you on that.

5 (20m 26s):
Kim, I’m surprised you didn’t put white claw on the show notes.

3 (20m 29s):
Oh, I’m surprised you did it.

2 (20m 32s):
I was just about to say white, don’t forget your claw.

5 (20m 36s):
They’re like a hundred calories per can. I’m the carbs Kim

3 (20m 39s):
To carbs, but there are other seltzers out on the market now that are zero carbs.

5 (20m 44s):
Do you have any that you recommend trulys

3 (20m 46s):
No. No, but there’s a San Diego brand called Ashlyn that is 99 calories and zero carbs. Really great flavors. All organic too. So I totally recommend that one.

5 (20m 57s):
Nice. I’m going to have to try that. Do they have really good flavors?

3 (21m 0s):
Oh, amazing. Like Blackberry lemonade.

5 (21m 3s):
Ooh, that sounds really good. I’m gonna have to try that. So Kim, you are the queen of dieting or saying that you have to eat healthy while we’re on a vacation. So why don’t you lead us into our next topic, which is types of diets that you can stick with even while you’re on the road?

3 (21m 18s):
Yeah. So there’s a lot of diets that say you have to eat these many meals a day, which could be really hard or only these kinds of foods, which could be really hard to do. But intermittent fasting is something that you can do from anywhere. Whoever you are anytime of year, basically intermittent fasting is I discovered it not too long ago, about a year ago. And it’s amazing. It’s so simple. It’s truly just blocking the time of when you eat during your day. Usually I’m not eating for around eight to 14 hours, which sounds like a lot. But if you factor in the fact that you’re usually sleeping around eight hours a day, it’s actually not that bad. So giving yourself time before you go to bed and, or right after you wake up to not eat your, it actually helps her body with digestion and not always having your digestive system, working, giving it time to like repair and heal.

3 (22m 7s):
It also really helps with bloating, weight, control, all these other things. Look it up. If you’re interested. It’s absolutely amazing. I love it. And really easy to do while traveling,

4 (22m 14s):
You know, who’s a big intermittent faster and they talk about their diet all the time. Terry crews, you guys know who Terry crews, oh, he’s on. Yeah. He’s he’s in the movie, white chicks. He’s in nine nine. And he used to be a football player. And I love him funny, funny guy. But I mean, if you look at him, he’s ripped, he’s buff, but he’s an intermittent faster, but obviously not while traveling, that’s his normal diet that he does do, but he, he swears by it.

3 (22m 45s):
Yeah. I mean, it’s, it’s getting a lot more popular lately. A lot more people are starting to talk about it. And it’s so simple. It makes logical sense, biologically and really easy to do. And, and there’s different ways to do it, right. It could be, you don’t eat for 18 to 14 hours a day and you decide, is it eight? Is it 14? Does it vary day by day? There’s some people that will only do that five days a week. There’s some people that will like vary the days they eat versus hours. Will it be like three days eating one day, not eating and fast in that way. So look it up and try it out.

4 (23m 16s):
Not a very good one though, if you’re going to be doing hiking, but if you’re going to just be walking around a city, Yale, build up an appetite, but it’s not as strenuous as if you were hiking. So just want to throw that one out there because I know I just completed a big hike and I needed some food. I needed some carbs.

3 (23m 35s):
Yeah. Well that’s like the science behind it is that you eat enough because you don’t restrict what you eat during the time you’re eating. So that really is good for traveling because you can eat whatever you want. And then the idea is that your body has enough nutrients already from that, that you don’t need food for those hours. And that’s kind of the science behind it. And the thought behind it is we’re kind of programmed by outside influences to think we need to eat more than we actually do.

2 (23m 60s):
There’ve been studies where you tend to eat the same amount as someone at the table next to you in a restaurant. Even if they’re strangers, because like unconsciously, you’re paying attention to what they’re doing. Even though you feel like you’re not paying attention to them. Like we are very, yeah, we are mimicking creatures because food is also a form of comfort and coming together.

4 (24m 26s):
So Kim, why don’t you tell us about the next topic when it comes to diets? Cause you’re on this one. I remember when we were about to be going to Yellowstone, you are acting like I’m going to have to be on keto. I’m going to have to be on keto. Cause you’re going to go to splash house. But Corona happened, unfortunately he didn’t make it a splash house. So you didn’t have to, but we have been on several trips where you have been doing keto. So why don’t you tell everyone what you do when you do it?

3 (24m 50s):
So I use Quito usually when I’m getting ready to go on a trip and I need my body to look nicer, or if I’m doing something it’s usually with a goal in mind or if I just have been eating kind of bad lately and want to get it together a little bit. So keto, I don’t eat keto because that’s 20 carbs and under, which is very difficult to do. Now if I was trying to be really, really strict. Yeah. It could be like all me and vegetables, but I usually don’t keep that up. But even something as low as 50 or a hundred carbs or less a day is still eating low carb. And it’s really easy to do, like while you’re traveling, because say you get a burger, right? Burger doesn’t necessarily seem healthy, but take out the bun and wrap it in lettuce and boom, you’re eating keto.

3 (25m 34s):
So you’re saving those carbs are still able to kind of enjoy the meals and indulge a bit. But you’re making little healthy swaps like that, that reduce carbs and allow you to eat healthy while traveling.

4 (25m 46s):
This also goes back to some of the other tips too, when you’re doing that, you always bring your string cheese, your boiled eggs and stuff like that on the road to do that too. So I guess regardless of you’re doing keto or not, I like this one because it goes back to the overall theme of just bring like healthy snacks that aren’t really going to be perishable. And if they already have a small little baby ice chest or the fridge to put it in, in the hotel or wherever you may be.

3 (26m 10s):
Yeah. And if you have used our tip from earlier on getting a timeshare or an Airbnb, or you just have a kitchen in your hotel, I can the extended stay and you’re going to make tacos for dinner. I have a little tip for you. And this just goes to the like the little swaps you can make, but Costco and their cheese tortilla shells, you microwave for like two minutes, boom, you have a taco shell. No carbs. Nice, easy swap.

4 (26m 34s):
Kim’s all about Costco right now because we just got her a membership and she Found a new life

3 (26m 41s):
Hospitals. I think about Costco. Every, I have a list growing of stuff I want

5 (26m 45s):
It’s so funny is you were so afraid at Costco. You wanted an emotional support person. You thought the line was too long. You were so intimidated Every single day. You’re like, Ooh, I’m thinking about this from that’s what I got from Costco guys. You showed us your dumplings that you just got from.

3 (27m 5s):
To be fair though, I did try to go to different times and it was so insanely packed that I didn’t even get out of the car. So that contributes to my fear.

4 (27m 13s):
But now that you know, what’s inside, you realize how worth it it is. But we got off on that tangent. I just wanted to let everyone know why Kim’s all hyped up on Costco because we all love it. But she’s repping a real hard on this.

3 (27m 27s):
That’s good. If you have a Costco membership, because you can get snacks for traveling, which is what we want to talk to you guys about next. So some of the snacks we’ve already been talking about beef jerky, hard boiled eggs, string cheese, those all fall into my favorite, low carb category.

2 (27m 44s):
Don’t forget the veggie tray at Costco. They’ve got cheese, Chris. That’s where you can get liquid Ivy pick up fru, anywhere you go, you can always pick up fru granola bars, quest bars. I personally like to pre-pack oatmeal and then throw a tablespoon of chia seeds in there. So yes, I do measure out my three quarters of a cup of oatmeal with Ben putting in the chia seeds trail mix. You can make your own shout out to our favorite monster mash at target. Not necessarily the healthiest, but that’s our favorite. And then just any kind of nuts.

4 (28m 20s):
Yeah. And I really like the make your own on the trail mix. Yes. There’s some favorites that you can buy at Tarjay as I like to call it or anywhere else for that matter. But nuts are just so versatile. You don’t need a lot and they’re definitely very filling. So again, you know, this goes back to, if you’re on a hike on the road anywhere, you could just take a little handful and it should hold you over. And it’s going to save you one money from picking up food. But two, you know, definitely will save you those calories and are healthier options than whatever you’re going to be picking up on the road.

5 (28m 53s):
So do you guys have any final thoughts before we get to questions of the week?

3 (28m 59s):
I’m ready for it? You know,

4 (29m 0s):
We have one final thought though. Kim, I’m going to step in here real quick and put your brakes on your excitement. We’re talking about eating healthy. Yes, but I just want to circle back around. Let’s not get ourselves when you’re on vacation, by all means indulge. We all do this. Isn’t to do this the whole trip or do anything the whole trip unless you want to, but it’s always good to get those healthy options. And especially when you’re on the road or traveling for a long time. So we hope that you find this information to be beneficial because it definitely works for us.

2 (29m 33s):
All right. Let’s bring on the

3 (29m 45s):
The week

8 (29m 47s):
Of the week.

4 (29m 49s):
Ooh, we’re getting good on the acapella.

3 (29m 52s):
That’s our next career pursuit.

2 (29m 54s):
So our first question is from Jack Traven in LA and he wants to know what’s your favorite thing that you’ve ever eaten in another country? Ooh,

9 (30m 6s):
This is so hard.

4 (30m 8s):
It’s a good question. Doesn’t fit the theme of healthy cause I’m sure we’re probably all going to answer something that’s very unhealthy. But for me, this is really hard. One of my favorite things about traveling and we’ve discussed this before is trying all the good food that there is to eat. But one thing that really comes to mind right now for me, I would have to say is when Brittany and I were in France, we were in Shawmanee and the French Alps. And we had some Fragua and I will have to say having Fragua in France was just absolutely amazing. And it was so, so good. So that stands out to me as the favorite thing that I’ve ever eaten while traveling.

2 (30m 51s):
So for me, apart from the duck that we had at the Peking, I’m just kidding. I’m not a fan of doc, but

4 (30m 57s):
I love the ducks and I don’t lie to her

3 (31m 0s):
That night. I

2 (31m 1s):
Really truly did. That’s why I’m not a big fan of duck anymore. I’ve ducked myself out, but no, in all seriousness, I mean, it’s really hard to choose a favorite thing, but I’m going to do a wild card on this one and say that when we were in South Africa flying to Zimbabwe, they gave us these lemon cookie thingies. I don’t even know what they were, but they were packaged and maybe they were from their Costco. No, I’m just kidding. They don’t have costumes. It was definitely a package like lemon cookie thingy. And it was so good that when we flew from Zimbabwe back to South Africa, I asked for extra and the guy hooked it up.

3 (31m 44s):
Nice. Yeah,

5 (31m 44s):
He did. I remember those. Those were legit

4 (31m 47s):
Shout out to British airways because that was a British airways snack. I, you know what, that’s a random choice. I don’t know if I’m a little disappointed with your choice or not. Zayna cause it’s the question was while in a country you are technically in the air. Well,

2 (31m 59s):
I did say I was going to pull a wild card. I mean, it’s so hard.

4 (32m 2s):
You did Wildcard Zayna

3 (32m 6s):
I have one, actually two. So Thailand by far is my favorite place in the world. Partly because of the food. I love Thai food. Shout out Britney and Jamal’s wedding where I had it for the first time. Whoo. I’m an addict. So

4 (32m 21s):
Why do you love it?

3 (32m 22s):
So two things that I had there that I absolutely loved, one was a banana smoothie. They make really good, fresh fruit smoothies there. And you know, like I would never really order a banana smoothie in normal life, but I saw on the menu. Got it, bam. It was amazing. And then the other thing I had in Thailand was freshly made right in front of us from a street vendor, best pad Thai I’ve ever had in my life. It was so good. It came out to about a dollar 50 and it was so good. I’m still like mouthwatering over it today.

4 (32m 56s):
I’m jealous of that one, kinda the street food pad Thai. That sounds absolutely

3 (33m 1s):
Amazing.

5 (33m 2s):
So when Jamal and I were in Croatia, we went out to a pizza place and we got a mushroom and truffle pizza and it’s probably the best pizza I’ve ever had in my entire life.

4 (33m 15s):
I think we talked about this on our episode when we talked about the Adriatic coast, when we had gone and we didn’t mention this and that’s another good choice, Brittany. I forgot about that one. Seriously, best pizza I’ve ever eaten in my life. Very good choice.

5 (33m 30s):
Jamal, what about the pork in China?

4 (33m 33s):
Oh my God. See that I, when I said my fog wall that I don’t, I’m not regretting that choice because it was absolutely delicious, but I said it was going to be so hard because they’re so good. Yes. I had the best sweet and sour pork in China in Beijing that I’ve ever had nothing’s ever come close. I don’t know how to describe it other than pure ecstasy balm, sweet and sour pork in China.

3 (33m 57s):
Yeah. You talk about that.

5 (33m 59s):
The one that got that, the three of us girls, I think we ended up getting the Kung Pao chicken. And once we all had a bite of Jamal’s balls, we’re like, damn, we picked raw.

4 (34m 8s):
And I’m usually a Kung Pao chicken type of guy, but I was like, you know what? I haven’t had sweet and sour pork in a while and I made an excellent choice. I D I, I must say. Yeah.

2 (34m 16s):
And you know what, when, although we weren’t in another country, we were just in another state Kauai Hawaii on day two, I had a wrap. It was a teacher. You have a rap, it was a teriyaki rap. And I couldn’t stop talking about it. I mean, like, I think Kim woke up in the middle of the night, cause I was talking in my sleep about how good that rap was. I couldn’t get it out of my head.

4 (34m 40s):
Well, let me tell you something. Zayna probably wasn’t as good as the reps that we had in Jackson when we were in grand deed on those rafts for bombs

3 (34m 48s):
Drops

2 (34m 48s):
And debatable, debatable

5 (34m 50s):
When we were on those hikes and we had, our wraps were like, they know would be talking about this for days.

3 (34m 57s):
That just goes to show you how food makes such an impression on your trips. And it’s not something you want to miss out on, but then like keeping with your regular lifestyle and what you have to go back home to after the trip. It’s a good, these are some good tips that we’ve given you in this episode to kind of balance out those good meals and then the healthier bits and bobs along the way.

2 (35m 18s):
Yes. And you know what? I don’t drink soda anymore. I gave it up in 2019, however, major shout out to other countries, Coke or Pepsi. It’s a lot better than the ones in the United States.

4 (35m 31s):
Yes. Cause they use real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Very good points. And I loved having soda when running another country.

5 (35m 38s):
So we have a second questions of the week and it is from Harry temple, from LA. He asks, what do you do when you get hangry

4 (35m 50s):
Hungry, hangry.

3 (35m 52s):
I’m

4 (35m 52s):
Like, let me dial.

2 (35m 54s):
And I will let you know, Harry, that doesn’t happen because we don’t fail to plan.

3 (35m 59s):
It’s never happened. Never once. Nope.

4 (36m 2s):
Well, let me say this. I don’t get angry. You know, I hear all the time from Brittany. She’s like, I need to eat and otherwise I’m going to like pass out. And while I’m being as dramatic as you are, when you say have freakouts, Brittany, I just want to throw that out there. So I’m going to call you out and say, you’re like, I’m going to pass out. I’m hungry. I need food. That’s true. Zana does like to pass out. But anyway, point being point being, I don’t really get hangry. That’s something that I’ve seen happen to Kim and Brittany. So these ones should pick up.

3 (36m 37s):
No

4 (36m 38s):
You, yes.

2 (36m 39s):
You know what? There’s only one time that I personally have been hangry. Can you guys think of it?

5 (36m 45s):
Nope.

2 (36m 46s):
We finished up the Inca trail and it was day four. And There we go. There we go. Okay guys. So here’s what you should know. You’re in high altitude, altitude suppresses your appetite and you don’t even realize that it’s suppressing your appetite. So when we did the Inca trail on day four, you finally descend into Machu Picchu and Machu Picchu is at a much lower elevation than one Cusco. The city that you fly into. And then the other three days that you’ve just spent on the trail. So the entire time they’re feeding you really well. And I don’t even feel that hungry. And before we even went on the trail, I yelled at them. If it’s snacks, leave it out because we were trying to get our bags to be a specific way that they told us it needed to be.

2 (37m 30s):
So once we descended into Machu Picchu, the flood gates of hunger opened up and I couldn’t get enough food. And so I kept looking at Brittany and Kim and Jamal. Hey, do you guys got snacks? Who’s got snacks. I’m so fucking hungry. Who has snacks, snacks, snacks, snacks. That’s the only time

4 (37m 48s):
I can’t believe we forgot about that one. Zana. Yeah. That’s the only time I’ve really seen you angry.

2 (37m 54s):
I’m telling you, man, as soon as you descend into Machu Picchu, you will be hungry.

5 (37m 59s):
Kim. I saw you get a little hangry and Lebanon.

3 (38m 2s):
I know that that wasn’t hangry.

2 (38m 6s):
I knew she was angry because she just sat in the car and she’s like, I don’t care. Whatever. And that’s not Kim at all. And I was like, Ooh,

3 (38m 17s):
Okay. So you eat breakfast. You go out for the day with the squad. It’s go, go, go, go, go. And by the time we went to eat lunch, it was already maybe like one or two. And when you get hungry or when you get hangry, it hits, there’s no warning sign. It’s just boom there. And it’s like, where do you want to eat? Should we eat this? Should we eat this? Where are we going to go? And that point I’m like, I don’t care where we go. I need something. I didn’t say that. But I was thinking that in my head

5 (38m 44s):
Meltdown

3 (38m 46s):
With not a meltdown,

2 (38m 47s):
Well fairness, we had breakfast at 9:00 AM. Is it 9, 9 30? And by now it’s like four or 4:30 PM.

3 (38m 54s):
Right? So people need to eat.

4 (38m 56s):
So point of the story, this goes back theme of the episode, bring snacks.

3 (39m 2s):
Yes. If I had snacks, you guys wouldn’t have had to see that side of me.

5 (39m 6s):
I can feel like the hanger coming on. And at first I like try to drink more water. Cause I’m like, Ooh, maybe if I’m hydrated, I won’t feel it as much. And then like that doesn’t work. So I’m like, Jamal, we need to go get food right now.

4 (39m 19s):
See she was being dramatic. She gets a little crazy. I want you to say angry.

3 (39m 24s):
Whoa. Well, those are all the questions we have. And I think that’s all we have for you this week. And so I just want to thank all of you guys so much for tuning into our episode this week. Thank you for following along with us for about the last year and keep the adventures going with us. We’re on Instagram at Travel Squad Podcast. So go follow us. And we also have a YouTube. So check us out there.

2 (39m 45s):
And if you found the information in this episode to be useful, or if you thought we were just playing funny, please share it with a friend that would enjoy it too.

4 (39m 52s):
And as always, please subscribe, rate and review our podcast and also give us those subscriptions and ratings on YouTube and tune in every travel Tuesday for new episodes.

5 (40m 3s):
Make sure to pack your bags and bribe your passports and hold onto your airplane seat. As you hear about where we’re heading to next week,