Seeking Your Suggestions: Traveling Tips???

Several of you LW Goddesses travel often (for work, for pleasure, doesn't matter which). Could you suggest some tips for preparing for travel? 

Here's my scenario: for my job, I travel extensively (last two years was nearly 100 days gone, but that also counted vacations), generally by plane, generally several days at a time.  I usually have a car. Sometimes I am in locations where during the day I must either bring my food or depend on a galley that isn't geared toward "healthy" eating. Othertimes, I stay at a hotel with a kitchen for a week at a time, and can eat breakfast and dinner in my room AND pack my  lunch.  Still other times I'm in a hotel with not even a microwave so I have to eat out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

DH and I are taking a "dry run" trip this week (we leave tomorrow afternoon) so that I can "practice" packing, preparing, and eating correctly when I'm on travel.  I'm packing plenty of single serving protein powders, crystal light, my protein drink shaker, and my tiny silverware. I'm also taking single serving tuna salad packs.  I know I can always get protein drinks at Starbucks (thanks Gina!). 

What else should I take, and what tips can you offer? 

thanks in advance,
tracey

I have to to take enough vitamins to last the full time I'm away plus a day or 2 in my carry-on. So my luggage gets stocked with my weekly pill sorters wrapped with rubber bands and inside a big baggie, and my carry-on gets the little purse size pill carriers stuffed to the brim also with a rubber band and inside a baggie.

Eating in airports on the cheap is hard for me and I usually end up getting mixed nuts or nutty trail mixes to carry around with me.

If I have enough protein powder and a source for coffee and cream, I'm golden. I don't even think about food really.

Y'all have a great trip!

--gina

If you are traveling by car investing in a plug in cooler (Coleman makes them) is a wise move. We have one and it is fantastic. It also has a convertor plug so it can be plugged into a house plug once you get where you are and you can keep stuff cool there. It acts as a fridge. The link takes you to the four they make, I know Amazon and Sears both carry them.

That way you can carry a better variety of stuff than just normal packing would allow.

We also use it grocery shopping in the summer. :)

Liz

 yep I always have a cooler  .   you can   buy one  wherever U land at any  walmart for like $ 1,50  made out of styrofoam and fill it with free ice from the hotel.   

I fill it  with  fat free  sugar free yogurts from the breakfast buffet , free apples  and bananas  from the breakfast buffet and   i keep my fat free  salad dressing in there  ( i usually buy a bottle of that and  a bag of  spring greens for when i get the munchies -  also  a container of fatfree cottage cheese  and some  fatfree  sliced cheese .   Cold cuts work great too  .... and U can  keep the mustard in there   if U dont eat every meal  catered  like I usually do on location .

So U  dump the water out every day and refill the ice ..big deal ...  

I always  try to hike  the natural attractions of  the surrounding area  and  usually a group of NYers and LAers  goes with ....  thinking  theyll grab lunch at a diner NOT  .  

Around three  pm  when theyre STARVING  and  ive fed them  the peanut butter n jelly sandwiches  I made at breakfast n stashed  they tell me  im so clever to have my cooler ! ( when we're  out in the middle of  a Federal park  and there are  no resaturants to be seen for two hours in any direction LOL  !! )    U can make GREAT sandwiches  by the way from the offerings on the breakfast buffet LOL... 

Forme the trick is  always to have a little of the RIGHT  food  so im not  forced  to eat the wrong .  Then traveling and working  is truly a joyful , interesting , stimulating  experience food wise  as well as in many other ways .  

I really focus on getting my protein when I'm traveling.  I carry protein in my purse in a baby formula container.  It has 3 sections that each hold a scoop of protein.  I bring a covered coffee mug with me and drink my protein.  People think I'm drinking coffee all day when I hate coffee, never touch the stuff.

Airports are the worst for me.  I try to eat before I leave or after I land.  If it is a long day, I just drink my protein.

It won't take long for you to get into the swing of things.

Kay

A decent snack to have on hand is always beef jerky and dont forget some protein bars (as long as they dont make you sick) I thought it was going to be hard traveling and found it was not as hard as I thought. Good Luck

Your Vitamins!! dont forget em!
when your desperate or feel shakey peanut butter crackers work. I get that feeling once in awhile and I found they help.

cheese sticks and babybell cheese.  Protein bars.  Protein powder.  I've also been buying EAS light ready made drinks for those time I don't want to mess with powder, like a shopping trip, or day of meetings.  They are cheap at wally world and decent to drink.

Oh I wish I had some of these suggestions as I just drove 37 hours from Ontario to Alberta in three days.

I had a cooler in the trunk and had cheese sliced, baby bells, laughing cow, yogurt and chicken in snack bags for individual servings so that I could just pull it out at a meal time and eat it out of the bag.

I brought my protein to mix while at my daughter's in her magic bullet but did not mix it along the way. I could have brought a shaker but completely forgot.

I have the plug in cooler too but because I was doing a quick drive and it's winter I knew the cooler in the trunk would work.

I also buy the grilled chicken snack wraps from McDonalds or other places without any sauce and usually don't eat the whole wrap but eat the stuff out of it. These are only if I can't get to have a real meal and need to get going. At least I don't feel like I am wasting money on a real meal when I eat only a portion and don't have the facilities to keep leftovers or a chance to heat leftovers.

wow. As always, my LW Goddess support net holds me up high.
Great suggestions all.
I'm finishing my packing now, and DH will be bringing down the (non-electric) cooler.  Methinks the plug in cooler sounds like a good investment for our family trips. 

tracey