The Challenges of Traveling While Healing Your Relationship with Food
Photo by Ross Parmly (@rparmly) via Unsplash
Summertime in the U.S. is “vacation season” for many people. Traveling of any kind can be immensely challenging when you’re working on healing your relationship with food.
In this blog post, I’ll give you some of my best tips for preparing to travel, troubleshooting while traveling, and returning home from traveling.
Preparing to Travel
Preparing to take a trip or vacation, even one that you’re looking forward to, can bring up lots of anxiety and “what ifs.” Spontaneity and flexibility are often challenging for people who have had a complicated relationship with food. Depending on where you’re at in the healing process, doing some research, planning, and rehearsal can help you prepare for your trip. Here are a few tips:
Research: Research food options on the way to your destination (e.g., airports, options available on your flight or car travel route), restaurants/grocery stores at your destination, and access to refrigeration/a kitchen or portable cooking stove or grill/cooking utensils (if needed).
Planning: It’s always okay to bring foods you enjoy on flights, car trips, and to keep on hand at your destination. Sketch out a general plan for eating, make reservations (if needed), prepare grocery lists, and keep a small stock of shelf stable foods with you.
Rehearsal: Practice what you’ll say in order to advocate for yourself while traveling (e.g., “I’m going to have breakfast before our hike this morning” or “Dinner is a little later this evening so I’ll plan to have a snack this afternoon”). This will be especially important if you’re traveling with other people who have different needs and a different eating schedule than you. It’s always okay for you to eat even if no one else is.
Troubleshooting While Traveling
Even with research, planning, and rehearsing, unexpected situations and issues can arise during travel. Here are a few common situations that may arise, and how to troubleshoot them:
Situation 1: After a long day of sightseeing, the kids want to have pizza instead of going out to a seafood restaurant as planned. Pizza has been a “forbidden food” for you in the past and you start to feel yourself getting anxious about having pizza for dinner.
It’s common to feel anxious about eating a formerly “forbidden” food for dinner. Notice where you’re feeling anxious in your body and take 5 calming breaths. Remind yourself that you have permission to eat pizza tonight and anytime you’d like to. Reassure yourself that this is an opportunity to practice a challenging food situation and connect to what matters most about the situation (e.g., nourishing your body, being present at dinner with your family, creating memories on vacation).
Situation 2: You’re relaxing by the pool. A hotel employee offers you a drink menu and tells you they’ll be back in a few minutes to take your order. The hotel bar has your favorite cocktail, a margarita. You think, “Oooohhh, a margarita sounds so refreshing right now”, and then you think, “I can’t have that. If I have one, then I’ll want two. It has too many calories and sugar. No, no, no, no, no.”
Pause and take a deep breath in and out. Notice that you’ve had a thought that a margarita is “unhealthy” and name that this is a food rule. Notice that you also had a thought that having one margarita will unequivocally lead to having another, which is a prediction about the future, not the present reality of the moment. Center yourself in the present moment with your breath. Give yourself permission to have the margarita and reassure yourself that you’re learning how to challenge old food rules.
Situation 3: You and your friends have just finished a delicious dinner when someone says, “I’d love some gelato. Let’s go get some gelato.” You are feeling full and don’t wish to have any gelato. You notice a thought pop up in your mind telling you “You better eat the gelato while you’re here because you might not get it again. You’re on vacation, and you better have it now because you get home, no more gelato!”
Perhaps you’ve noticed a trend in the “troubleshooting” sections here, in that the first step is to pause and notice the thoughts you’re having!! In this situation, it’s okay to pause and notice that you’re having some thoughts that may indicate a scarcity mindset around gelato. Provide yourself reassurance that it’s okay for you to skip having the gelato if you’re feeling too full and truly don’t want any. Reassure yourself that this isn’t the last opportunity to have gelato (either on this vacation or when you get back home) because you have permission to have it when you’d like it.
Returning Home From Travel
Returning home from travel can bring up big emotions and challenges as you transition back to your typical schedule. It's not uncommon to feel conflicting emotions about the end of a trip, being back at home, and transitioning back to work/school/chores/errands, etc.
A big stressor (for many people) is coming home to an empty fridge/freezer and having to decide what to make for your next meal. Here is my #1 tip and some practices I've developed over the years. Side note: some of these ideas may not work for all situations- delays in travel, arrival time home, your schedule the next day, your budget, and other factors can impact your decision on what to do.
My number one tip is.....have a plan before you leave (based on your anticipated travel itinerary). and one idea for a back-up. The plan could be any of the following:
Stopping for a meal before you get home
Stopping for takeout on the way home
Planning to order food for delivery
Making a grocery list before you leave and going to the grocery store after you get home
Ordering groceries for delivery
Having a freezer meal ready for when you get home
These are just a few examples. I've often made grocery lists on airline beverage napkins while on the plane and stopped to get groceries before heading home. Chick-Fil-A has been another go-to for me. It's close to my house and easy to stop on the way home.
Some final encouragement and a reminder- you always have permission to eat any food at home that you had while traveling!!