EATING ON THE GO: IT'S IN YOUR HANDS

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Psst. Wanna know one of the real secrets to staying healthy and feeling good on the road? Make eating a priority. As nutrition advocate Robyn Landis, author of BodyFueling (Warner Books) notes, "Healthy eating means eating!"

Limited, inedible, or no food choices and demanding schedules, Landis and other experts contend, are lame excuses for not eating or skipping meals—choices that can undermine your health and stamina. Here are their suggestions for ensuring peak performance and maintaining your general health and well-being on any itinerary.

►Admit That You’ve Gotta Have It  Ditch the dieter mentality. Forget fasting. "You need energy to do things," Landis notes. "Eating gives you that energy."

►Accept Responsibility   "Don’t count on anyone but yourself when it comes to getting fed," advises Landis. Airlines fuel planes but "You’re in charge of fueling your body."

►Follow the Basics   Breakfast—always! Three meals a day with snacks or six mini-meals. Stick as close to your normal schedule as possible. And try to eat most of your food as early as you can during the day. Starving yourself during the day and ending it with a heavy or large meal at night adds pounds, interferes with digestion, and disrupts sleep.

►Opt for Healthy Choices  Choose low (fat, sugar, calories) and high (fiber) foods; limit alcoholic beverages, sugary drinks, and sodas; go easy on the caffeine; moderate your coffee intake and don’t use it as a food substitute.

Spend a bit of time before you go researching local restaurants that feature healthy menus. Need help? Call a local health food store—staffers usually know where to get healthy food, including eateries that offer vegan, vegetarian, and organic menus.

►Opt for Take-Aways With more and more travelers looking for "food to go," many hotel chains offer "grab and go" food service and boxed meals at selected properties. Many say they can, with notice, pack up just about anything on the dining room or room service menus for you to take along with you. Ask about special menus for "to-go" items.

►Identify Favorites Tend to dine in the same type of restaurants? Like a particular cuisine? Dining Lean (Joanne V. Lichten, RD, PhD; Nutrifit Publishing) makes it easy to eat well at your favorite eateries by breaking out healthy choices by appetizer, accompaniments, sauces, and entrées in a variety of ethnic and chain restaurants.

Check out Dr. Jo's savvy tips in the Defensive Dining and Fit Fast Food online excerpts from Dining Lean.

►Ask for What You Want  Don’t see a healthy option on the menu? Order off the menu. How is the food prepared? Are the veggies fried? Ask for them raw. An omelet has ham, three eggs, and cheese? Opt for egg whites and fresh veggies.

►Choose the Best  Fast-Food Options Check out Fast Food Facts (Marion J. Franz, IDC Publishing), a handy, pocket-size book that details over 1,000 menu items from 20 national fast-food outlets and includes Smart Choices (most healthful items) plus Smart Meal menu recommendations.

►Don’t Dismiss Diet Dishes "Healthy doesn’t mean tasteless," notes chef-nutritionist, author, and hotel and restaurant consultant Nancy Berkoff. Even the non-calorie-conscious can enjoy items on special menus provided by hotels such as Westin (Smart Dining), Hyatt (Cuisine Nouvelle), Omni (Ideal Nourishment), Ritz-Carlton (macrobiotic), Loews, and the Four Seasons.

►Expand Your Options  People eat what they know. Evelyn Tribole’s Eating on the Run (Human Kinetics), an easy primer for the nutritionally choice-challenged, will expand your culinary horizons. Note the "one-minute wrap-up" section that targets healthy foods.

Copy the "Nutrition Countdown" info (a quick-take on suggested foods/servings) onto a card or into your organizer and use it as a handy checklist to ensure you’re eating well.

►Eat With a Purpose. Choose foods to help you power up at breakfast, recharge at lunch, and wind down at dinner.

►Eat Slowly, Mindfully—and Only When You're Hungry. You're tired, you're stressed, you're aggravated. Food can be soooo comforting. It's all too easy to turn to food for immediate satisfaction but mindless noshing can be a pound-adding panacea.

►Avoid the Mini-Bar. Some hotels include healthy offerings such as yogurt, fresh fruit, and power bars. But the majority continue to serve up high-calorie, high-fat, high-sugar fare. If you know you're getting in late, either carry your own snacks or stop and buy some fruit or a low-cal snack before you check in.

►Think Beyond Survival Eating Food fuels our bodies and energizes us but certain foods can also help us reduce stress and anxiety, counter fatigue and jet lag, and increase stamina and mental clarity.  Check out Judith Wurtman’s Managing Your Mind and Mood Through Food (Perennial) to find out which foods provide other health benefits.◄