247Health.com LDN: Get Back to Healthy Eating Habits After Traveling

Whether your revenge travel is just a day trip away or an overnight flight to somewhere exotic, people are ready to hit the road (and airspace) this summer!

So to help you ease back into your regular home routine effortlessly, here are my 5 pieces of advice to get you back to healthy eating habits after travel: 

Keep meals super simple for when you return.

Think more “halfway homemade” meals versus “100% made-from-scratch.” Maybe you rely a little bit more on convenience foods (like rotisserie chicken, salad kits, pre-washed and chopped veggies, etc.) to get easy, stress-free meals on the table after travel. 

Plan for meals that you’d be excited to eat.

There’s no need to limit yourself to sad salads on repeat after a vacation. (Talk about post-vacation blues!) Maybe you use your recent travels to inspire your next mouth-watering meal plan. And know that you can always modify a recipe to be healthier for you and your family. 

Consider scaling back how much you meal plan for.

If doing your usual 7-day meal plan feels too overwhelming after all that R&R, it’s a-OK to tackle half the week or even just a day or two now and then the rest later. Remember, some meal planning is better than none, since the alternatives are either (a) skipping meals and/or (b) ordering out. 

Get any ingredients you need ASAP.

This is pretty essential to making healthier food choices once you get back home. When I have down time (during a layover, for example), I try to organize our next grocery list by jotting down any items needed (along with quantities) in my Notes app on my smartphone. If you need to outsource grocery shopping for when you return by ordering online or doing curbside pick-up, then start adding to that (grocery) cart! 

Embrace that your meal plans won’t be “perfect”.

And they may never be even on “the best” of days or weeks! But just try to roll with the punches as best as possible as it’s unrealistic to think that you can plan for every single curveball that might come your way once you make it back home.

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Lindsey is a Registered and Licensed Dietitian Nutritionist, CDC Diabetes Prevention Program Lifestyle Coach, and employee wellness expert in Franklin, TN. She graduated from the Dietetic Internship program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and prior to this, earned her B.S. in Human Ecology from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

With over a decade of dietetics experience spanning the fitness industry as well as the public sector, Lindsey has appeared on Bustle, BuzzFeed, Greatist, HealthDay Living, POPSUGAR Fitness, and Well+Good. Lindsey is passionate about helping people dial down their food frustrations and turn up the healthier habits that make for a happier life.