Marion Freijsen A blog about Sports, Fitness & Health

Simple stuff

Many of you ask me for help with diets and particularly diets when you are travelling. It is a tough one, I know from experience, I spend enough time on the road myself!

For me the rule is simple, I try and stick with foods that are as close to natural as possible. No cakes, biscuits, muffins but bananas, bags of nuts or raisins or a mix of those two, salads and simple sandwiches if you must get something solid. In terms of drinks, green tea is fine, water obviously is perfect and definitely not too many sodas. Not only do you feel bloated (particularly when flying) it may bother your fellow passengers too if you get too gassy!

In hotels, it’s often hard to get healthy foods but here are some things that you can do to help:

a) ask for foods that are steamed, or grilled rather then fried;
b) don’t eat anything that is covered in batter or breadcrumbs, these soak up tons of fat;
c) curries and pastas can be great choices if you go for the ones with sauces that have vegetable bases rather then cream bases. So no korma or green curries, no pasta carbonara, but simple tomato/meat sauces or mixed spice curries with lentil sauces.
d) ask to have sauces served on the side, whether it is a Caesar salad dressing or a peppersauce for your chicken. You’ll save an ton of calories that way and still get some of the flavour you want. You really don’t need to douse your food, it’s about adding a bit of a taste instead.

These are very simple things but can save you easily up to 500-600 calories a day. That is basically the equivalent to an hour’s run…!

Bon Appetit!