Eating While Traveling/Vacation

**Snake Plissken** · Posted On: 7/27/2011 2:59pm

I did a search on this topic and didn't see a thread. Mods, if there is one, please cull.

Generally speaking, I am a fussy, delicate bitch. I don't get sick often, but when I do, I get knocked on my ass. I am very rigid and routine oriented. I am a slave to a schedule and arrive 15 mins early for everything and being on time means being late. But I am most fussy when it comes to eating.

I have a sensitive constitution. I don't eat red meat or pork, as it make me *feel heavy*. I am allergic to shellfish so that pretty much means I am afraid to eat any fish. I can't handle the spicy and don't eat fast food.

Generally, when traveling, I come back feeling like crap and it takes a couple of days for my body to reset. Essentially eating out for 2-3 meals, eating food that isn't prepared by my, with ingredients different than my own, takes a toll.

When we stay in a hotel, we usually stay in one that features the "complimentary breakfast" that allows the boy to have his waffles or pancakes and eggs and bacon or sausage and stuff. Kids tend to like that. For me, I can usually cobble together something resembling my usual breakfast and generally will have yogurt and fruit and some manner of oatmeal or granola or cereal.

Problem is...it isn't *MY* brand of yogurt and not my Kashi waffles.

The difficulty is usually in lunch and dinner. I've tried packing a MetRX bar for lunch, but they usually get all melty and sticky and what seemed good when packing seems less appetizing when you go to unwrap it. Plus, half the time I eat a MetRX it makes me feel like I have to take a crap.

Dinner is the worst, as even dining "sensibly" results in 2 or 3 or 4 days of crap eating out in a row and the generally feeling out of homeostasis for the last day and just wishing I was home.

It gets to the point where I'm thinking, "**** this, I'm just gonna eat **** the whole time cuz I know I'm gonna feel like **** anyway." I tend to pack *normal* foods and drinks to keep in the room refrigerator, but when you are out and on the go you just eat at the best place you can find that seems to offer the best quality of food, knowing your digestive tract will be playing hell for the next few days.

Anyone else experience this and what have you done to either reduce/remove/minimize dining-induced travel stress.

Or is it just me and I need to HTFU

**Ming Loyalist** · Posted On: 7/27/2011 3:17pm

i feel your pain. i travel with a bunch of granola, tuna jerky and cliff bars just so that i can be sure to be able to get food. (i don't eat any meat or shellfish but do eat fish, mostly.)

i have the hardest time in japan, where wanting eggs, toast, juice and coffee for breakfast is seen as odd, so if i'm not staying in a place i can cook, i eat at denny's every morning. for lunch and dinner, it gets tough, if i'm not eating sushi, it's soba or "italian"

i usually lose 5lbs or more every time i go there.

**yli** · Posted On: 7/27/2011 3:27pm

I actually have the opposite problem when traveling to China. Since I like the food there, and since everyone I meet over there seems to want to shove delicious food down my throat at all hours without stopping, I tend to gain weight precipitously while I'm there.

I once gained 15 lbs. in a month there, just through eating.

That being said, try to pack as much familiar food as possible, and make sure to get some sources of food beforehand so that you're not stuck searching for places while you're there, which only will add to the stress of travel.

**hungryjoe** · Posted On: 7/27/2011 8:52pm

I'm part goat and will eat anything except beets.

Other than having had food poisoning around twenty times (China), the meal does not affect me much.

Changes in water for short periods of time sometimes do seem to affect me. Loose in the bowels at times when first changing locations.

Snake,

You always been this way? Maybe your digestive tract needs a long term workout, but your description sounds like you eat a healthy diet.

**Snake Plissken** · Posted On: 7/27/2011 11:43pm

Originally Posted by hungryjoe

Snake,

You always been this way? Maybe your digestive tract needs a long term workout, but your description sounds like you eat a healthy diet.

Pretty much. That's why I say I am a fussy, delicate, foppish fancylad.

I had adult onset food allergies to shellfish, strawberry and peanut butter. The latter not too much, just upset stomach, shellfish resulted in a double trip to the ER for anaphylactic shock.

When it college, I had a go round where they though I had ulcers/developing ulcers, which it turned out it was strictly my "not eating right" which translated to "eating the crappy sodium and preservative filled cafeteria food" at the uni.

As for a long-term workout, when I am at home, not eating out and eating at home, I'm good. When I eat out for two or three meals in a row, I can feel it.

**yli** · Posted On: 7/28/2011 12:33am

There are a few other problems with traveling:

1.) It's actually kind of stressful, even if you're on vacation, you're always in a hurry of some sort.

2.) Local ingredients might be different from what you're used to.

3.) You have to spend time looking for a meal, which results in even more stress. The internet might help if you spend some time beforehand looking at restaurants in the general area of where you'll be staying at. There are plenty of places all over the world that serve non-digestive tract rending food. Finding an organo-vegan restaurant beforehand so that you'll avoid Burger King is sometimes a lifesaver.

4.) If you're going to be somewhere for an extended period of time (more than a week or two), rent an apartment or anything with a kitchen for a short term period so that you can cook for yourself. This solves many problems with eating restaurant food all the time.

**Kelvin** · Posted On: 9/09/2011 3:02am

Hi to all.
I also have the same problem when i travel. Since I like the food there, and since everyone I meet over there seems to want to shove delicious food down my throat.

**Eddie Hardon** · Posted On: 9/09/2011 12:51pm

Originally Posted by hungryjoe

I'm part goat and will eat anything except beets.

Other than having had food poisoning around twenty times (China), the meal does not affect me much.

Changes in water for short periods of time sometimes do seem to affect me. Loose in the bowels at times when first changing locations.

Snake,

You always been this way? Maybe your digestive tract needs a long term workout, but your description sounds like you eat a healthy diet.

I'm impressed. Really. I wish I had your constitution but then again, I'm not a foody but when travelling abroad, I get the ole Tom Tits (cockney rhyming slang - shits).

China. yeah, a real touch of lurgy but had no idea what it was - fortunately, it wasn't 20 times. India. Oh yeah. Ice Cream I think - obvious in hindsight. Bali. Spectacular. I think it was an unwashed Apple. Syria/Lebanon. God knows but it was awful. I pebble-dashed a Pizza Place in Beirut and then moved at speed past an Armed Lebanese soldier guarding McDonald's. I pebble-dashed them as well. effing hell. I think it was dodgy meat in Damascus. I had had a violent reaction but it wasn't being ejected at that time. Ugh.