Happy weekend you guys! Ahhh, I simply love the weekends-who doesn’t right?-but it may not be for the same reasons as most…for me the weekends mean CHEAT DAYS! Saturday is that day of the week when I get to indulge on something sweet or on one of the foods I consider to be “junk food” (aka everything that tastes amazing and has 1000+ calories). Food is basically all I can think about when I wake up Saturday morning, and as I walk down the streets looking for a “target” worthy enough of my “junk food free pass”. Even though I love to pieces sugars and carbs, I love eating healthy even more (hard to believe?)! I think it´s fascinating how we can shape our body-and minds-as well as solve most of our health issues with just the right fuel (aka not overly processed carbs and sugars…).

Before we dive in any deeper into this topic, I want to clear some things: 1) not everyone will agree with me, and that´s completely fine 2) I´ll be talking about my personal health and diet, so the same things that work for me may not work for you 3) I´m still, and probably will be for the rest of my life, figuring out this whole “food/health topic”. And if things go smoothly, I might write an article about my personal diet/struggles/tips for a healthy life, but for now I want to talk about something else.

Now, straight to the business-can you travel constantly and still eat healthy? The answer is, absolutely!!!! The definition of healthy may vary from one to another, but here on this post I´ll be talking about my definition of a healthy nutrition. For instance, I would say my family eats quite healthy; however, I basically cook a totally different meal from my mother because of my fitness goals. But if you were to come over and search the kitchen and fridge you would mostly find: fruits (berries of any sort, bananas, apples, lemons, avocados, kiwis, and papaya), vegetables, seeds, whole/sprouted grains, honey/stevia/dates/maple syrup, and lots of lean protein. See? Nothing too out of the ordinary; it´s basically everything we used to have back in our house.

Somehow, people tend to link junk/comfort food with traveling, which is a mistake. I must admit, my standards and definition of “junk food” have changed with time-they have been getting stricter-and now I have a pretty rigid diet, but it´s nothing to radical! Nevertheless, there are a few basic rules that I follow whenever preparing a meal/buying one: 1) always have some sort of lean protein in your plate 2) always eat some sort of healthy fat in each meal (avocado, seeds, salmon, olive oil, etc) 3) eat salad (once a day at least) and fruits (I usually eat 3 different types daily) 4) keep things as whole as possible (aka not too processed) 5) always eat with a small plate and a small fork (this way you eat less) 6) sweeten things with honey, dates, or stevia (I´ve been using stevia lately 7) watch how you cook your food and which oils you use in the kitchen (coconut oil is  my favorite) 8) have lots of self control (this is a hard one when you basically live in your kitchen) 9) season your food with spices and healthy fats, instead of butter/canola oil/too much salt (apple cider vinegar is a great substitute for salt on salads!) 10) try to support organic and smaller businesses (farmer´s markets, Trader Joe´s, the Coop, and Whole Foods) that strive to promote the health of the producer, land/animals, as well as yours.

As for finding restaurants when traveling, there are many great, healthy-and still with a reasonable price-options: Zoe´s Kitchen, a Greek style restaurant, which has many fresh/healthy options of dishes and with an average price of $10-12 per plate; Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, an old style American restaurant, which has various types of plates and with an average price of $10-12 per dish; Whole Foods, my absolute favorite, which charges by the weight and has endless options of food to choose from; Grabbagreen, which offers fresh options as well as juices and with an average price of $10-12; there are many smoothie places to choose from, just be careful with the ingredients.

This post is just scratching the complex surface of healthy nutrition-we still have a long way to go. But depending how things go, I´ll post more and more about nutrition and how to acquire a healthy lifestyle (sharing a little bit of mine, some tips, and easy/healthy recipes); additionally, how we can live in a Rv and still eat nutritiously while supporting the organic movement!