I want to share how to stay Bright when you travel frequently. I travel often, and the stress and disruption of travel made it hard to eat clean for a long time. But then I got more experience and tweaked my formula, my travel process. It worked. I recently took seven trips in a short time span, and I didn’t break my Lines at all.
Download Susan’s Nightly Travel Checklist templates.
Take Advantage of Holiday-Related Vlogs
But first, I want to say this: I know this vlog is coming out the week of Halloween, and though I’m not talking about Halloween today, I have several vlogs to help you stay Bright during Halloween and in fact all of the rest of the holidays as well. I want you to be aware that you can access these past vlogs quite easily.
Here’s how: go to our website, BrightLineEating.com, click on “vlog,” and you’ll see a search bar. Type in “Halloween,” or “Thanksgiving,” or “holiday.” You will see several options. Enjoy!
Now, here are your travel tips. I have three things that have made a difference for me.
Number 1: Develop a Packing List Template
I keep my packing list template in Evernote, which allows you to check things off as you pack them. You can keep it in Word, Excel, or another list manager. The template has everything I could possibly need for a trip anywhere. When I am planning a specific trip, I copy that master list, paste it into a file that’s specific for that trip, and then add or delete items as needed.
Let me share a few things that are on that template:
A sharp knife: I like to cut up an apple in the morning. If I’m checking a bag, I can take a knife and a thin plastic cutting board.
Dish soap and sponge: I like to do my own dishes in my hotel room, so I have a half-sponge in a baggie and a tiny squeeze bottle of liquid dish soap.
Salt: I eat a lot of salt because my blood pressure is low, so I bring some of my favorite seasoning salt with me. In my purse I have an even tinier little salt shaker and I can refill from the road with the bigger one I keep in my hotel room (or wherever I am).
Shaker bottle: I travel with protein powder, pre-weighed in baggies, so I need to remember my shaker bottle.
Food scale: never want to forget my digital food scale!
Then there are all the usual basics, but it’s so nice to never forget them. Charging cables, thyroid medication, all the things. You can develop a list that works for you, but I assure you that having a master list is priceless.
Number 2: Pack Your Breakfasts
If I’m going somewhere, even for up to ten days, I bring all my breakfasts for the whole trip, minus the fruit, which I trust I’ll be able to get wherever I’m going.
So, if this is a ten-day trip, for example, I’ll bring 10 one-ounce baggies of oats (with a little bit of salt already added to each one). I’ll also have ten pre-weighed baggies of hemp, flax, and/or chia seeds, which is half my breakfast protein. The other half is Complement protein powder and that will also be pre-weighed in 10 little baggies. All I need to do is find a piece of fruit, and I have a weighed-and-measured breakfast.
In the past, when I got my breakfast on the road, all I’d find available were greasy eggs and potatoes. Those foods light up my brain and set the stage for wanting food to be yummier at lunch and dinner. So, by the third or fourth day on the road I’d find myself making exceptions at dinner and it would be downhill from there. With a solid breakfast under my belt that doesn’t seem to happen anymore.
Number 3: Create a Custom Nightly Checklist Sheet
I don’t abandon my habit stacks on the road, but I do modify them. And I do that intentionally, up front, before the trip even starts. And I make a custom nightly checklist sheet specifically for that trip. I’m going to give you a link below this vlog with examples of my checklist. I consider this question: What is my program going to look like for this trip? For example, how much connectivity will I have with other Bright Lifers? In the sheets I’m giving you as examples, I chose one connection point a day. If I were on a cruise, for example, I might commit to connecting through an app like WhatsApp, but not talking on the phone.
Sometimes on trips, I might expect myself to do something like digital decluttering, meditation, or physical therapy. Sometimes, I might let those go. A few things that are always on my checklist are: Did I keep my food simple that day? And how’s my food chatter and weight scale/body chatter? I rank those from one to five. If that number creeps up, I know to activate some tools. I might make my food a little simpler, for example.
With this nightly list, I can be very intentional about what habits I want to keep and what I can let go of while I’m on the trip. That intentionality makes a huge difference for me.
A Few Additional Tips
I always have my food for the day I’m traveling—always. I assume there will be delays, or I’ll be rerouted somewhere, or stuck in an airport. I never count on getting food on an airplane.
Please keep in mind the hourglass shape of recovery. That means that early on, when you don’t have much experience with traveling, trips will likely feel very hard. Expect that. It will feel confining and narrow. Know that this is temporary. If you focus on staying Bright, it won’t always be that way.
As you gain experience, it will get easier until you’re feeling like I do when I travel, which is free as a bird. I can’t wait to travel, and I feel confident in my Bright body. I’m the person I’m meant to be, I have all my food with me for the flights, and I’m comfortable with how I travel. You’ll get there, too.
