How do you deal with Business Trips?

[-Pudding-]

I've just returned from 2 nights away on business and find this is an area I really struggle with.

I travel quite often with work and that always involves hotel food for breakfast and restaurant lunches/dinners with clients. My tactic for hotel breakfasts is just to have fried or poached eggs (in case the scrambled are made with cream) and bacon with the rind cut off. If on a PV day I'll have grilled tomatoes too (not mushrooms as they tend to be swimming in oil)

But the client lunches/dinners and traveling are harder! For instance I notice that train station and motor service station food is all carb loaded. Italian and Chinese restaurants are also difficult (especially Chinese where MSG is often used).

I got stuck in a noodle bar with a client yesterday where every dish had carbs in it so literally had no choice...tried to pick out the bits and leave as many noodles as possible but still spent the afternoon feeling bloated and awful.

I've love to know - what are people's travel and restaurant tips?

 

[wkdstepmum]

I tend to say I have food intolerances if I have to have a dinner/lunch meeting and most restaurants are sympathetic to dietary requirements...For example I ask to have salmon poached or steamed with no seasoning and an undressed side salad. Then I eat the salmon and pick at the tomatoes . Or I ask for just the meat, it's fine if you don't mind looking a little fussy but the customer is always right!
For travelling on the road I bring mini home-made quiches, a boiled egg, cooked chicken etc x

 

[Atropos]

I always go pp when I travel, and carry emergency snacks (ring pull tuna tins, biltong, sachets of mustard, vinegar, splenda, pepper etc), so I can stave off hunger pangs if necessary.

In restaurants I tell the waiter I can't eat X - and ask for her suggestions. Otherwise I just leave stuff like noodles on my plate.

As a final resource I go "Atkins", knowing that fat will do less long term damage to the diet than carbs, so I would eat the scrambled eggs even if they did contain cream and butter, because having the eggs inside me will give me the strength to resist the pastries in the coffee break!

diabetic and have to avoid wh

 

[-Pudding-]

Ahh I'd not thought about biltong and cans of tuna. Doh!!!

The thing that concerned me with taking my own food traveling is that it's a bit of a food safety risk to carry cooked meats around for a long time and often I'm in transit for 8hrs at a stretch.

If I'm eating alone at night in a hotel I'll be raiding the local supermarkets for cooked chicken and tubs of cottage cheese I think, but having sachets of condiments and tins/dried meats I could see being a real life saver!!

 

[wkdstepmum]

You could get one of those little cooler boxes for your car?! I've got one and it was cheap as chips too and totally worth it, especially during the summer!