Convincing kids to eat healthy food at home is pretty hard, but it’s even harder when you’re not home, when kids have more choices, and there are sweet treats and fast food all around you that you would normally avoid.
While it may sound impossible to eat healthy while travelling, be it by car, plane, or some other means of transportation, it is much easier than it seems at first!
If you are not sure how to improve your diet during the trip, check out the following 5 tricks that will make your next trip with the kids a lot easier!
- Boost your immune system before traveling
The best way to protect yourself from any disease is a healthy lifestyle for you and your children. This means occasional training, regular and quality sleep, but the most important link in the whole chain is a healthy food that directly affects our immune system. With a healthy diet, you will reduce your chances of getting sick and carefree spending your vacation days with your family.
Fruits and vegetables are extremely important, so make sure you give your children at least one healthy portion a day. As it is known, fruits and vegetables can be consumed in different ways, and lately, healthy juices have become a real trend.
So don’t let yourself get sick before the trip itself. Enjoy the benefits of a stronger immune system and drink at least one smoothie a day, which mainly consists of fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables, depending on your taste.
Another advantage of eating fruits and vegetables in the form of juice is that this way you can get more enzymes and nutrients than you would ingest through regular meals.
Dietary supplements on the go can play a big role because if we are not at home, it is very difficult to get the food we need to maintain our immune system. Some of the supplements that are recommended during a family trip are vitamin D, vitamin D, vitamin C, oregano oil, etc.
- Bring food in your luggage
At the outset, before packing travel food, keep these instructions in mind. They will help you pack enough food and think about what you put it in before you start.
- How many meals do you need to provide considering how long you travel?
- Are you planning to bring food supplies for the whole holiday or will you buy something at the destination as well?
- What foods make your children happy and what do they like to eat on trips the most?
- How much space do you have to store food while traveling?
- Do you have food included in the accommodation that you have booked?
When travelling, it is important to have food with you at all times, both for you and your children, so that at any time you can pull your bag, take a break and soothe your children with a snack, before making any decisions about a more specific meal. To avoid an unpleasant experience with younger children who can often be nervous when they are hungry, we have made a list of ingredients that can help you in a very quick way to make an improvised meal for you and your little ones, no matter where you are.
Some of the snacks you must not forget are
- Fruit pouches
- Homemade muffins
- Dried cereals or granola
- Baby carrots
- Dried fruit
- Cheese sticks
- Nuts/seeds
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Popcorn
- Sandwich
- Be consisted on trips like you are at home
Authority is the key to raising children and that is why we need to be consistent with the rules we have set for our children because if we do not abide by ourselves, we must be prepared to bear the consequences. If, for example, the rule at home is that your children cannot get dessert or favourite sweets before they finish the main course (they usually avoid vegetables), you must follow this rule on the trip as well.
It is known that children always choose sweets rather than healthier meal variants. If you are staying in a hotel or accommodation that includes ready-made food, try to choose the healthiest food possible, because it is known that the amount of sugar that children consume also affects their mood and makes them more active and energetic.
If the child does not want to eat something, you will not achieve anything by force. Try saying: “It is okay, you don’t have to eat it”. Maybe that sentence will have an effect you didn’t expect. When you give children the freedom to choose food, you help them make a few more good decisions during meals.
As long as you make sure your kids have as many healthy meal options as possible or at least some, you’ve done your job well. The point of it all is not to force children to eat vegetables at every meal but to make them aware that a healthy diet is the fuel we need to continue our long journey.