Food is an essential part of travel and The Women’s Travel Group likes to eat on our trips. But can you refrain from a feeding frenzy when traveling?

Try to eat a hearty meal before you go to the airport so you don’t blow your diet on terra firma. That means, you do not empty all the good food from your pre-trip refrigerator-you might even plan a nice going away meal for yourself.   Airplane meals are loaded with salt and sugar, so here you can eliminate some of this by pre-ordering a low salt low sugar meal.

Breakfast, make only one trip to the Buffet. Many fine hotel breakfasts today are buffet style, even in India and China. The offerings are endless. In India and China on our trips, you find both French patisserie, oriental food, hot pancakes, cheeses, fresh breads….. Here is where you take with you that fruit snack for later.

Lunch, since you will avoid salad in many countries, go for cooked meals: grilled entrees, soup, cut up peeled fruit for dessert. A couple of tastes of dessert is better at lunch than dinner.

Dinner, here comes the wine issue (again Women’s Travel Group meals usually include wine, even in non European places), and usually we serve festive meals. Splurge every third day according to one of the blogs below. Drink at alternative meals.  Or water down your wine.

Supply your own snacks, lower calorie health bars for instance.  Buy fresh fruit locally, and drown it in the room with purified water. Or peel it yourself… There are new electronic water purifiers on the market which take a few seconds. There are the old fashioned purifying iodine pills from camping shops.

Finally make a list of must try, must eat foods. Go down your list, eat these; however, not at every meal. Whatever controls you have, remember you will cheat sometimes. And gluten free? Yes it is available globally now.

Join The Women’s Travel Group to China Oct 10-20, India in November and Morocco in December.

6 Rules for Eating on Vacation

http://vitals.lifehacker.com/how-to-go-on-vacation-without-ruining-your-diet-1697563909