Carbs To Go -
Tips for the Traveling Runner

Use this advice to eat carbs when traveling and avoid a high fat diet.

Make good choices, eat healthy and run well.

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Snacks & Munchies
In Airplanes

Photo courtesy of jlastras

Traveling presents challenges for runners who need adequate carbohydrate-rich meals and snacks.

All too often, traveling runners seek convenience rather than carbs; they fuel themselves on whatever happens to be easiest at that moment at the nearest convenience store, deli, or quick service restaurant.

This can easily result in a high fat diet of donuts, french fries, nachos, burgers, and other greasy foods.


Although you may rationalize you "deserve" this convenient treat (you're tired, hungry, stressed, anxious, lonely, bored, or any combination of these), eating too many fatty foods can compromise your sports diet and your performance.

Whereas the occasional high fat meal is unlikely to interfere with top performance, a steady fast food diet can take its toll. To help you better accommodate a high carb sports diet into your traveling routine, here are some suggestions for eating on the road.

Important tip: Always eat a hearty breakfast on travel days. This prevents you from getting too hungry—at which point you care less about what you eat—and invests in your ability to wisely plan for/choose wholesome carbohydrate-rich foods the rest of the day.

Breakfast

At a restaurant, choose french toast, blueberry pancakes, whole wheat toast, bagels, granola, cereal, oatmeal. Add jam or syrup for extra carbs but "hold the butter" or request it "on the side."

• Order a large juice (preferably orange, grapefruit, V-8, tomato, or carrot) for vitamin C and potassium. This can help compensate for a potential lack of fruits or vegetables in the other meals.


• At a hotel, you can save time and money by packing your own cereal, raisins, and spoon. (A water glass can double as a cereal bowl.) Either bring powdered milk, or buy low fat milk at a local store.

Find a deli or restaurant that offers whole grain breads and request a sandwich that emphasizes the bread rather than the filling. "Hold the mayo" and instead use mustard, ketchup, sliced tomatoes, and lettuce for moistness. Add more carbs with soup (noodle, vegetable), juice, yogurt, fruit, pretzels, energy bar, or frozen yogurt.

• At quick service restaurants, choose baked potatoes, chili, thick crust pizza, or bean burritos instead of burgers, fried chicken, and french fries that have a very high fat content. Request extra bread or rolls.


• At a salad bar, generously pile on corn, chick peas, three bean salad, toasted croutons. Fill up on breads and rolls instead of "fat loading" on salad dressings and mayonnaise-smothered pasta and potato salads.


• Hearty soups (such as split pea, minestrone, lentil, barley, noodle) accompanied by crackers, bread, bagel, english muffin or low fat muffin provide a satisfying lunch that is rich in carbs and low in fat.


• Baked potatoes are a super choice if you request them plain rather than drenched with butter, sour cream, and cheese toppings. For moistness, mash the potato with milk (special request) rather than with butter. Be aware that specialty potatoes, such as a cheese-stuffed potato, may offer more calories from fat than from carbs.


• Both soft drinks and juices are carbohydrate-rich, but juices offer more vitamins and minerals, hence are the preferable choice.

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Dinner

Patronize restaurants that offer healthful carbohydrates (pasta, baked potatoes, rice, steamed vegetables, salad bars, homemade breads, fruit, juice), as well as broiled foods and other low fat entrees.

• Request thick crust pizza with vegetable toppings rather than thin crust pizza with pepperoni or meat.


• Enjoy bread and rolls either plain or with jelly (special request). To boost calories, eat another slice of bread, a second potato, soup and crackers, juice, sherbet, frozen yogurt, and other carb-based foods.


• When ordering salads, always request the dressing be served "on the side." Otherwise, you can get as many as 400+ calories of fat. Use the dressing in moderation. Even a "little bit" of dressing on a large salad can become a lot of dressing...

Pack your own goodie grab bag. Some suggestions include: whole grain bagels, granola bars, graham crackers, pretzels, raisins, energy bars, oatmeal cookies, dried or fresh fruit, and juices.

• Buy wholesome snacks at the convenience store: small packets of trail mix, raisins, or dried fruit, yogurt, frozen yogurt, V-8 juice or fruit juice, a hot pretzel, slice of pizza or even a turkey sandwich, cup of soup, or hot cocoa.

Be sure to drink plenty of fluids. You can very easily become dehydrated due to the low humidity in the cabin. Request two beverages per serving, or bring along your own water bottle (filled after you go through the security gate) so you'll always have plenty to drink.

• To safeguard against irregular meal times and inadequate meals, pack along a peanut butter sandwich or other hearty snack for "emergency food."


• To limit jet lag, set your watch to the destination time and eat according to that time schedule. Drink lots of fluids and avoid alcohol.

Copyright: Nancy Clark, MS, RD, CSSD
Nancy Clark's new Sports Nutrition Guidebook (2008), Food Guide for Marathoners, and Cyclist’s Food Guide are available at her website www.nancyclarkrd.com.

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