You know, I’ve had a lot of disruptions in my life lately, and this past week’s events were no exception. But I’ve realized that these days, with very few exceptions, this stuff is not as stressful for me as it once was. Why? There are a number of reasons, but one of the main ones is because I make it a priority to eat well no matter where I travel, even if it isn’t as convenient, which is perhaps the single biggest gift I can give myself. When I eat poorly, everything stresses me out more. In particular, sugary foods (including sweeter fruits, dried fruit, etc. — I don’t mean junky sweets, which are even that much worse) trigger anxiety, frustration and other traits that I otherwise don’t ever really have to deal with.

While traveling, it can be a challenge to eat at restaurants, particularly in airports. How I handled this last week worked well for my household. In our carry-on luggage, I packed:

• garbanzo beans, which can easily be added to a bought salad to add massive staying power and plenty of nutrition — if you don’t eat them on your trip, they keep and can be used at your destination
• strawberries that I detopped, sliced and rinsed (a paper towel at the bottom of the container keeps the strawberries from getting soggy)
• my banana oatmeal cookies (see the Recipes section of this blog)
• baby food for my son just in case, though he typically eats what we do
• bananas
• apples

I also purchase water once we get through security because many shorter flights don’t even offer beverage service these days (or you pay $5+ for a tiny bottle of water), and I find that while I don’t need to drink all that much water otherwise (because my diet is so packed with water anyhow in smoothies, soups, etc.), on planes the air is so dry that I need to drink more. (And no, there’s actually no need to drink 8 glasses of water a day. I don’t have a reference handy right now, but a recent study showed that there was no real benefit to it. It’s fine to drink only when you’re actually thirsty.)

Heading to my hometown, we ended up finding a reasonable food option in the way of a chain burrito fast food restaurant at an airport on our (too long) journey, which let us customize our orders so that we got beans, guacamole, greens and other veggies as the basis of our meals. Heading home, on the other hand, those packed beans came in handy because none of the airports had truly healthy options other than a plain green salad (that I still had to pick over, sadly). In those cases, beans and other packed goodies are my saving grace!

In the end, it all worked out, and we all got plenty of healthful food. It did require a little planning, but it sure beat resorting to food that makes us sick, moody and far less likely to be able to enjoy our trip (which was nice despite the fact that we were not traveling for pleasure). Perhaps my strategy will help you the next time you’re headed to the airport.