Traveling while focusing on goals (nutrition and training) is always a challenge. No matter how many times we do it, if we're off to a new destination, there's always an element of navigation and pre-planning involved.
I've done it enough times over the last few years - both in and out of a competition prep scenario (read: extreme protocols and organization required) - to know a few good tips and tricks.
Check out some of my free files on travel tips:
A recent International trip to Canada taught me a few more travel tips that I love, and couldn't pass up on sharing:
🧳 When checking luggage, say it’s fragile. They’ll put a big-ass sticker/tag on it, be much more careful with your bag, and it will be the last to load the plane and first off the plane. You get it first in the carousel, and you can be on your way!
🏷️ Apple Air Tags! Although it won’t prevent lost luggage, but that ease of knowing your bag is absolutely on the plane; worth it in my honest opinion! Especially when you check a bag with important things or you have a lay-over and need to hop onto another plane.
🦭 Vacuum seal necessary food. This was an extreme protocol I needed for competition prep, and chances are you likely don't need to implement this tip while traveling, but I was able to vacuum seal a bunch of foods, freeze them and even packed them in my checked bag (that's right, my checked bag!) No problems; they stayed good literally the flight back home, 9 days later! Any food can be brought through security (carry on luggage with you) as long as it's frozen. Well, that's my experience for traveling anyway! I've heard some other situations where any food has been tossed, but I like the safe game for me. Plus, the vacuum seal helps save space.
🛍️ Grocery delivery upon arrival. This was my first time doing any kind of grocery delivery service, and dang! It's going to be a travel staple for me in future prep scenarios. Pre-plan your cart ahead of time, and when you land at your destination, set your delivery so it can meet you at your hotel/AirBnB and you don't need to wait. In Canada, I used Instacart.
Use this link to order Instacart and you can get up to $30 off your order!
And here's one that I almost learned the hard way...
🫢 I learned that the exact same food product in Mexico vs Canada is different. I like Gerber's baby rice cereal (just ground up rice, but it's more instant - read: much easier to prepare and digest - than cream of rice). I also like the oats (same concept.) In Mexico, it's just rice and a few normal preservatives. In Canada, it has added milk product... whaaaat?! Absurd. Took me a while to figure out the Organic version doesn't have the milk product. So lesson learned: read food labels!
Hope these travel tips (plus the linked resources!) help you feel so confident for future travel!