Does this sound familiar? “I can eat that now, I’m on vacation!” or “I’ll worry about my weight when I get back from my trip.” When you traveled, it seemed to be the perfect excuse to go off your diet or indulge in rich French pastries or down-home Southern cooking, and the perfect opportunity to explore a new eatery and treat a potential client to a rich, satisfying meal. 

Experts once advised travelers to pack healthy sandwiches and a salad, bring bags of carrots to snack on, etc. The REAL problem was that fries and donuts were tastier and much easier to eat while driving or pulling luggage carts.

But times have changed. These days, who isn’t on some sort of a weight-loss or healthy eating plan—whether it’s Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, South Beach or Atkins. However, dieting while traveling isn’t always easy. Amy Crane is on Weight Watchers and finds that handling portion controls in restaurants is difficult. Toni Kamins doesn’t think that dieting while traveling is difficult, but she avoids fast-food restaurants and needs to seek out healthy alternatives. Elizabeth Blish Hughes was frantically traveling while on the South Beach Diet through the summer and learned something new each trip to make the process easier.

The hospitality and weight-loss industries have taken notice of travelers like Amy, Toni, Elizabeth and others. Hotels now offer low-carb menus and fast-food restaurants offer fruit, yogurt parfaits and more salad options. Cruise lines still have round-the-clock snacks and all-you-can-eat buffets, but you’ll find lighter fare and better selections now.

For example, Norwegian Cruise Line teamed up with Cooking Light® magazine to bring passengers a selection of dishes that are high in flavor but low in cholesterol, salt and fat. The Royal Caribbean’s The ShipShape menu was designed specifically for health-conscious guests who are interested in eating like they are on vacation without the guilt.

Perhaps you’re in a weight-management program like Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers. Obviously you can’t travel with all of their food, so what do you do? Pack your membership. Jenny Craig members can use their memberships at any participating center for no additional cost. Visit www.jennycraig.com and do a zip code search for centers near your destination. You can purchase food items, products, meet with a consultant and, in short, do everything you would typically do at your home center.

Count points? Don’t worry about missing a Weight Watchers meeting, even when you travel internationally (Weight Watchers operates 18 sites in 15 countries). Visit www.weightwatchers.com and use the free Meeting Finder resource. If you need to hit a meeting in your next port-of-call, you can enter the zip code for a list of meetings nearby. Or just visit a local Applebee’s restaurant, which now offers Weight Watchers selections based on its point system.

The Low-Carb Craze

There are more than 35 million Americans counting carbs, so many hotels and resorts, cruise lines and restaurants are catering to the low-carb dieters.

If you’re following the famed Atkins diet, check out http://atkinsdiet.meetup.com before you leave for a list of meetings in more than 650 cities worldwide.

Book your room at hotels that are catering to the low-carb craze. Sheraton Hotels & Resorts (www.starwood.com/sheraton/; 888-625-5144) introduced Lo-Carb Lifestyle by Sheraton in more than 200 worldwide hotels that features more than 15 menu items covering breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, snacks and cocktail nibbles. (Even the iconic hotel mint went low-carb—a new, sinfully delicious chocolate mint with less than one net carb on your pillow!) According to its spokesperson, most menu items contain less than five net carbohydrates.

Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts, Hyatt, Loews, Radisson, All Suites hotels, Embassy Suites and the Marriott hotel chains have all added low-carb-friendly options. Shilo Inns Suites Hotels (www.shiloinns.com; Western U.S.).

Or you can forgo the hotel restaurant and dine at other eateries that have added low-carb options, including Ruby Tuesday, TGI Friday’s, Village Inn, Subway and Blimpie.

Toni Kamins understands the challenge of keeping on a weight-loss plan while traveling all too well, but after a 65-pound weight loss, she knows how to succeed. “The biggest challenge is when you can’t weigh and measure, but I do that at home, so I can eyeball it now. I also tend to stick to the same types of foods I eat at home—salad, fruit for dessert, and grilled chicken and fish.”

No matter what diet you are on, the key to dieting successfully while traveling is planning ahead and education. “It is possible to do it,” Kelly James-Enger says. James-Enger is the owner of BodyWise Consulting in Downers Grove, Illinois, and author of the soon-to-be-released Small Changes, Big Results.

“Carry food with you,” James-Enger says. “For example, if you are on a high-protein diet, take easily portable snacks that will keep, like protein bars or beef jerky. You don’t know if the flight is going to be delayed and you’re stuck with vending machines at midnight with no food. Then you’re likely to make an unhealthy choice.”

Nobody knows how long the latest health craze will last and whether or not hotels and cruises will still have low-carb meals or meals with point values on their menus a year from now. However, you can still stick to basic healthy rules, such as drinking water, filling up on low-fat foods such as fruits and vegetables, and avoiding such taboos as late-night snacking. As a result, you’ll return home feeling healthy and not fretting about the numbers on the scale.

Tips from Travelers:

·                           “I always get a room with a fridge and a mini bar, go to the local store and stock up on cottage cheese, fruit, etc. I also stay away from the continental breakfast.” –Toni Kamins

·                           “I don’t think people should try to diet while traveling; it’s too stressful. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Instead, make smart choices, don’t go hog wild, and have occasional treats.” –Kelly James-Enger.

·                           “For me, eating out is a matter of restraint. Frequently I'll cut a portion in half and ask for a take-away box right away, so I don't eat too much. I can usually find something on a menu that will fit in with my diet.” –Amy Crane

·                           “Use salad-sized plates at buffets, but avoid buffets if at all possible, particularly the breakfast ones with endless muffins and sweet things. To avoid the bad airplane snacks, I carry on good snacks—cheese sticks, raw almonds, V-8 juice (because it has nothing but the juice instead of all kinds of chemicals)—or I order a special meal, usually the fruit plate, if I'm on another carrier.” –Beth Hughes