Travel Tips
Traveling can be exciting, but it can also be stressful. Especially for someone who might be struggling with their relationship to food, it can present some unique challenges, even before you arrive to your destination. So here are some tips to help you feel more prepared.
This might be a fairly obvious one, but plan ahead as much as you can! Whether you’re driving, flying or another kind of transportation altogether, try to plan out your day as much as possible. What meals or snacks will you want to plan around having before or after travel and what are the best options? Will there be any meals or snack times that overlap during your travel and how can you plan ahead for that? Also think about any sort of delays you may run into - traffic, flight delays, etc. that may cause your day to be longer and need more to be packed (worst case scenario, but unfortunately it happens!).
If you’re driving, consider bringing a cooler and packing foods. You can also look ahead at your route and see what kind of restaurants you’ll be passing by to pick out one to stop at.
If it’s air travel, it can feel helpful to review what options will be available in the airport(s) you’ll be flying out of or into, whether it’s a layover or at your destination. You might also receive a meal on your flight so you could look ahead to confirm this and know what to expect.
Some other tips to help in general with food around travel include: have a support person(s) identified, use distraction techniques as needed, speak with your treatment team ahead of time for help with planning, and remember even though it can feel overwhelming, these meals are a very small part of your overall food intake over the course of a summer or even the entire year! Try to enjoy yourself and your destinations as much as possible - happy and safe travels!
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