Thursday, March 6, 2014

Traveling While On A Special Diet (Paleo, Gluten Free, AIP etc.)


I am packing today to go for a couple days to pediatric massage training by Liddle Kidz Foundation. My life has changed so much from when I last used to travel for work. That was when I was working for Left Alliance in Finland, a political party. I was the head of communications and traveled often. My suit case was filled with business casual (very casual in my case but still) clothes, makeup and nice extra shoes. A novel. Now I have comfy clothes, my yoga mat, woolen socks, a parenting or nutrition book and a cooler full of food. Before I also had all kinds of things like ibuprofen or cortisone or lip balm with me just in case but after going gluten free and especially after going paleo I don't even need to think about packing any of those anymore. (I save these styrofoam boxes whenever I get any cold products shipped, they are very well insulated for situations like this! And this one fits in my suit case!)

Eating out while on a restricted diet is tricky so I travel with food. Sometimes I have packed a toaster oven with us and then we can buy food to cook in the hotel room or wherever we are staying. This time I packed ingredients for wraps, salads and snacks:

- coconut wraps (I use Paleo wraps) - use any of the items below to fill the wraps - breakfast, lunch or dinner!
- cabbage slaw in a ziplock bag: white and red
cabbage, kale, shredded carrots, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, Herbamare (mix in a ziplock and shake)
- cooked chicken (this recipe) - I froze some of it overnight so it would stay cool longer
- sauerkraut
- cucumbers
- lettuce
- carrots
- fruit
- olives
- avocados
- canned salmon/tuna (check ingredients!)
- coconut kefir
- sauteed greens (chard, sauteed in broth and garlic)
- hearts of palm in glass jar
- plantain chips (recipes online, check out this one)
- boiled whole yams
- plate and utensils and a swiss army knife (If you fly, don't pack knives in your carry on, believe me, I have done that accidentally a few times and have paid a lot of money to keep my knife in paid storage at the airport, it is now worth its weight in dollar bills probably.)

I have eaten this on airplanes straight from the bag
with a plastic fork. It has stayed fine in my purse 

even without a cooler for very long times.
All of these are fine for me to eat cold. If I had more time on my hands today, I'd make these crackers and puree some naturally cured olives with olive oil and garlic for a quick tapenade... Maybe I will after the kids are in bed! After I have packed I still have to check on all my ferment babies, bottle some kombucha and water the garden. These are also new additions to my packing routine. Oh how my life has changed! Safe travels to me! I'll be a certified pediatric massage therapist in a few days!





For more recipes, check this out!

18 comments:

  1. I love your ziploc bags of salad idea. I will definitely do that next time! I'm AIP travelling right now myself. I had to cross the border from Canada into the Sates & took a chance with a carry-on full of AIP food, even though much of it was on the do-not-import list (I checked). I just said I had severe allergies & smiled very sweetly & they let me through. Such a relief, because arriving with nothing at 11pm after a long hungry flight & having to source food 1st thing the next morning in a strange place before eating breakfast would not have been fun! As it turns out, it's easier to get AIP-friendly food here than at home...

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    1. Oh wow, Petra, I am glad you managed to bring the foods! The ziploc salad is great, especially coleslaw as it doesn't really need to be even in a cooler. It just gets better when it softens :) That is an interesting observation that it is easier to get AIP food here, wouldn't have guessed. Do you mean restaurants or stores?

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  2. And congratulations on becoming a certified pediatric massage therapist!

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  3. Sirpa, this was a reader favorite at the AIP Recipe Roundtable. Thanks so much for linking up! Have we talked before about sharing careers? I'm a massage therapist myself, specializing in lymph and craniosacral therapy. Congrats on your new certification.

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  4. Thanks Eileen! People often wonder about how to eat a special diet while traveling so I thought it would probably be a popular subject. I didn't know about you being a massage therapist! That is great. I've taken some classes in craniosacral myself too but specialize in other things.

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  5. Can you take foo with you on a flight within the USA? I don't travel often and will be going on a trip soon and am planning ahead.

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  6. I can't begin to explain how much this post has helped me. I've been on and off AIP for 12 months, start to improve and then go back to my old way of eating. I've been looking for a way to make it easier to succeed than it is to fail. These suggestions will work just as well for stocking my fridge so that I have "on-the-go" food as well as helping my travel-proof my lifestyle (and as I've got the next two weekends away this is such a timely finding!). Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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    1. Hanna, I don't know why I didn't see this before! I am so glad this has been a helpful post to you! You might like also this paleo camping food post! http://kaikulifestyle.blogspot.com/2014/04/paleo-camping-food.html

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