Traveling and maintaining a Plant Based Diet does take some prior planning but, once you get the knack of it, you should experience smooth sailing. Being on the road for a month each summer in Europe along with this past year of monthly stateside business travel has certainly helped hone my skills and allowed me to share a good recipe for success. There is clearly some over-prep in my plan but that is built in for the occasional long delays while on board with no access to services or being stranded in the real food desert that many airports tend to be.

Like everything else in life, having the correct tools helps make the job so much easier. Good containers that don’t leak, will pass through security, and hold up trip after trip are essential. I store mine with my suitcase so they are ready to be filled when I need to head out. Here are my personal favorites:

Whatever appeals to you from the Blue Avocado Eat collection. I like this set of 3 Zip Snack Packs
Any tight fitting stackable (when empty) containers. I like these by Preserve

A stainless steel wide-mouth thermos. I like this one by Laptop Lunch

What I include in my carry on:

Gemmotherapy Extracts (1.7 oz bottles) in a zipper-locked plastic bag to meet TSA standards (I take Allergy Formula, Walnut, and Fig on board.)

Cloth Napkin

2 Preserve containers of sliced fresh fruit (peeled tangerines, apple or pear slices, or chopped melon all travel well)

2-3 containers of organic, sulfur free, dried fruit (dates, figs, raisins, mango) packed in (Re) Zip bags

Container of fresh ground almond butter (in a 3 ounce container that is marked with the size) or individual pouches of Justin’s in squeeze packs.

Flackers (raw flax seed crackers) packed in a (Re) Zip bag

A small selection of tea bags (green, herbal to support digestion, herbal to support sleep)

Empty water bottle with an already measured in dose of a Gemmo extract to support kidneys during day of flight (Silver Birch Sap, Lingonberry, or Blueberry) to be filled with water once I pass through security

For late afternoon/ evening flights: a wide mouth thermos packed with chopped raw greens, shredded carrots, and a heaping tablespoon of miso paste to be filled with hot water at the airport or my hotel room in the case of a late arrival

With the exception of the fresh fruit, I always keep a stash of all of the non-perishable items hidden in my pantry, ready to go. It certainly eases the whole process of preparing to depart.

My checked bag:

Small bamboo cutting board, paring knife wrapped in a cloth dish towel

One Box of Flackers or Buckwheat Crispbread

4 pieces of packable fruit- apples, asian pears, and persimmons all travel well packed among your clothes

Not checking a bag?

Obviously you will have to forgo the cutting board and knife if you aren’t checking your luggage, but you can certainly add the box of crackers and fruit to your roll aboard luggage.

This plan ought to keep your tummy content for quite some time and eliminate any worry over finding something to eat before you settle in at your destination. Next week I”ll help you navigate staying Plant Based once you hit the other side of airport security and beyond.

In the mean time, if you have discovered some helpful tips to support your plant based eating while traveling we’d love to hear from you here or on our Facebook page!

In my practice I prescribe a Plant-Based Diet as part of the Living Well 4™, a four stage healing process that integrates the three therapies of Gemmotherapy, Homeopathy, and a Plant-Based Diet. The past four weeks my posts have highlighted each of the four stages in healing and the general protocols used. In the next few posts I’d like to support your shift to a Plant-Based Diet by sharing changes we made in my own home.

Eating more raw fruits and vegetables is a super important component of a Plant-Based Diet. The benefits from consuming more raw fruits and vegetables include:

• Alkalizing the body’s pH
• Activation of the lymphatic cleansing
• Improved digestion
• Decreased inflammation

All of this is important because a body that uses the lymphatic system to clean and eliminate optimally can heal itself. Your daily goal should be to eat a portion of raw salad before each cooked meal. So that means a lot of salads! To do that with enthusiasm it is important to have lots of options, a set of staples that are always on hand and a recipe-free plan to assemble some smash hits. Keep in mind good salad construction is all about simplicity and nourishing whole food ingredients.

Ready to get started?  I’d like to share my go-to building blocks to assemble endless salad combinations that we never grow weary of. Here’s how I break salad making down in my kitchen:

Bases & Textures

• All varieties of Baby Leaf Greens: Spinach, Kale, Spring Lettuces, Arugula, etc
• Torn whole leaves: Butter, Romaine, Red Curly, Endive, Frisee, Romaine
• Chopped: Kales, Romaine
• Grated: Root Veggies, Kohlrabi, and firm fruits such as apples
• Julienne: Carrots, Beets, Kohlrabi, Celeriac, Jicama

Add-ins

• Seeds: raw or dry toasted Hemp, Flax, Sesame, Pumpkin, Sunflower
• Nuts: Walnut, Cashew, Hazelnut, Macadamia, Pistachio, Almonds, Filbert
• Dried Fruits: Raisins (Golden, Black and Sultanas), Dates, Figs, Cherries, Cranberries, Goji, Plums
• Fresh Fruits: thin slices of all varieties of Apple or Pear, Asian Pear, Peaches or Plums, Mango, Papaya

Dressings

Choose one of the following Consistencies—Vinaigrette, Nut Based or Creamy

Base: Olive Oil, Nut Oil, Tahini, Walnuts, Almonds (Almond Butter), Cashews (Cashew Butter), Vegan Mayo, Dijon Mustard, Avocados

Citrus or Acid:  fresh squeezed Lemon,Lime, Orange or Grapefruit, Apple Cider Vinegar, Tamari Sauce, Mustard, Miso paste

Sweetener: Dates, Maple Syrup, Honey

Herbs and Spices: Green Onions, Garlic, Shallots, Cilantro, Basil, Parsley, Mint, Tarragon, Thyme, Pink Himalayan Salt, Fresh Ground Pepper

More on eating a Plant-Based Diet

So is eating a Plant-Based Diet the same as being Vegan? Actually no, eating Plant-Based means consuming a diet that includes 80% or more whole foods from plants. The remaining 20% can be animal protein and small amounts of processed foods. It is important to distinguish Plant-Based eating from a Vegan diet because the difference lies in the core purpose. The goal of Plant-Based eating is just that, to consume as many whole food, plant based, nutrient dense foods as possible. While the medical community that promotes a Plant-Based Diet does not promote consuming animal protein they make an allowance for it. For my clients I suggest that the main source of protein is consumed with the evening meal as it will take the most energy of all your foods to digest, making you sleepy at a logical time of the day. Want do the experts have to say about the benefits of Plant-Based Eating? Here are a few recent studies:

Plant Based Diets VS. Diabetes

Plant Based Diets VS. Cancer

Plant Based Diets VS. Auto Immune Diseases

 

Wouldn’t you like this to be the year that you resolved your seasonal allergies? Or possibly it’s that painful menses that gets in your way each month or chronic headaches? Whatever the symptom, the very reason you struggle with it is because the organs and systems designed to resolve it are not functioning at their best. This poor function directly impacts your immunity, your body’s ability to distinguish self from nonself.

 

Throughout the early years of my trainings and clinical practice I discovered that immunity can begin to restore and symptoms can be resolved when these two steps are followed:

 

1. Optimize Elimination, specifically bowel and kidney function
2. Clean and Fortify Organs, engaging with the lymphatic and circulatory systems

 

These steps are best achieved with a plant-based diet and an individualized Gemmotherapy protocol based to support the organs that will be doing the work.

 

What I have discovered after the first 100 cases testing my method was that individuals who did not make the needed shift in their daily diet, continued to deal with symptoms.

 

Let’s look at it this way. There is not a parent I know who can’t identify with the never ending chore of decluttering the house. You get things just where you want them, and then in come all those people you love, with all your heart, leaving a trail of their “stuff” right through what you tidied up. Urgh! Now you’ve got to start the chore of cleaning all over again!

 

The same is true in your body. You make all the effort to clean and support healing of your symptoms by taking Gemmotherapy and homeopathic protocols and yet on a daily basis add to the “clutter” by eating foods that cause inflammation—even in small amounts as a treat! Not only does this keep your body in a constant state of inflammation it is exhausting as well. Imagine what you could do with all of that extra energy!

 

What your body wants is a diet that compliments and supports its natural ability to clean, eliminate and heal itself. This is a built-in process you come into this world with—you don’t even need to upgrade, you just have to take care to work with the amazing body you have.

 

Your body is a great communicator and those symptoms that get you down are just an example of it telling you some changes are needed. Sure, you can choose to ignore the symptoms or suppress them with medication, but the inflammation doesn’t go away.

 

You get to choose whether you listen now and take care or wait until the inflammation becomes chronic and the effects lead to a diagnosis.

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I’ve written many posts about the very simple symptoms that are commonly ignored or suppressed that should be alarms to you that your body is not happy with what you are feeding it. Here’s one example of the symptoms often seen in children and here’s another of those in adults. If you see your symptoms listed, then it is about what you are eating and it’s time to make a change. Here’s some inspiration to get you started.

 

Is it going to be easy? No, actually not to begin with. We live in a loud world with a lot of money spent to sell you products that are going to keep you inflamed, keep you dealing with symptoms, and keep you from living the life you were born to live.

 

But, you don’t have to change everything at once, because it will be overwhelming. Changing the way you eat is like learning a whole new language, one word or phrase at a time until eventually you are fluent, or almost! Change your breakfast and stay with that until you can’t even remember what a breakfast taco tasted like, which by the way, you can eat for lunch, or better yet, dinner—just hold the cheese.

 

Over the course of the next few weeks, while I revisit and update past blog posts, I’ll take you through the process of making the appropriate shifts. Until then, load up on your fruit for breakfast and Increase the veggies you eat throughout the day!