If you are like me you are yearning to get out of the house and into the world of traveling again. We are wetting our toes with a road trip. Trying to eat reasonably is difficult. It takes a combination of choosing well and some amount of will power. I have a number of rules that I follow to help me along.

1. Do some sort of exercise every day. This can be as simple as taking a walk. If you are out sightseeing and walking is involved that counts too!

2. Base your meals around vegetables, seafood, and chicken.

3. Don’t eat anything fried. Crispy means fried.

4. If you enjoy alcohol do not drink at lunch. Save your drink for dinner. And no umbrella drinks!

5. If you must eat a dessert save it for a special time when it can be all alone in its glory, not after you have already eaten a big meal.

I am not saying that these strategies will have you losing weight while you are on vacation but it will keep you close to not gaining a bunch of weight that you will agonize over later. John and I once took a car trip from California to Massachusetts and back again over several weeks eating three meals a day mostly in restaurants and at the end of it, following these rules, I lost 6 lbs! I have been on a cruise for two weeks and managed to stay the same. It can be done!

So, how am I doing today? For lunch we went to a Thai restaurant and had a spicy basil dish with vegetables and tofu. There were a couple of surprises such as complimentary spring rolls (fried) and a fried wonton. I am not perfect. I took one bite of each and then offered it to John. He happily ate it. At over 6’4″ he can eat a lot more than I can. I ate all the vegetables and tofu, a little of the rice, and all the lettuce with its unfortunate dressing.

Thai spicy vegetables and tofu with rice, salad, and some fried surprises

Dining out at ethnic restaurants is often a good choice. There are more vegetarian dishes and often the food is not fried or served in gigantic portions. For dinner we tried a Mexican restaurant. We had perused the menu on line, something that I always try to do so I am not swayed by the handsome fried entree with its attractive picture on the first page of the menu. John chose camarones a la diabla, a spicy shrimp dish that came with rice, beans, and tortillas.

Camarones a la diabla

I ordered pescado acapulqueno, a seared white fish topped with shrimp. It was supposed to come with a yogurt sauce but they were all out. There were also black beans (some of which I ate), rice (which I did not eat), a bunch of vegetables (yum), and freshly made guacamole that I gave to John.

Pescado acapulqueno

Needless to say this is a lot more than I am used to eating and I am feeling really full. On the other hand, I feel good about the choices I made and I think that the more good choices I make, the easier the next day’s good choices will be.