Jonathan Steedman (00:01.08)
Hey food groupies, a lot of people in my life and in the group have been traveling lately. So I'm going to give you my top travel tips. I don't travel. I don't like it. I really like my house. I don't really want to leave it. No, I really like traveling when I am traveling, but I'm not, I don't have the travel bug much to my wife's chagrin. Anyway, I digress. So what I want you to do with these tips is take or leave the ones that you want to. I don't want you to see this as a prescription.

for when you're traveling, you must do these things. And I also want you to view it through the lens of like what that travel is for you, right? So the last thing I would wanna do is ruin a once in a lifetime holiday or a decade of saving and spending, saving and planning and getting excited for it. And making you feel like, I've gotta do these things while I'm over there, right? Absolutely not. You might find these strategies are helpful.

They're certainly not something I'd recommend you do every single day. You turn them on, you turn them off as needed. And what you often find is there's always times where you can add them into your holiday, right? And I find for a lot of people, I've had so many people a little bit nervous that have come off a really awesome fat loss phase. They've dropped five, 10, even like 20 kilos. And then they're going on like a four week holiday and they're stressed about gaining five kilos back.

because there's gonna be different foods, they're not gonna be able to do their normal routine, they're not gonna, know, particularly if they're traveling to different cultures where it's like the food is completely different and they don't really know what they're gonna get. But there's a lot of things you can do to make sure that you come back the same way or even a little bit lighter, right? But we'll talk a bit more about that at the end. So the first thing is the...

The overarching question I want you to ask yourself at every single meal is, I okay for this choice, for this meal to slow down my progress? That sounds rhetorical, but it is absolutely not. Because there's plenty of times where the correct answer to that question is, heck yeah. Right? There would be certain, like I haven't had a Ferg burger in New Zealand, but you betcha if I'm there, I'm getting the biggest filthiest thing I possibly can. And I'm very okay with that slowing down my progress. Right? But maybe...

Jonathan Steedman (02:19.979)
that's for dinner and during the day while I'm out and about we stop at some bakery. It's not a fancy bakery. It's just like a cafe on the side of the road and I need food. I need to fuel. And then I'm like, well, that sausage roll like is kind of appealing, but I could just as easily have the chicken and salad roll. It's not going to impact my holiday. This is not a food experience. This is not something I'm going to remember. So in that scenario, I might opt for the choice that is a little bit more in line with my goals, right? So.

am I okay for this to slow down my progress? There's no right or wrong answer. I just want you to think about it at each opportunity. And it kind of leads into like another phrase I often talk about is like not every meal needs to be a party. So that example I just gave before not having the burger I wanted would kind of leave a bit of a taint on that experience at Ferg Burger, but not having the sausage roll versus the salad, you know, on that lunch tour that I totally forgot about because it was just like a travel day and that wasn't a food experience.

in like two days, I've forgotten that I even made that choice, right? So it's all about weighing up those decisions. And now, so if you are in a situation where you are like, look, this isn't an important meal. This is just quote unquote fuel. I hate calling food just fuel, but you this is just breakfast at the hotel before we head out for the day. And I wanna make the best choices I have available to me. Your little, the two boxes you wanna tick are protein and plants.

plants being fruits and veggies and whole grains predominantly, right? If you can get a meal that gives you eggs, yogurt, meat, seafood, legumes, lentils, tofu, I'm sure I've forgotten something, but if you can get a meal that can give you that and a meal that can give you fruits or vegetables, preferably fruits or vegetables and potentially some kind of whole grain or some nuts or some seeds or something, then you're winning, okay? Don't get too hung up on, but there's some sauce, I don't care.

you're on holiday, this sauce is fine. The sauce on the salad, the dressing on the salad doesn't ruin the vitamins and minerals and the fiber and all the other goodness in that salad. So just, it's fine, you're good. So you always wanna be looking for how can I tick the box of where's my protein and where are my plants? And just get as close to that as you can for those meals that are maybe not crazy important to the enjoyment component of your holiday. On top, like in, what am I trying to say?

Jonathan Steedman (04:40.778)
I don't know. The next thing is taking protein rich snacks. If you're in a scenario where that is viable. Protein is definitely the hardest thing to get in on a holiday. It's not about keeping your muscle mass. Like unless you're holidaying for like 12 weeks and doing no movement, you're not going to lose any muscle. Don't panic. What it's really just about. So I regularly, when I go away, I'll take a little shaker with some protein powder in it, which I feel like such a bro when I do it.

But I honestly don't, I don't do it for muscle or anything like that. I do it because if I have a a jam croissant or an almond croissant for breakfast, is like pastry and a coffee for breakfast is the best, right? If I just have that for breakfast, an hour later, I feel like trash. I'm hungry. I'm like irritable. Whereas if I, before we head to the bakery, slam a protein shake to give myself that component, and then I go and enjoy my other breakfast, that breakfast then lasts me way longer, right?

I am focused on getting my protein in, because it makes me feel better. And you're probably going to find the same thing. So looking at protein powder, protein bars, nuts, jerky, maybe things like yogurts and stuff, depending on where you're at, any kind of roasted chickpea sort of snacks, these kind of easily chuck in a bag, non-perishable things. know yoghurt is perishable, but all the other stuff I mentioned can be a really, really good option to take with you. And like I said, not because, that feels bad. It doesn't have protein, more just

I feel better when I have it, right? So try and look at it through that lens. Speaking of protein powder, take it individually, take it labeled, you know, all that kind of stuff. A lot of the True Protein, I think Bok Nutrients do it and definitely the Coles brand. Those are three of my favorite protein powders. They all sell single serves in sachets as well. So I just buy a bunch of those and take them with me. That's kind of it for nutrition. You don't need to get too hung up on too much else, to be honest. The last thing that you...

should focus on if you can and often it's really easy to do is your step count. Not that I want you counting steps and having a target doing any of that business while you're away, but just look for opportunities to walk. If it's 800 meters away, don't get a taxi, just walk to the restaurant. If there's a tour, try and get the walking option. And what you'll probably find is you're just gonna do this anyway. And this is one of the most powerful ways that you can maintain your body weight while you're away, even if your nutrition goes wonky.

Jonathan Steedman (07:06.524)
Increasing that amount of movement you do throughout the day significantly increases your baseline calorie expenditure, which significantly offsets the increase in calorie intake that might be occurring via the delicious baked goods and the delicious gelato and the delicious pasta. Obviously I'm in Italy. I don't know. I've never been to Italy, but you know, that's what I picture when I'm traveling, you know, but all of those sorts of things, which are going to be higher in calories and like, cool. walking and getting around, apart from being just a phenomenal way to explore somewhere.

is also good way to maintain that body weight. I said I was gonna talk about weight at the end. And so like I said, if you make all of these choices, you're much more likely to come home the same weight, maybe a little bit lighter. The first day or two actually after you get home, you're gonna be heavier, especially if you've flown and especially if it was a long haul flight, changes in pressure, stress, hydration, all of these things are gonna whack your body with shifts in fluids and things. So wait a few days before you kind of assess where you're up to.

If you have come home and you are heavier, guess what? It's all gonna be okay. It's a minor thing. Particularly, I know it can be particularly, sorry, depressing if you have lost, you've had good success with weight loss and then you went on a holiday and you gained a little bit of weight. You can feel like you've kind of undone your hard work, right? I don't want you to see it like that. You've done the hard work, you've got good results, you had an amazing holiday. Hopefully some of those extra kilos have come from either

amazing amounts of relaxation and or amazing food experiences. Okay. And I want you to think like, would you have traded those food experiences and that relaxation to save like two kilos of body weight, which if you came into that holiday having lost 10, you've lost it before you can lose two kilos again. It's not the end of the world. It's so fine. So I also want you to know that like, we've got all these strategies, we're going to do all these things, but it's also not like don't catastrophize it if you've come home a little bit heavier.

that's also completely fine. So those are my travel tips. If you've got questions, let me know. If you know someone who is traveling, you think they'd be interested in this podcast, I always get a warm feeling inside when someone shares this with a friend. So please do that. Otherwise, enjoy. I'll chat to you guys next time.