6 Healthy Summer Travel Tips

1. Search Out New Movement Opportunities.

Vacationing in the mountains? Take in nature and head out for hikes. The views from a peak beat out a gym anytime.

Near water? See what’s available in the way of sports like kayaking and canoeing, not to mention a good old afternoon swim.

Enjoying city life? Find out about walking tours through travel books, the Internet, or your concierge. For many tours, you don’t even need a guide, just comfortable shoes and a love of all the colors and glory that a great city offers.

In New York City, walk the High Line and take in gorgeous views of the Hudson River on one side and Chelsea on the other. March across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Hike the Hollywood hills. Follow the Freedom Trail in Boston. They’re all calorie-burning fun!

2. Planning Ahead Is Key.

Wherever you’re going each day, toss a few healthy snacks into your daypack before setting out, like fresh fruit. There’s nothing like healthy food on hand to satisfy hunger (and keep you from making choices you may later regret).

3. Have Fun With New Foods.

From Maine to Madrid, treat yourself to outdoor farmers’ markets, where you’ll likely find the season’s finest in fruits and vegetables, including a few you may have never seen. Buy some! Add them to your daypack of healthy snacks. Get tips from locals on growing and preparing these foods. Sometimes, there are whole new worlds to explore in the space of a single food stall.

To locate farmers’ markets in the area you’re staying, we did not find any phone apps worthy of recommending, but that’s okay. Just google the name of the town you’re in plus “farmers markets,” and just about all markets near you should come up.

4. Check Out Restaurant Menus Before Making Reservations.

See some interesting restaurants near your hotel? Many have their menus posted on their front windows or websites, so you can investigate them and decide if they have healthful options that you’ll enjoy, like veggie-rich salads, sides like baked potatoes and steamed vegetables, fish, garden-fresh corn on the cob, and condiments like balsamic vinegar and salsa.

You can also download healthy restaurant apps for your phone, like HealthyOut, which allow you to search by categories such as “Heart Healthy,” “Low Calorie,” and “Pescetarian.”

There are also websites like healthydiningfinder.com that list restaurant menus in many cities and have categories that personalize your search, like entrees with 750 mg sodium or less, and 1 gram of saturated fat or less, as well as all-vegetarian restaurants.

“Do be careful,” warns Kimberly Gomer, MS, RD, Director of Nutrition at the Pritikin Longevity Center. “Vegan or vegetarian-friendly, for example, does not necessarily mean ‘healthy.’ If vegan choices are loaded with oil, they could be very high in calorie density. That’s a real problem if you’re trying to keep your weight in check. Vegetarian dishes could be piled high with artery-damaging cheese.”

Research your healthy summer travel options thoroughly. And when you arrive at restaurants, ask your server questions, such as, “Is there cheese in this entrée? What’s in the sauce? Are there choices on the menu that don’t have a lot of added salt?”

5. Take a Stroll After Dinner.

We all know that eating out, even when we’re being Pritikin perfect, will likely ratchet up more calories than eating at home. So mitigate the damage a little. Take an evening walk after dinner. Enjoy the night air. Window shop. Find some good kick-up-your-heels music.

It doesn’t have to be an hour-long, break-out-in-a-sweat walk. “We’ve found among our Pritikin guests with diabetes that their morning blood sugar levels often look significantly better if they’d gone out for an easy-to-moderate 20-minute walk after dinner,” says Danine Fruge, MD, Associate Medical Director at Pritikin. “Chances are, similar benefits would hold true for nondiabetics.”

6. The Best Of Healthy Summer Travel Tips – Come To Pritikin.

At the Pritikin health resort, there’s no need to fuss with restaurant menus, searching out healthy snacks, or anything else. It’s all good. You simply relax. Enjoy fabulous, heart-healthy food. Start each morning with a revitalizing workout. Attend eye-opening lectures. And share stories and laughter with other Pritikin guests (always a fascinating bunch) around the dining room table.

We look forward to seeing you! And you’ll return home with the best gift of all – a healthier body that can increase your enjoyment of life not just at vacation time but year round.

Pritikin Health Resort

Take life to the next level, and be all that you can be. That’s what a vacation at Pritikin is all about. Live better. Look better. And best of all, feel better.
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Since 1975, 100,000+ people have come to Pritikin. We are the longest-running, most scientifically documented health resort in America.
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