We’re admittedly health freaks. We eat organic whole foods, grass-fed meats, stay away from processed crap and generally invest a lot of time, energy and money into this lifestyle. It’s totally our passion.
A few months ago we were in our stable condo just outside of Montreal with our cupboards full of the health goodies we love, able to order supplements and superfoods online having them arrive at our front door just a few days after. Our Vitamix was our best friend and our healthy kitchen equipment were close comrades…
That is, until we decided to pack up our life into one suitcase and travel the world full time. We said goodbye to the Vitamix, goodbye to the stable mailing address where we could send our superfood orders to, and goodbye to the full cupboards of healthy goodies.
Before deciding to make the leap, we knew we wanted to maintain our healthy lifestyle even if we couldn’t have the luxuries we thought we needed. We decided that our healthy lifestyle needed to be adapted for nomadic living, where minimalism and adventure rule over everything else.
In the past three months we have not only discovered that it’s possible to stay healthy on the road, but we can also still enjoy the ‘health freak’ lifestyle – just with a few modifications. We like to call what we came up with The Nomadic Diet, the optimal way to eat and remain superhuman no matter where you are in the world, even if you only have 1 suitcase in tow.
Here’s how we do it:
- We bring a small 2 lb blender with us. That way we can enjoy smoothies wherever we are. It’s lightweight and with a 50 lb bag limit, being able to keep our smoothie habit up on our travels makes it well worth it’s weight in our luggage.
- Supplements and superfoods are totally welcome on our trip. The thing is, they have the potential to take up too much space in the suitcase so the perfect solution is to dump them into plastic food storage bags, label them and then take a photo of the original packaging just in case you run into issues at customs.
- Before arriving in any city we research the local health food stores and markets. It’s so great to know where you need to go as soon as you arrive so you aren’t starving and searching around for good food (which usually resorts in grabbing junk food along the way).
- We eat what the country has to offer us. Imported fruits and vegetables can cost an arm and a leg. Most countries grow their own food and have local organic markets that are easy to find (with a simple Google search).
- Our first supermarket run always contains Avocados, cherry tomatoes, dried sausage, and other ingredients that make perfect snack food that we can carry around with us all day. The foods we choose have to meet a few criteria – first it needs to be eaten easily (so without cutlery or making a mess), second it needs to be nutrient dense to provide us with energy for long walks around the city, and late nights out.
- Our health food store run contains beef jerky, raw nuts and vegan protein bars for food on the run and emergencies (like being hungry and finding nothing suitable in our vicinity).
- We stay at AirBnB places that have a kitchen. We save a ton of money by cooking our own food and we can eat exactly the foods that make us feel amazing. Finding a place to stay with a kitchen is the best thing you can do for your health (and bank account) when travelling.
- Finally, we load up on a low glycemic, high density breakfast that fuels us for the entire morning and into the afternoon. If we went for a standard breakfast of, let’s say, cereal, we would be running for junk food within only an hour or so. By eating avocado, oils, eggs, nuts and seeds and other low sugar foods in the morning we can really sustain ourselves as we tour cities and adventure around.
Worrying about being able to stay healthy while travelling should never stop you from taking the leap and experiencing life to the fullest. Travel is healthy, experiencing new cultures is healthy and learning about the world we live in only inspires you further to take care of your body and the Earth. By bringing along the best supplements/superfoods you have, plus discovering the healthy things each country has to offer you can experience the best health ever while being nomadic.
