Stu and I are at the age where everyone and their dogs are getting married. I guess I can’t complain because we just got married last year, but still. I think now that we’re married, I have this “meh” feeling about everyone else’s wedding. It’s not that I’m not excited, because I totally am!!! But the anxious hype is gone (thank god) and I’m just excited to relax and enjoy a vacation with Stu and watch some of my best friends go through the same type of giddy emotions I did on my big day!

Along with weddings comes a lot of traveling- especially for us since we decided to move across the country from all of our long-standing friendships. Stu and I have two wedding’s we’re going to this month- one this weekend in Florida and one at the end of the month in Virginia.

I think a lot of people use traveling as an excuse to eat shitty food, or at least feel like they HAVE to since there’s not a lot of options on the road or at most airports. But guess what?! You can pack your own snacks just about anywhere you go!

Just a few years ago I didn’t know you could bring your own food into the airport- I was mind blown! I definitely wasn’t the type of person in the past to prep a snack bag for road trips or airplanes. I always held out for some Wendy’s or other fast food- that is until processed foods made me shit my pants all the time and I began avoiding food during travel because I didn’t want to actually shit my pants. It’s happened before, that’s all I have to say.

Since most airport food is total trash, we like to stock up on our favorite snacks from Natural Grocers ahead of time to take with us!

I wanted to share with you guys some of my favorite things to grab from Natural Grocers before we travel anywhere- they have the BEST selection of snacks and speciality products anywhere in Denver. If you live in an area with a Natty G’s close by (that’s what I like to call it), you know exactly what I’m talking about!

Listed below are my favorite snacks and travel hacks to make sure you stay fueled on your travels without compromising food quality.

1. Organic Snack Attack Mix: Natty G’s has a massive section of high-quality bulk items at cheap prices and my absolute favorite grab-and-go snack are their trail mixes. I gotta have a trail mix that has some chocolate in it, so their Snack Attack mix is my go-to. It has almonds, peanuts, raisons and chocolate chunks. The perfect blend of salty and sweet!
2. Quality Snack Bars: Most snack bars are loaded with a ton of unnecessary ingredients, but Natty G’s has a massive selection of high quality bars filled with intentional, nutrient-dense ingredients. I love stocking up on Epic Bars, RX Bars, and protein dense Go-Macro bars for travel days. Each of these bars have minimal ingredients and are gluten free (a must for my digestive system). I like to go for the more protein dense options because they’re going to leave me feeling fuller longer and help balance blood sugar levels for steady energy through long travel days.
3. Homemade Sandwiches!: Stu and I always end up making sandwiches for travel days. Our favorite option is making PB + J’s!! 1.- They’re the bomb and make me feel all cozy inside and like I’m a kid again, 2. They’re cheap and easy to make, 3. They dont need to be refrigerated, 4. When they get smashed in your bag they taste like 112038291038 times better than freshly made. We like to grab Canyon Bakehouse Gluten Free Bread from the freezer aisle of Natty G’s and throw some minimal ingredient PB + Jam on there. We usually toss these into Stasher Bags to cut back on our plastic use.
4. Crackers/chips: There’s something enjoyable about snacking on something crunchy and salty- no matter the time or occasion. We like to grab Simple Mills crackers to satisfy the crunchy cravings for traveling because the ingredients list is simple and there’s no inflammatory ingredients like grains, gluten, additives, etc. (No one like’s to feel puffy while traveling). If you’re hopping in the car, you can easily take the whole box with you. If you’re hopping on a plane, you can portion out your own servings in plastic bags or Stasher Bags.
5. Fresh Fruit/Produce:  We love taking Avocados, apples, cucumber slices, etc. with us while traveling. It’s super easy to prep and makes it too easy to eat nutrient dense whole foods while on the go. With avocados we like to pack up a plastic knife and spoon to cut it up and eat it by itself, or you can even cut the avo in half and get rid of the pit at home before traveling for easier eating. I like to keep a small amount of Olive Oil and Real Salt in my carry-on to season any food I get, but especially for my avo 🙂

We also grabbed a small Dr. Bronner’s lavender hand sanitizer from Natty G’s. I’m not a germaphobe by any means, but damn airplanes are disgusting cesspools of everyone’s crap (literally). It’s nice to have this around when you want to clean up a little bit without having to wait in long lines to get to the bathroom to wash your hands and whatnot.

Another perk of hitting up Natural Grocers before trips is they have a MASSIVE supplement section so you can load up on immune support products at the same time as grabbing snacks! Some of my go-to’s are an echinacea tincture, colloidal silver, vitamin C, oregano oil, probiotics, trace mineral drops to help me stay hydrated, and elderberry syrup.

Other important things to bring while traveling:

1. A Reusable Water Bottle– most airports/rest stops have water fountains and filling stations, so why not save yourself from $5 plastic water bottles? I also like to add Trace Minerals to my water to make sure I’m hydrating on a cellular level. It’s way too easy to get dehydrated while traveling! (You can find this supplement at Natty G’s by the way)
2. Eye Mask + Ear Plugs– If you’re hoping to get some sleep, or to just shut your brain off and not worry about all of the weird plane noises, babies crying and people coughing- I highly suggest getting an eye mask and some ear plugs.
3. Nap Blanket– I’ve had the same small blanket since middle school that I travel with and it has been a life saver! It’s small enough to fit in my carry on and is perfect for the unknown temperatures of airplanes. It also serves as something to hold onto when I get stressed out while flying.
4. Music- Before most of my trips, I like to sit down and make playlists for myself on Spotify or iTunes. Music always has a way of relaxing me and allowing me to drift off into another dimension so I can forget about the fact that I’m stuck in a 200+ mph plane over 30,000 feet in the sky.
5. Book/Journal/Games- These three things are always a plus to keep my mind at ease and busy during long trips. Often times we end up taking Frontier flights everywhere since Denver is a Frontier hub, and they don’t have Wifi or movies or ANYTHING NICE. So, making sure I can keep myself busy is always necessary.
6. Wear Layers-  Along with the idea of having a blanket with you, I always make sure I’m wearing layers on flights. I usually end up going from sweating my ass off to freezing to death on any given flight, so having layers is a must.

Stay tuned for my next travel post coming up in the next few weeks all about how to manage flight anxiety!

 

Cheers,

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This post is sponsored and paid for by Natural Grocers, a local grocery store I visit frequently and truly love! All opinions are my own.