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Nutrition conscious travelers have finally been heard. Finding diet foods at an airport is much easier than it used to be.

There are far more healthy choices to grab on the run (or waiting between flights), but your family still has to be selective and choose wisely.

Common Sense – Plan Before The Airport

Do not to arrive at the airport hungry. Whether you’re heading to the airport from your home or a hotel, schedule time to eat ahead of time.

The one way to ensure you don’t ruin your diet while traveling is to bring your own food.

Suggestions include: Energy bars, Nuts: Almonds or cashews, Carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, whole grain bread with light cheese or peanut butter, Fruit (apple, banana, grapes), Yogurt, unsweetened dried fruits

Hungry and Have Nothing With You At The Airport?

Takeout kiosks/news stand:

• Fruit: Apples, oranges and bananas as well as cut-up pineapple and watermelon.
• Hummus: Often found in a snack pack with raw vegetable or pita.
• Nuts: A great protein boost and easy to carry on the plane. Caution: Be sure your nuts are unsalted and don’t overeat.
• Oatmeal: Avoid overloading with too much dried fruits, brown sugar or nuts.
• Salads: They are usually quite fresh (rapid turnover). Beware of the dressing and crispy noodles, croutons or bacon.
• Sandwiches: Even if pre-made, they can be a good choice, but beware of too much cheese or tuna/ chicken salad with mayonnaise. Plain turkey or chicken can be filling and if you can eat only half of the bread, all the better. And – no – you do not need the bag of chips that comes with the sandwich.
• Yogurt: More common at airports (both in containers and frozen). Keep it plain without a lot of add on fruits and toppings.

Food Chains Now Have More Healthy Choices

• Au Bon Pain: Garden Vegetable Soup is good with only 80 calories for a medium-sized serving.
• Burger King: Select the junior Whoppers or junior sandwiches and skip the fries. Or order a salad (with the dressing on the side).
• Dunkin Donuts: The egg white veggie flatbread is a great choice and can be even lower than the 280 calories if you have them hold the cheese.
• McDonald’s: There are a lot of choices from salads and fruits to yogurt parfaits. A small hamburger or chicken sandwiches can also be good.
• Starbucks: Their oatmeal is only 150 calories. If you must have a bagel, their multigrain is less than 300 calories, but be careful smearing on the cream cheese.
• Subway: This chain has always been diet friendly, especially if you order your sub small or on a pita pocket. Just be careful with any add ons like cheeses and dressing.
• Wendy’s: Consider their baked potato (no cheese, butter or sour cream). And a Chili. This is my wife and daughters favorite food from Wendy’s anyway

Yes you can definitely make it through an airport keeping your family healthy and watching your wallet.

Of course, if you got stuck in traffic and have only five minutes to get on the plane for a four-hour flight – enjoy that little bag of the airline pretzels.

Looking for jet lag remedies? There are times when you cannot afford to take time out after a trip, but need to be running right off the plane and keep running.

Jet lag can take many forms. Sometimes you are completely wiped out for a day or two after your long distance plane trip.

What Causes Jet Lag?

Other times you may feel fine for the first couple days, but just as you are thinking that it hasn’t got you this time, it hits and messes up a whole week with sleepless nights and drowsy days.

And it’s not just sleep. You may also have digestive disturbances, headaches and possibly some depression. jet lag remedies are as complex as your body is.

The medical term for jet lag is desynchronosis. It happens when there is disturbance to the natural circadian rhythms of the body that tell us when it is time to sleep with the best pregnancy pillow and when it is time to be awake.

These relate to daylight and they are adjustable, so if we cross time zones in a car, for example, we usually do it slow enough for our body to adjust. But a plane can cross several time zones in one day, and that can take a while to recover from.

On average, the recovery time is about 1 day per time zone crossed, although some people find it worse traveling east. A time zone is counted as one hour of time difference.

So traveling from New York to Los Angeles (east to west, 3 time zones) you could expect to recover in 3 days. But traveling from New York to Lima in Peru (north to south), there would be no jet lag at all because they are in the same time zone, even though it’s a longer flight.

Medication Jet Lag Remedies

The main medication that is used as jet lag remedies is the hormone melatonin. This is available without prescription in the USA, although a prescription is required in many other countries. It works best when you are traveling east. Take one dose of melatonin around 6.30 pm the day before your flight, then take it at around 9.30 pm for the first four evenings at your destination.

Non-Medication Jet Lag Remedies

Light can be used as a natural remedy for jet lag. 30 minutes of sunlight or bright light therapy (including use of anti seasonal depression lights) is enough.

Use light therapy in the morning to adjust to a new rhythm where you have traveled east. Use it at midday to mid afternoon if you are having trouble staying awake at those times.

You can also use your diet to help. Generally speaking, protein-rich meals help us to stay awake, while carbohydrates make us sleepy. Check this Jenny Craig vs Nutrisystem review and select the best diet for you.

So avoid carbohydrates at breakfast and lunch while recovering from jet lag, and then have a carbohydrate-rich, low protein dinner around 6 or 7 pm. This should help you sleep at night and can be one of the most effective jet lag remedies.