I'm writing to you from sunny but cool Los Angeles, California. My husband and I are here on a bit of a working holiday. What this trip has reminded me about is how challenging it can be sometimes to maintain healthy habits when out of your regular routine.  

One of my rules for healthy eating is to never allow yourself to get over-hungry. It's much better to eat regularly and avoid a dangerous food situation by getting too hungry and then eating anything and everything in sight. The problem when traveling is that you're often out of the house all day long and never really knowing when and where you'll be having your next meal or snack. You may typically eat out at restaurants more than usual and perhaps wanting to try different foods you don't normally eat at home. With the portion sizes served in restaurants and not knowing how the dishes are prepared, this can lead to some serious eating challenges and associated weight gain.

Since we're staying at a friend's apartment, the way we are getting around this is to stock up our friend's fridge and cupboards with groceries from which we can create our own healthy snacks and meals. We're sure to always bring non-perishable foods with us in the car for road trips and plenty of water to avoid the fast food restaurants we'd be stopping at otherwise. We decided to also prepare some meals in rather than go out to restaurants for every meal. This saves on the pocket book as well.

When we do find ourselves in restaurants, we may indulge on occasion in some foods we don't normally eat, however, for the most part we focus on making healthy choices and eating less healthy choices in smaller quantities on a limited basis. Our belief is that just because we ourselves are on a holiday, doesn't mean that our healthy habits need to be on holidays as well. It's about being reasonable and sensible while still enjoying our choices.