If you’re not new to dieting or changing diet habits, skip ahead two paragraphs where I start my conversation about eating when traveling and in a time crunch.

Self control is key. Regardless of where you are in the world, the ability for a person to restrain themselves from eating garbage is critical. The time it takes to learn restraint can be long and laborious. But it’s worth it. About eight years ago, I was in terrible shape, eating candy, poor over-sized meals, and drinking excessive amounts of sugary drinks, like coca cola. Not healthy. I admit it. But I had to take the decision and stick with it to stop and change the way I lived. So I forced myself to always ask: do I need to have these 320 calories worth of lays potato chips? do I need to have this 1200 calorie pint of Ben and Jerry’s? Obviously, the answer was always no and over (a short) time, I learned to stop eating garbage as if my life depended on it. What I don’t want to do is lecture about why eating bad food is bad for you. I understand that eating can be highly emotional and as a result, people’s chances at self control can be difficult. All I want to emphasize is that restraint is the first step in changing your life as it pertains to a healthy eating style. Once I learned that restraint was critical and started to master it, I realized I could lose weight quickly.

Supplementing good foods with bad foods goes hand in hand with restraint. If your fingers were once lurching for a Twix bar or a bag of Doritos, replace it with a bag of almonds or raisins. Take 30 extra seconds in the store to find a small bag of unseasoned beef jerky. (Likely,  you vegetarians out there won’t even be reading this in the first place because you already know how to eat pretty well). The key in the beginning is replacing the poor food of yore with the better, healthier food now. Once you get a rhythm, you won’t really want to go back to eating the processed stuff. Consider fresh vegetables, dried nuts, and rice cakes that are unsweetened (lightly is ok). These are all just my suggestions and you can take them or leave them but I found that a combo of these things helped greatly over time.

Eating when traveling is far more difficult than if you are home. Let’s face it, it’s pretty easy to go to the grocery store and buy groceries for a few days, plotting out exactly what you can and want to eat as part of a healthy diet. But traveling, especially on long jaunts can be more difficult.

For starters, do your best to cook at home. Find a local market, wherever you are and buy the foods that are most common to your own nature. A banana is a banana, an apple is an apple…you probably know the general nutritional value of those fruits now so stick to them when grocery shopping. In Europe, produce is generally cheaper than it is in the states, which is a wonderful thing. But avoid buying it in bulk, as Americans tend to do. Foods in Europe tend to be more organic and more likely to decompose in a shorter period of time. Make it an event to go to the market every other day to buy fresh fruits, veggies, and meats.

When you’ve finished your first grocery shopping trip, assemble a meal that you would normally eat at home…even if there are certain restrictions on what ingredients you can’t find in the country you’re in. This is better than eating out, where you have a far greater chance of eating exotic local foods with which you don’t normally indulge in at home, that likely have poor nutritional values and are high in fats and sugars. For example, Pinxos in Spain sounds exotic…nice “little” croquettes or snacky type foods. They look oh so delicious, new, colorful. (wow, I can’t believe we don’t have this at home!) The servers are thrilled to offer them to you . . . DON’T TAKE THE BAIT. Most are often loaded with salt, filler fats, and or other nonsense. Above all, you’ll save a lot of money cooking for yourself. Over time, I’ve spoken with many nutritionists and trainers who have give me some great advice. Eat lots of protein, preferably that’s low in fat. Eat smaller meals over the course of the day to keep your metabolism up and if you need sugar as part of your diet, eating colorful fruits like blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and very green veggies like spinach and broccoli are the smartest to consume because they’re lower in sugar and HIGH in anti-oxidants. And if you’re abroad, stocking up on healthy germ preventing foods is a good thing, especially with jet lag and poor air quality on planes and different allergens in the various places in the world where you may be. In any event, when in doubt, don’t eat out.

Now that I’ve given a dissertation on not eating out, what happens if you don’t have a kitchen to cook in? How do you craft your meals when in a foreign place? Well for starters, order bottled water. Tap water in all foreign countries is suspect simply on the grounds that your body is accustomed to the chemicals that are normally in the tap water where you live. Don’t risk it; spend the extra two euros on a liter of water and always make sure that the bottle is sealed before you start pouring it. If not, who’s to know if it wasn’t just previously filled with tap water. Try to avoid carbonated drinks, like coke. They’ll dehydrate you and if you’ve just traveled, it’s even worse. Water is always best. Spruce it up with a squirt of lemon (acid kills germs, vitamin c boosts your immune system, and it makes your boring glass of water a bit more interesting).

Search the menus for meals that are abundant with vegetables and proteins. Most European countries have their own version of mixed salads. I find it interesting (and funny) that in Italy, a mixed salad consists normally of two, maybe three ingredients (lettuce, maybe shaved carrot, and fennel). Go to Germany and you’ll win the lottery with the amount of ingredients they’ll throw into your “mixed” salad (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, squash, broccoli, onion, corn, rice, and a million other things with often a heavy “yogurt”/mayonnaise dressing). Always ask a server what each respective salad contains. It’s OK to tell wait staff to remove something you don’t like. You are the customer. Restaurants in Europe will usually put a basket of bread on the table with butter or oil. Tell them to take it away or simply remove one portion of bread for yourself and then remove the basket. The wait staff may look at you strangely; we are stranieri my friends.

Beware of foods that have a million ingredients in general. The simpler the food, the less likely it is to have a high caloric quotient. Foods in southern europe are often prepared with lots of oil; butter in the northern countries. Fish and chicken is always the responsible choice. You’ll often have to order side dishes a la carte…stay away from potatoes especially in the south as they’re doused with oil, even if not fried. Ask for green veggies or mushrooms.

After reading this, you’ll all think I’m a nut case about my eating habits now. But to be honest, the meals I eat are often enjoyable, delicious, and healthy. To cheat here and there on a gelato or a pastry is fine. Go for it. But don’t make it a habit. Have a treat every four or five days instead of three a day. Keep a set of guidelines for yourself when you’re on the road and if you stick to them, you’ll come home in good shape and not feeling like you have eaten a bad diet while traveling.

As I’ve gone from country to country, it’s been tough at times, finding grocery stores and markets. But they’re there and I force myself to go in and buy the necessary products that help me maintain a healthy diet where I don’t feel like I haven’t eaten for weeks one hour after a meal. Cut the garbage out of your daily intake and eating colorful fruits and veggies will go a long way fast if you are new to dieting or wanting to change the way you eat. And as I’ve always said, if your desire is a better body, greater energy, and an overall sense of wellness, combine your diet with an enjoyable and responsible workout regimen that I’ve talked about previously. These are but a few tips from a guy that honestly still breaks his own rules but tries his best to stick by them. All I have to do is think, what will I look like in the mirror 20 years from now? and I have my answer.