I struggle a bit everywhere I go, so hopefully, this might help you a bit when trying your best to eat healthy food where ever you are.
“There are a few key ingredients for the recipe of healthy eating.”
1. Eat Locally
You probably already know that consistency is key to healthy eating. When you’re living somewhere longterm, good eating habits can come easily. You don’t have to think about it too much because if you’re eating most of your meals at home, you’re eating the same thing over and over, for the most part, with little variation. Eating healthy becomes second nature. I was pretty much dialed into my eating habits and knew exactly what I wanted to eat consistently to feel my best. So, when I started living in other parts of the world, I searched for those foods where ever I went. I was constantly let down by the lack of availability, as I’m sure you could guess. Where the heck were my favorites! Why can’t I easily find huge tubs of spinach as I can back at Costco in the US!?
Try foods from the region you’re in
Instead, I started to adjust my expectations and a beautiful thing happened – I started to explore and experiment with what was abundant, locally. It became fun to experiment with new recipes and explore new flavors that I’m not used. Local fruits and veggies were more readily available and cheaper, so my experiments came at a lower risk as well.
Believe it or not, the food is actually fresher…because, it’s local, duh! haha. I don’t know why I wasn’t thinking about this at first, but being in South East Asia for example, some areas it’s difficult to find traditional baby spinach. I noticed that any spinach that I did find, was pretty beat up and flown in from other parts of the world. God only knows what had to be done to that poor baby spinach to survive days of shipping and handling. But, what they do have is water spinach, it’s not the same, as the texture is a little different, but it’s actually delicious and a heck of a lot cheaper than the flown-in stuff.
Bonus, it’s more sustainable!
Expanding on that topic – eating locally is most sustainable. Ideally, where ever I am I try to find local wet markets, farmer’s markets, fruit stands, etc. because 1) you support that local small business owner, 2) the food is way fresher & 3) it’s overall healthier for you and our planet.
2. Grocery Delivery
I never thought of this until 2020. I actually had the thought, it’s 2020, shouldn’t grocery delivery be a thing everywhere!? (my 1st world privilege talking). The great thing that I’ve experienced is small and large cities alike have wet/farmers markets. If they don’t, they may have grocery delivery. This has been hit and miss. For example, I couldn’t find grocery delivery in Rosarito, Mexico, or Roatan, Honduras but found it in Koh Samui, Thailand, and Pahang, Malaysia.
3. Ask for things off the menu
Rule #1: be super nice, rule #2: you might need to lie about being vegetarian. Eating out can get frustrating, especially if your diet is mostly plant-based. I love eating out, but I also love eating plant-based. It can be difficult to find vegetables on the menu. So, I always ask for some anyway. 9 out of 10 times, the restaurant is able to find something they have on-hand that they can fix up for me. Typically, once I find out what type of vegetables they have, I’ll ask them how I want them prepared, for example, just chopped, to have as a salad, or to saute them or pan-fry them for me.
4. Share & Sample
If you’re a foodie like I am, you can’t travel the world without trying EVERYTHING! When I go somewhere, the first thing I do is search for the top restaurants to try in the area. I want to try everything, from the local dishes to the street food, to the upscale, fanciest places in town.
A few other random tips for eating out…
Ask for substitutions and omissions. Don’t be shy about this, it’s your health for goodness sakes! There might be a language barrier where they simply just won’t understand your request, be okay with that. There will be situations where they say no, that’s okay too, but at least you tried.
Ask how it’s prepared. For example, when ordering fish, be sure to ask how it’s prepared. In my experience eating out all over the world, restaurants will take a fresh, local fish, cover it in thick batter and deep-fried. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good fish fry! Just not all the time. I’d rather have that yummy, fresh fish pan-seared with some simple butter melting on top. Many times you can ask if they can pan-sear it instead or just change your order since you know what you’re getting with the fish.