12 Tips to Not Feel Like Garbage on Vacation (or Your Next Work Trip)

Summer is here, and so are your excuses to eat airport Auntie Anne's at 7am and call it breakfast. Before you do that — read this. Whether you're heading to Cabo or a conference in Cleveland, the difference between coming home refreshed and coming home bloated and behind is almost entirely about a few decisions you make before you land.

Here's the playbook:

1. Book an Airbnb or VRBO, not a hotel.
A full kitchen and a real fridge change everything. You go from being entirely dependent on restaurant roulette to having actual control over what goes in your body. This one decision unlocks most of the list below.

2. Hit the grocery store the moment you arrive.
Don't unpack — go straight to the store. Stock your fridge with zero-prep foods: rotisserie chicken, lunch meat, hard-boiled eggs, pre-cooked sausage, apples, berries, baby carrots, bell peppers. Foods that require no thought and no cooking. Grab them, eat them, move on.

3. Can't get to a store? Use Instacart or Amazon Prime Fresh.
Order your cart while you're waiting at the gate and time delivery for right after check-in. This is not a hack — it's what high-functioning executives actually do. Save your usual cart in the app and re-order in two taps.

4. Eat out? Use the Seed Oil Scout app.
Seed Oil Scout finds restaurants cooking with clean oils — avocado, olive, beef tallow — instead of the industrial seed oils that will leave you inflamed, bloated, and wondering why you feel like you were hit by a bus. Free download. Use it.

5. When you eat out, order like an adult.
Meat and vegetables. Every time. Save your carbs and sweets for a premeditated treat — something you've actually been looking forward to. Anticipation is half the fun. Reflexive bread basket consumption is not a treat, it's a tax.

6. Always eat breakfast at your Airbnb.
Start every day with guaranteed clean fuel. While you're eating, mentally plan your next meal — roughly 4 hours out. This one habit keeps you ahead of hunger instead of reacting to it.

7. Pack your food and take it with you.
Yes, to the beach. Yes, to the conference room. Meat and fruit keep just fine in a bag at room temperature for a few hours. Humans survived without refrigeration for millennia. Your chicken breast will make it to noon.

8. The "dietary restriction" hack for catered work lunches.
If you can't bring your own food and lunch is being ordered in, tell the office manager you're celiac, diabetic, and lactose intolerant. Is it a white lie? Technically. Is it actually inaccurate that you react poorly to wheat, sugar, and dairy? Not really. Problem solved, no awkward explanations required.

9. If you're skipping alcohol, order a cover drink.
Soda water and lime. Bitters and soda. Something in your hand that reads like a cocktail. This neutralizes well-meaning friends who want to buy you a drink and ends the conversation before it starts.

10. Manage jet lag before it manages you.
Adjust your meal timing to the destination's time zone as quickly as possible — your circadian rhythm is tightly coupled to when you eat, not just when you sleep. Get morning light in your eyes within the first hour of waking. Avoid eating in the middle of your night. These aren't wellness tips — they're basic biology.

11. Survive the airport — and bring two meals.
This is where discipline goes to die. Before you leave home, pack two meals in your carry-on. You cannot get anywhere in under 4 hours door-to-door, so that's one meal you'll need minimum. The second is insurance for delays, a long rental car line, or just arriving hungry at 9pm with nothing open. Lunch meat, berries, almonds, an apple — all pass through security without a second glance. TSA does not care. The goal is simple: don't arrive in a hole.

12. Supplements go in a pill organizer. Full stop.
A weekly pill organizer is the difference between actually taking your supplements on the road and leaving a $50 bottle of fish oil untouched in your luggage. One grab, one swallow, done. No excuses.

13 (Bonus!). Hydrate like it's your job.
Travel is dehydrating — the stress, the recycled airplane air, the schedule disruption. Aim for 75–100% of your bodyweight in ounces of water daily. Throw several LMNT or SaltT packets in your bag and actually use them. Dehydration mimics hunger, causes headaches, and tanks your energy — none of which you need on day two of a five-day trip.

The goal isn't to be miserable. It's to come home the same person who left — or better. You do that by making a few decisions ahead of time so you're not white-knuckling it through a continental breakfast at 6am wondering why you feel terrible.

Want a system that actually sticks — on the road and at home? Book a free High Touch Performance Consultation.