Eating in Another Country

My Trip to Europe - 

I am getting a little anxiety about my upcoming trip!  I am going to travel for 18 days to Paris, London, Amsterdam, and hopefully Brussels.  

I am not very nervous about Paris, because I plan on walking everywhere and they serve such small portions.  I am still going to try to avoid wheat and cow cheese in most of my meals, but I do plan to have at least one of France's famous baguettes or pastries!

London I think will be easy because they seem to eat light and there should be lots of salads available.  Lots of tomato slices and egg whites I hope.

I have no idea what kind of food they eat in Holland???  I am thinking lamb maybe?...Anyone know?  I looked up a little on Google, and it worries me a lot.  Both websites say breakfast is usually a 'cheese sandwich and a cup of milk'...ummmmm the 3 things I don't want to eat.  Then lunch was usually break and cheese and maybe a pancake or crepe sort of thing....again all the foods I cant eat much of.  It sounds like they eat a lot of chicken and pork, so I might start to enjoy pork more :-/

One thing I think might be in my favor is that their animals (chickens, pigs, cows) are probably raised in a more natural way.  They are probably feed fewer hormones and chemicals, so hopefully the meat is cleaner in Europe then in the US.  I hope I hope I hope!!!

I will eat the local food obviously and just try to keep my portions small and limit my wheat and cow dairy at most meals so it will effect me less when I do eat it.

I am also worried about my coffee...they don't usually drink coffee 'to go', hahahaha...this was a problem in Italy too.  You might see me blogging from a coffee shop because I was forced to stay there.

Can You Read the Ingredients -

Do You Know What is in your favorite bar?  

I went just about a couple months without any processed foods, and in all honesty it is just not possible for me to live that way.  Now I eat ‘bars’ and some chips, but I am just careful about what is in them, especially ‘Nutrition’ Bars'.  Some of them have some very strange ingredients that I cant pronounce and cant figure out what they are.

I recently found a replacement breakfast at Starbucks (I used to eat the Spinach and Feta Wrap).  It is now a banana and a Kind Bar.  I am in love with these bars; they have the simplest ingredients ever!!!  They are also only 180 calories….a nutritionist once told me that snacks should be under 220 calories for a person with my build and energy output.  (In order to maintain where I was…about a 1600/ day calorie plan).

Kind Bar –

Mixed Nuts, (peanuts, almonds, brazil nuts, walnuts), dried fruit (raisins, apricots, vegetable based glycerol, pectin, citrus fiber, citric acid, dates, honey, chicory fiber, Non GMO Glucose, puffed rice, flax seeds, soy lecithin

They also claim to be...

• All Natural
• Gluten & Wheat Free
• Low Glycemic Index
• Dairy Free
• Low Sodium
• No Sugar

These are all buzz-words, and I rarely trust the front of any package (marketing tricks), but the back of this item seems to match the front, so I feel good about them.  I still only eat them a couple times a week in an emergency, but they are fabulous for fast or in the car…or like yesterday, at the Airport.

Food at an Airport at 530am..,.

Trying to find something without Dairy or Wheat at an airport is impossible!  The cases are filled with sweat treats and sandwiches made of all simple carbs (aka, sugar).

The only places open are serving begals or sandwiches... Eventhough the airport is packed!  I did find oatmeal, but that is tricky to eat at the gate or with all your bags.  

I did anticipate this problem, so I have apple slices from home and I got a Kind Bar and black coffee.  

I realized on my last trip that there are only 2 items on the flight menu that I can eat as well... And they have been out of those items twice now.  One is Cashews and the other is a salad, I just have to pick around the cheese and weird meat cubes (I think they labeled it as chicken).  

Hopefully I will just sleep on this flight and hold out till an early lunch!   'Doing lunch' in LA is always a fun time with a million healthy fresh local options:).