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What to do on vacation?

zinfandelzinfandel Raw Newbie

I'm going to London and Paris with my family for 10 days this summer. I'm very excited. I am, however, worried about what I will eat. I will be dependent on them to pay for my food and I don't think they care enough about my raw diet to make sure I get enough raw foods. I'm kind of anticipating that I'll have to eat some cooked.

I am (obviously) pretty picky: vegan, gluten free, low protein, low fat. Is there anything else I should try to stick to? Any tips? We'll be eating mostly in restaurants.

Does eating cooked and fruit together cause acne?

I am kind of dreading this whole experience, and hope I feel well enough to enjoy myself.

Thanks everybody :)

Comments

  • AVLAVL Raw Newbie

    Maybe you can load up on gluten-freen products here first before leaving (that's what I've done in the past). Maybe buy your bread, crackers, etc. here, they are easy to transport on a plane. I'm sure that there will be tons of grocery stores and markets when you get to London and Paris, where you can buy your fruits and vegetables. I'm actually originally from France, but now live in Toronto (Canada), and I go back to visit my extended family every few years. I wasn't raw at that time but was always a very picking eater (i.e. gluten-free, dairy-free), and I always found little markets on the street where I could buy fresh fruits and vegetables. I even found a few health food stores there. If worse comes to worse, they always have good salads at restaurants. So you can have a large salad at the restaurant and eat the fruits/vegetables that you bought afterward. That way you are eating with your family and eating raw at the same time.

    You can also bring food on the plane, I do it all the time. And I usually bring lots of fruits and I have never had any problem.

    Don't worry too much, you are going to very nice places and a lot of people speak English in Paris, so you will be ok in terms of communication.

    Have fun on your trip :)

  • swayzeswayze Raw Newbie

    I definitely suggest you talk to your family first about your diet. Simply tell them how you feel eating vegan and how much you would appreciate it if they would help you out during the trip. Try to set aside specific times during your trip when you can go food shopping.

    Also, try to bring food with you if you can, at least enough for 2 days. This will keep you scrambling around looking for food when you first arrive.

    Paris is known for having excellent markets all over the place. You should certainly be able to find some excellent produce there.

    Here's a short youtube video I made about traveling raw:

    Enjoy your vacation,

    Swayze

     

  • AVLAVL Raw Newbie

    swayze- good video, I'll be prepared the next time I go away on a trip!

  • swayzeswayze Raw Newbie

    Thanks, avl. :)

    Swayze

     

  • superfood2superfood2 Raw Newbie

    I don't think I'm picky, but I have similar standards to you: low fat (unless I want some fat, like avocado)/only natural, covert fats from fruits & vegetables, high fruit, plenty of greens, raw or at least 95% raw, fresh, little to no dehydrated, no grains, little to no sprouts (just my preference for now, I used to eat a lot), little to no added salt except natural sodium in fruits/veg, RIPE!, etc.

    I do fine on vacation with plenty of fruit, but the greens are hard to find. It seems buffets have been best so far, as far as eating fruit, because some places charge WAY too much for a plate of fruit, especially hotels and resorts. I'd go to farmers' markets, grocery stores, buffets, salad places for your greens, and look for reviews online before going.

    ALSO: Get your bananas at a grocery store the first day to ripen how you wish. Most places that I've seen that sell bananas have no clue what a ripe banana is.

    I went to FL these past few days and to a raw & vegan restaurant which had a raw cucumber sandwich on the menu, only to find that the bread or base they were going to use was cooked.....wasted trip for nothing. I got a decent salad and "fresh" juice (somehow it was "fresh" but not made when I ordered it; we never heard a juicer going; it wasn't pasteurized or made too far in advance, but still, they told me it was supposed to be fresh).

    Also keep in mind that people do NOT understand our preferences all the time. For some odd reason, people take to others explaining it for you better than you explaning it sometimes. Maybe they are more receptive and less threatened because an omnivore or cooked-food eater is talking to them and not a raw foodist? I have no clue why, but my boyfriend has been able to get more food for me than I ever have. He usually tells people what will make me happy and he is fervent is trying to put a smile on my face. I love that guy.

  • superfood2superfood2 Raw Newbie

    Also, be firm in that you need to go to a grocery store. You HAVE to get your fruit calories in unless you want to fast. There is NO assuming that a restaurant will have something for you. They might have a little romaine salad - woo-hoo, about 50 calories that are burned off by picking up your fork. You have to go to a market. You can go by yourself if they want to do something else, but unless these places are VERY different from the US, restaurants will not have the caloric-dense food you need; the restaurants will just have some greens, miscellaneous non-sweet fruits, and MAYBE some ripe fruit (if they know what that is). This is just how we are to live if we want to be healthy, as the world accommodates junk food. :(

    Wish I could be there to grocery shop with ya. :D

  • justagirljustagirl Raw Newbie

    Hi, one of the things you can is to pack a lot of raw bars which you can buy from online. Airlines are weird about taking liquids..hopefully that will change at some point, but you can also bring raw crackers, raw breads, etc. Take enough fruit and veggies for a couple of days until you find a veggie market which should be plentiful.Somepeople tell me they travel with their magic bullet mini blender, but I doubt that would work on the electrical system there. Salads are an option, and you can certainly find great lemons and olive oil for salad dressing. The raw food bars have saved me many times at work on and on trips. Are you on vacation in paris? They have a place called pousse-pousse which serves some raw dishes including a raw soup. Also Bob's juice bar is in paris. Hope that helps. If you search on the website www.thehappycow.net, you should find the restaurants and health food stores you need.

  • zinfandelzinfandel Raw Newbie

    Thanks for your tips everybody. I will try to do my best, as always. I'll definitely make a beeline for the markets as soon as possible and as often as possible. I know if I stray too far, I get cranky, so I wouldn't really want to put my family through too much of that.

    Superfood, I wish you could go shopping with me too! That would probably help. Your boyfriend sounds like a good man :)

  • Hi there! I feel like all i do is go on vacation and eat raw. My work takes 2 yearly trips to Europe to buy samples (fashion industry stuff) and the trips are 10 days. It's actually not super difficult and we have NO freedom at all. I took a bag of sprouted pumpkin seeds that I bought and some bought crackers and definitely some RAW-VOLUTION bars, which I actually hate eating because they're a lot of cachews and agave, but you gotta eat right?! When my bosses got their morning coffee I grabbed 2 fruit things at starbucks. As for eating out, there's a whole lot of guacamole and salads in restaurants which I bring my crackers too to dip or to crumble ontop to tasty it up a bit. Here's a really great tip though... Look at the WHOLE menu. I cruise the menu for other ingredients that they have. For example if the salads are crappy but they offer olives in a pasta somewhere then i know they have olives and I end up making my own salad. London has a Whole Foods, and its not very off the beaten path so it shouldnt be a hassle. There's also this restaurant that is Lebanese/Greek that puts a whole bowl of veggies on the table as an edible centerpiece... that's the fullest I have ever been. I will try to find the name of it. Try not to let your eating ruin your time, you'll be surprised how you'll thrive.

    Oh an ps. carrying around a whole avocado as a snack is a great filler-upper.

  • Hi, Zinfandel! If you like, I can give you a list of stores in Paris where you should be able to shop for the foods you need, as well as some restaurants and the farmer's markets that have mostly organic produce (march

  • swayzeswayze Raw Newbie

    superfood2~Awww, your bf sounds awesome! Your one lucky gal. :)

    Swayze

     

  • superfood2superfood2 Raw Newbie

    Thank you. :) I'm very happy and so is he.

    The OP was asking for low-fat raw options, so guacamole and crackers and Raw Revolution bars are out as an everyday thing, for sure.

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