Nourshing Your Body On Vacation

It is a challenge to eat healthy food on vacation while on vacation, but it is not an impossible challenge.

While visiting the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, we were pleasantly surprised by some of the healthy options. The children's meals we ordered came with a sandwich, carrot sticks, an apple, milk and animal cookies. Unfortunately, not all restaurants provide such healthy children's meal options. At too many, the vegetable offering is limited to french fries. Sure, there is nothing wrong with eating a few french fries, but when there is no green, red, orange or yellow vegetable too, then there is something wrong.

My meal at the zoo was a vegetable wrap, including red, green and yellow bell peppers, carrots, red onion, zucchini, tomato, lettuce, provolone cheese and herb mayonnaise all wrapped inside a spinach tortilla. Not only was it delicious, it also was a needed vegetable boost. Not all restaurant offerings are so healthy.

What can we do when our meal options are less than ideal nutritionally?

1. Supplement with healthy snacks. A few days we went to a local supermarket in the afternoon to get fruit.

2. Suggest that a restaurant offer some healthy choices for children's meals -- and choices that do not prohibit children from having what they want to eat, too. For instance, I do not want to have to choose between french fries and carrot sticks. I want to choose both. (And I am often willing to pay extra so I can choose both).