What To Eat At The Airport for Fat Loss - 157

Coach Brian Parana (0:4.778) A two-hour flight can turn into a seven-hour food problem. Here's how this happens. Well, you drive to the airport, you park, you stand in the security line. Then if you're lucky like we are, we've got CLEAR, Global Entry, NEXUS. My wife is a wanderlust traveler of the world, and she's got all that dialed in for our family. Thank goodness, because we've spent not a lot of time standing in security lines. Coach Brian Parana (0:34.338) I would highly advise. But we walk then you walk to the gate and then there's a delay flashes on the board and it adds another half hour here, but then you get on the plane and then there's another thirty or forty minute delay 'cause do this, that, and the other. And these are things that you're not planning for. And then at some point you have to figure out when do you eat or what do you eat? And when are you gonna eat and when are you gonna even land at this point to be able to not be famished? And do you want to eat stuff in Coach Brian Parana (1:4.128) on the plane or not, do they even serve stuff on the plane? You're not even sure anymore because they used to give at least the little pretzel snack thing, but now they don't even do that. And so then, geez, we've got all these things that are really challenging for us to show up around how to travel when we're at the airport and eat and stay sane in a sense. Most guys handle this the same way every single trip. They wing it. Coach Brian Parana (1:32.194) They grab whatever's closest or whatever they set down and they glance across the the terminal and they see this food place. That's what they end up deciding. And maybe it's a Hudson News and they get to grab a bag of chips at the gate or a fast burger on the fly before boarding. Well, today I'll show you how to plan for a full travel day so that you can be prepared. And you don't have to feel like every time that you get on a plane. Coach Brian Parana (2:1.303) That you're gonna gain some weight because that's not exciting or ideal either. Right. If you think about this, if you travel a lot and every time you left on a plane and came back, you gained one pound. You would have problems pretty darn fast. So this is a call out to all my guys who travel a lot to let's find a better way. And I constantly help guys navigate and manage airplane, airport, travel situations all the time. Coach Brian Parana (2:28.513) That's even what the eating on the go guide was originally built for. My busy guys that were traveling a lot and needed support, accountability, and help to do so. So that ends up being the big situation here for them to be long-term successful. So that is what we want to do. Now, this is Driven for Health, and we are jumping into episode one. Coach Brian Parana (2:54.487) 57. I'm Coach Brian Parana and really excited to have you here on this journey. Now, I've shared a couple times that I travel a lot. My wife Amber, she actually is that's her business. She does travel bucket style list type experiences, usually abroad, Europe, Africa, Asia. Coach Brian Parana (3:21.825) Alaskan cruises. She sent her family to Peru on spring break. We're hopeful to go to Dublin this Thanksgiving, maybe Japan next spring break. So we have all these goals that we want to accomplish in our time on this earth to go travel. And so let's recall a trip that I had just recently. It was last summer. We were we flew over to France for a two-week European trip. We did Coach Brian Parana (3:50.750) A Disney cruise from Rome all the way through Italy to Greece to back to Rome for seven days. Then we flew to Paris. We did Disneyland Paris for three days, Paris for three days, had a blast, loved it. But on the flight home, we were coming from France to the US, and man, it was difficult. We showed up, and all of a sudden, this 18 Coach Brian Parana (4:17.089) An hour trip of just the whole travel experience from waking up to getting to the airport to then doing all the things that you need to do ended up being holy cow, ended up being went from like 18 hours of traveling to get finally home to over 24. And this stuff happens all the time. One silly rule that Chris from episode 117, he travels a lot. He's one of my guys. I lost over 20 pounds in the call to rise. Coach Brian Parana (4:45.751) program the 100 day fat loss challenge that I talk about all the time and would encourage you to go check out but he travels a lot and he always suggests travel early get up make the first flight because the chances of missing or delaying just goes up from there and my wife would concur she definitely is always trying to book the least amount of connections the best time to do it and we've woken up at three or four in the morning a number of times with our four kids rolled them out of bed Coach Brian Parana (5:14.571) somehow got them into the car and off we went. So what happened on this trip? Well, we ended up finding lounge access because we do have credit card points and different situations for membership for priority lounges, and that is a godsend, especially when you have kids. And you know that when you end up buying anything with multiple kids, it's a hundred dollars minimum to buy Subway sandwiches at the airport. That's just how it goes. Coach Brian Parana (5:40.142) So we get lounge access as much as possible to help expedite the food thing, to help try and save some money, or at the very least, parents out there know, save the time to think about food in general. What are we eating? And this, it's a it's an ordeal. parents know. So if we have lounge access, then here's food, eat and enjoy. And what I did is I just plan around the food that's there. I usually go with heavy protein, lots of vegetable type stuff. Coach Brian Parana (6:10.281) And at the very least, I portion. I try not to get my hand in the gummy bear jar or the the trail mix thing either. I I will have a beer or two just because I enjoy that experience and I don't drink often. I do enjoy a beverage, but I don't drink it as much as I I would like to, but so that goes for the alcohol conversation that we'll have again at some point on this podcast. But so then you have the buffet and you have to practice decision. Coach Brian Parana (6:38.911) around portions and what you're going to decide to eat around what's there. And that's really important. So certainly we have hunger, we have your energy, there's digestion, there's mood. There's all these situations that come up that you have to decide what it is. And that's something that I'll make there. I will also say like an overseas flight, you get food on the plane, but most domestic you get little snaky things. So then that's a a completely different ball game for it. And we'll go Coach Brian Parana (7:8.983) To it. So let's get back to the actual thing. So that trip changed how I always approach airport food and opportunity. And we've been traveling like this for the last 10 years with all 50 states, multiple countries and continents, which I'm very proud of and excited that we've been able to do. But it starts with some form of planning, those full travel days. Now, before you leave this, I want to ask one question. When is my next Coach Brian Parana (7:38.892) reliable meal. You have to think through. You can't just wing it. You got to look at what your day holds and how am I going to manage this situation so that I eat an appropriate amount of food to manage the outcomes that I have in the day. So gas station, just like the last episode in 156 was gas station. Now we're at airport and they test two different skills the on the go. Now gas station tests whether you can read a nutrition label and a fast pit stop. Coach Brian Parana (8:8.863) And pick a better option that across the shelf of however many things are there. And the airport tests something a bit more challenging, harder. It tests whether you can actually plan under the deadline that you can't control. You show up at the airport and you hope everything's on time, but at that point you have just a generalization of when you're actually going to need to leave your house, how long it takes to get to the airport, the time to get to the gate. Coach Brian Parana (8:37.235) And then the time to board and fly. These are things that you do know and understand within reason, outside of I remember another time we were trying to get out of Portland, Oregon, and holy cow, it went from like six PM to nine PM to we were getting out after midnight and that obviously changed the flight and and the situation that we had, especially with the younger kids. I think Levi was maybe ten at the time, which means we have four. He's the oldest, so the youngest was Coach Brian Parana (9:5.665) Think [child's name — unrecoverable, and a minor's name is not reconstructed] was about five-ish or so, four or five. And that kids just hanging out at the airport for that long is challenging. Again, parents know this. Now, here's how you answer that question. At any point in the travel day, if you have a a real chance to eat in under three hours away, then we need water, we need a backup snack, and we need to have a real meal if possible. Or you can pack. Coach Brian Parana (9:35.444) A real meal too with you, like bring in a sandwich, piece of fruit, you can travel with that. And we're gonna go over some TSA rules here too to help navigate and manage. If it's like three or six hours, then you need to plan a real meal to fit in the day on purpose, whether you're actually at the airport or when you land, in a sense, you have to have a real plan, and you can't just leave it to whatever. Coach Brian Parana (10:5.463) However, the day is going to hold up. If it's six hours or more, then you need to have a real meal. You need to pack an insurance plan in a sense to manage any potential delay. Having a delay insurance meal is something that's shelf stable, a protein bar, a bag of jerky, something that zips in a bag so that you can actually eat it if the day and travel falls apart. We're not Coach Brian Parana (10:34.557) Eating it on a normal travel day, but it just sits there in case of a protein sits in the travel bag as an example that can always be there and saves you a couple bucks because what's a protein bar at a airport? You know, like a dollar more than it normally is, and it's just a dollar in convenience or maybe worse paying for it, but regardless, it's still an extra dollar. All right, so these are things that we have to pay attention to. Let's move into the the TSA or Coach Brian Parana (11:4.023) Toss category. So we're gonna play a quick game. I'll name something that you might pack in your carry-on. You guess in your head as we're driving along or walking along or whatever you're doing, is it TSA or appropriate or you're gonna get it tossed? And man, it is frustrating. I lost my college Nalgene bottle because it had water and it wouldn't just pour it out. And they're like, Well, you can walk all the way through the other side and pour it out, and it wouldn't just Coach Brian Parana (11:33.506) dump it and and we didn't have time. We had young kids at the time. We had to get and my wife just has zero tolerance for TSA stuff. So we I lost my neon green white lid Nalgene bottle that I had for years and because of that instance. Because someone forgot to dump water on the other side of the carpet in the the the what the machine line. All right first Coach Brian Parana (12:1.565) The fast round sandwiches and wraps, hard-boiled eggs, firm cheese, jerky nuts, protein bars, whole fruit. If you're standing, if you're gonna be staying in the country, then these salad foods are generally acceptable through TSA. They can be certainly there might be some carry-on limits that apply, but man, the amount of snacks that we've stuffed in our kids' bags and gotten through TSA with. Coach Brian Parana (12:30.997) has been a lot over the years. Now, some other ones that people might think about and want to do is Greek yogurt, TSA, yeah, but it needs to be capped at a certain amount. Hummus, yeah, but there's a certain amount peanut butter, you probably should buy them in the individual packages, not bring it in a tub. All right. TSA generally considers peanut butter a liquid, which is funny. Coach Brian Parana (12:58.963) In a sense, but your sandwich might disagree, but TSA is gonna win here. Salad dressing, same thing. There's gonna be a specific amount that you need to do before you can get it through that line and not have them discount it and toss it in the the the trash pin. So here are the cap for all four, and it's worth knowing the rule, not just the number people half remember. Coach Brian Parana (13:29.055) Every liquid, gel, cream, or spreadable food like peanut butter, has to go in a container of 3.4 ounces or less. 3.4 or less. All those small containers together have to fit in a one size, a quart size bag. You get one bag per person, not one bag per item. Coach Brian Parana (13:57.878) So if you want yogurt, hummus, peanut butter, and dressing, they all have to fit into that quart-sized bag. And it has to be in individual containers to be able to move them through. A pre-made shake, man, I remember this one time I had a quest, no, it was a Muscle Milk protein shake, and I just watched it get tossed into the the the the trash can. I was like, Can I just drink that please? Can I can I have it and I'll just drink it right now and Coach Brian Parana (14:27.245) There's so many people going through they have TSA zero tolerance for anything like that. And it was sad because it was definitely over three point four ounces. And if I would have just remembered that it was in my bag, you know, that's a constant. Amber says, Hey, check everyone check in their bag. Make sure there's no liquids. And inevitably there's always someone with something. even this last trip coming back from we were in going to Alaska, coming from Coach Brian Parana (14:54.913) Van coming we flew we were walking through Vancouver, TSA to get pre-checked and clear customs for our USA there, because they do it ahead of time. And there's a lotion a bottle lotion, sometime lotion, a cream that we did that we had to end up chucking. It was in my bag. I put it in there. We had to play Jenga with our Coach Brian Parana (15:21.109) suitcases because we got too much stuff. We actually had to buy an extra suitcase and it still ended up in my bag and we had to throw it away. I was sad because it was like a ten dollar bottle of cream that we had to just chuck. So let's talk about some dry protein powders or creatines. Man, it's somewhat hard to pass white powder through TSA and Coach Brian Parana (15:50.132) And say that yes, it's protein powder, not cocaine, right? But you are allowed to have protein powder and creatine are allowed in carry-on and check bags. If you have more than 12 ounces or 350 milliliters, you place the container in a separate bin for x-ray scanning. And TSA is probably going do some additional scanning on it to make sure it's confirmed that it actually is what you say it is. Coach Brian Parana (16:18.327) TSA recommends putting non-essential powders over that amount in check bags. That original package is not required, like the protein container, but having a label on it can help easier explain what it is and forego some TSA snafus of what is this white stuff you're trying to get through on the plane. A frozen gel ice pack. Coach Brian Parana (16:45.815) Could be convenient. I I probably would advise not to travel with that. But maybe you have a family and it's going to be something that you can freeze at hotels and carry and keep food cold and cooler as you move on a road trip out west or something. Cool. That makes sense. But only if it's solid when you reach at the checkpoint. If it's partly melted, slushy, or liquid pool temperature. Coach Brian Parana (17:15.059) It's not gonna fly. It ends up being treated as a liquid instead, and it goes back to the default of 3.4 ounces. Empty water bottles are good. Do not bring water through that. You will get tagged as my Nalgene story. Whole fruit works, but we have to be a little bit more specific. Fresh fruit in general works through TSA on domestic flights. So putting an apple, a banana, having a sandwich with a piece of fruit is an ideal way. Some Coach Brian Parana (17:44.748) Times going to Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands. These are more remote areas, they might not allow fruit or vegetables to be a part of that. Certainly, always check. Currently, I would say no to that. I remember we had Levi loves apples, lots of bags of apples. And this kid will literally eat a whole bag of apples if you let him. And we were had apples in our bags coming from Hawaii. Coach Brian Parana (18:13.505) Back because we did that probably about six years ago. And Oahu, we stayed in Honolulu and drove all around the circle. North Shore was amazing. Loved swimming with sea turtles, loved the sticky rice and coconut shrimp. And man, that island just treated us so well. Had a blast, very fond memories. But we couldn't take apples back so. Coach Brian Parana (18:39.767) we had to eat a bunch of them and then ultimately unfortunately throw the rest away. Taking them out of country, that's a whole different beast as well. You just can't do it. And you do have to declare the any type of agricultural products to the customs and border patrol so that you are able to get what you need done to not get tagged later or have a fine. They can fine you and it can be pretty steep. Coach Brian Parana (19:9.825) So there we go. We've covered a lot of different things. We have notice some patterns. Solid foods have to be clear as to no size, but liquids, gels, anything spreadable needs to be the 3.5 or excuse me, 3.4 ounces and make sure it's not banned outright. You can always search TSA or Google it and for a updated thing. All right, let's go to food safety for packed meals. Coach Brian Parana (19:38.478) Clearing TSA doesn't mean your sandwich or your cooked chicken is still edible five hours later. All right. USDA rules is pretty simple. It matters more on travel days than most other days. Perishable food shouldn't sit unrefrigerated for more than two hours or one hour above 90 degrees. All right. This is something that you have to just think about in terms of food safety and what they call it the TDZ. Coach Brian Parana (20:7.959) time danger zone where bacteria starts to grow and can cause digestion issues that can get your tummy upset. We can certainly store food in an insulated bag or just plan it to be eaten or unfortunately in my situation I'm just gonna delay it. I'll eat something three or four hours and I'll roll the dice and hope that I don't have problems. I particularly don't have or have not had problems in the past, but I feel like I have an iron gut. Coach Brian Parana (20:37.537) And I have very little issues with food poisoning or any type of things like that. So I might push it a little bit and not worry too much. All right, moving on, we've got the terminal. We're gonna give some awards here and some real airport examples of in the actually in the terminal itself. The best full meal goes to a customizable bowl, a salad, a protein plate where you can actually pick the base. Coach Brian Parana (21:6.473) Of the protein and then control the portions of whatever it is. So think of like Chipotle style type dish or restaurant where you can actually do it, or maybe something like Chick-fil-A, and that actually goes to the the best chain fallback. We can actually find very familiar chains of even restaurants that I've done in this what to order series, like Chick-fil-A. You can get the Coach Brian Parana (21:32.290) Grilled nuggets if they're serving that, or at the very least, get a chicken grilled chicken sandwich with a fruit cup, and that can hold you over. That'll give you enough protein, fiber, and make it actually manageable to not overeat. The best emergency purchase is gonna go to a protein and a fruit combo, where the ideally it's a protein shake with a piece of fruit, but a protein bar and a piece of fruit can help cover. Coach Brian Parana (22:0.951) It's certainly going to be far better than any pastry or candy bar sitting at the register right as you check out. The best, healthiest halo trap. This goes to the smoothie counter. And smoothies, we still need to do a smoothie episode, but man, there's a lot more calories in these things than you think. A lot more sugar than you think. A smoothie could have 800 calories. You're like, call it healthy, but it's really not. Coach Brian Parana (22:30.815) And we have to be careful to not have that because it can easily have 500, 800 calories primarily of sugar. All right. So there's some other places that we can find there that allow for the ease of meals that I didn't list. if you end up sitting down at a restaurant, we can order a la carte as well and find. Coach Brian Parana (22:58.985) Or just specifically ask, hey, can I just have the burger, no bun, instead of fries, can I have a salad? But just know you're gonna probably pay twenty dollars for that experience either way. So sometimes just going with the build your own order in a line, like Chipotle style, would end up being the most cost-effective way. We want to pay attention to just the order so that it doesn't get out of control. If you're Coach Brian Parana (23:27.073) Fortunate, we're going to move on to airport lounges. This is one of my favorites. We end up basing in Cleveland, flying out of Cleveland. So they do have a a rather small lounge. I don't know why they have them don't have them bigger, but also I can understand they don't want just feed people endlessly for hours a day and have hundreds of people go through the airports trying to make money, and so are the businesses there. Coach Brian Parana (23:51.864) But when we go in, we're always looking for that protein first meal in a lounge, the vegetable-heavy stuff to fill up on those first, looking for low-calorie beverages or even the coffee machine to help, or zero calorie beverages, lower calorie alcohols, limiting them to one or maybe two at the most, so that we don't overdo it. The lounges have small plates, which allow for you to be able to easily access more enjoyable portions. Coach Brian Parana (24:21.505) without having to load the plate up too much. So those end up being wins. Make sure that you have your your travel perks and your lounge access ahead of time and then that will help you manage that with ease and hopefully you'll be able to find some time to squeeze in there and not have to wait, wait and wait. Some of the biggest traps that are going to be in there are the desserts Coach Brian Parana (24:49.483) The breads, the donuts, the cookies, the pastries, higher calorie alcohol drinks that are served in large glasses. Now, certainly you want to get your money's worth, but we don't want to actually get your calories worth, like over a thousand calories at the lounge probably isn't going to help. Moving into actually flying on the plane. All right, what we can do here is that. Coach Brian Parana (25:19.751) On short planes, they don't they just have the cart, you can get a low calorie beverage, maybe the snack, and that's fine. The pretzel, maybe a cookie, not that big of a deal. It can easily fit in your day and we can move on. Or you just deny that and you have your own plan of I ate before I left. I'm gonna eat when I land in a restaurant outside of the airport when I get there, if it's a shorter trip. But if it's a longer one, maybe you you eat before and you bring that sandwich idea with you. Coach Brian Parana (25:49.218) But on a longer flight, we need to have like a snack box and eat something there. Now it'll use obviously it has some processed amount of food. We can pick and choose what we eat out of what is there. And that ends up being fine. So we don't just overdo higher calorie amounts or just overly process carbs and such. When we look at, we can actually buy on board fresh options as well. Coach Brian Parana (26:17.645) And like United. You can actually buy an economy bistro items that are available if you pre-order, and that ends up being the hook. If you pre-order them, then you can get something more custom made and available. Now, something to worth knowing bef while you're flying in the air, food tastes different up there. It's a combination of the simulated cabin, salt taste 20 times the the 20 to 30 percent. Coach Brian Parana (26:47.123) less intense. So sugar taste 15 to 20% less because of the lower cabin pressure. That changes how your nose and your taste bud perceive and pick up the flavors. This was really interesting when I was looking at this and I never really thought about it, but that's why things can be salted more or things could be more sweetened so that they give the look, the taste of what you're trying to do. Coach Brian Parana (27:17.075) to experience in say a dessert. So they might add more sugar to it. Now certainly as we start to wrap up, landing, you gotta have a plan for when you land of when am I gonna eat? What's the first meal that's gonna happen? Am I eating at the airport? Am I eating at a place that is outside the airport on the way to the hotel or the destination, the family. Am I gonna go meet family and go sit down with them at at lunch or Coach Brian Parana (27:46.774) A restaurant or go to their house. This is really important for you to plan ahead so that you have an understanding of how many calories you should have eaten earlier, during, and even after, so that you can be successful here. And certainly pick a restaurant or at the very least, look at Apple Maps to help manage what's available at your destination so that you pick a better food choice. Coach Brian Parana (28:15.953) And can be successful with that. Even planning a grocery store run, or an Uber Eats, a lady that that I had worked with in the past, I remember years ago, we would decide what her Uber Eats order would be to have brought in from a local restaurant, or she would get a delivery of food that would be brought to the hotel that she could put into the refrigerator. Coach Brian Parana (28:44.171) She'd even do the research on how big the refrigerators were if they even had them in the room that she was staying in, because that would be important if she needed to plan food so that she could stay in control of her food. And I've worked with pilots before and and flight attendants and all, and we have to manage that on the travel because their life situation, they don't want to spend $20 a meal every time they step in an airport. They will actually bring Coach Brian Parana (29:13.975) Food with them, multiple days' worth of food, and that can be Jenga in and of itself. Just a really interesting thing there. In closing, here, before your next trip, do pay attention, ask yourself like when am I going to eat? When is food going to be available? What type of snacks should I take? If I have kids, how many more snacks should I bring? In a sense, so that they can stay full and not get hangry. Coach Brian Parana (29:40.096) If you need some help here, I've got a whole system around airport and travel on the go. That's the eating on the go guide. You can grab it at go.brianparana.com/eatingonthego, all one word. Click the red button, download the guide, it's yours. It'll show up right then and there for you to get and start applying. I made it super simple, it's very detailed and easy to understand so that you can just get it and take action. Coach Brian Parana (30:10.037) And as always, if you need more help, you travel a lot and you still don't have this figured out. Even if you plan and best laid plans of mice and men often go astray. That's what the call to rise is. It's a hundred day implementation program to actually get you to do the thing. Sure, we have all this technology out now that you can get meal plans and this, that, and the other, but humans still human. They're still not going to make a choice or a good option or regardless of if best laid plans go astray. So Coach Brian Parana (30:38.527) humans and accountability and navigating some of the challenging life situations, that's what we do around nutrition, fitness, lifestyle, mindset, and doing it around other driven guys that are for whatever reason challenging, getting their health and aligned with how they want to look and feel. So that's thecalltorise.com. Check it out. And if it sounds right for you, I answer a significant amount of questions on there. So it makes a lot of sense. Coach Brian Parana (31:7.893) when we move forward. Now, if you're on the road for work or you know someone is, share this or this whole series with them. It started episode 145 and we're on 157. So that's pretty cool. I've got a couple more that we're going to be doing before we wrap up with some fine dining, maybe specific cuisine style restaurants as well, so that you guys are equipped with what to do at different places. All right. Well leave a review, leave me a Coach Brian Parana (31:37.181) a question brian@brianparana.com. That's my email. You can send me. I replied to all this. And that is it for this episode of Driven for Health. Train hard. Eat smart and I'll catch you in the next one.