Maintaining a Healthy Diet While Traveling

Some tips on how to eat healthy when traveling come from this excellent article:

Business trips have plenty of perks -- new travel destinations, expense-account meals and an excuse to get out of the office. But road trips have a common pitfall as well in terms of the poor food choices you may make -- from indulgent client dinners and unhealthy airport fare to the temptation of room service. All can quickly derail your healthy lifestyle.

The good news is that it’s easier than you think to stay on track while you travel. If you’re actively trying to lose weight or managing a chronic condition like diabetes, be sure to work with your healthcare provider to create a plan that suits your needs. If you’re just trying to maintain your healthy habits while you’re on the go, here are some simple tips to keep you feeling great.

The article continues to give a series of useful tips. 

It is important to maintain a healthy lifestyle (in terms of diet and exercise) when traveling. 

However, you should not be discouraged, if you cannot perfectly replicate your home program. Do the best you can, and maintain as much of your routine as possible. 

Remember that many times “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” If you can maintain most of your health agenda on the road, that will be good enough. Of course, the more you travel, the more important it will be to better replicate your home program when on the road. 

If you are going to be away for only a few days once or twice a year, it’s not a big deal, but weeks away from home necessitate more stringent attempts to optimize the situation.

Additional advice comes from my wife:
 
Before my trips, I always Google-search my final destination for nearby health food stores, pharmacies and supermarkets. Once I am at my destination, I buy fruit, vegetables (usually baby carrots), nuts, crackers, and plain yogurt (if the hotel room has a refrigerator). I do not load my luggage with food, since I travel with a small bag that fits any overhead compartment in any plane. The only food I do carry with me is the food I consume during the travel hours, since the food choices at the airports are surprisingly unhealthy, expensive, or both.

Get compensated for a delayed flight

This post is for those of you who fly internationally (in particular, within, from, and outside/to the European Union).
 
Did you know that the European Union law dictates certain standards of airline service, and if you experience a delayed flight, you can be compensated through AirHelp?

I did not know anything about the European Union (EU) laws, and until recently, I had never heard about AirHelp. 

However, two months ago, I was contacted by AirHelp about a delayed flight I experienced this past summer. The flight in question was from a smaller European country through another, bigger European airport, and with the final destination of JFK, U.S.

In an email, AirHelp explained the relevant EU law and informed me that I can be compensated if I file a complaint through them. The company would keep 1/3 of the compensation, and I would receive 2/3 of the sum.

After I researched AirHelp online, I agreed to the offer. Why? If the airline company that was guilty of the delayed flight had been nice to its customers (including me and my child, who traveled with me), I would not have filed a claim. However, instead of easing the seven additional hours spent at the airport due to a defective airplane, the airline subjected its customers to humiliating, unpleasant and even abusive experiences. 

I do not want to enlist all of the offenses, but I would mention that after a few hours standing in front of a help desk, a few passengers complained about their kids being hungry and thirsty.  One of the airline employees brought a plastic tub with a few sandwiches and water bottles. Silently threw this on the floor next to us, the passengers, and as soon as the children collected a few items, the same lady came and retrieved the tub still full with food and water. I did not have time to grab even a water bottle.

At the end of the nine hours we spent at that airport, my child was crying and had a terrible headache. I was numb and tried to avoid thinking about the fact that we had another 18 hours of travel ahead, and there was a possibility that we would lose our New York hotel reservation.

So, I filed a claim with AirHelp, because of the anguish the airline company caused us. For a comparison, let me tell you how another company dealt with the passengers after a delayed flight. Three years ago, we were flying with KLM and had a six-hour delay on JFK, U.S.  Once on board of the plane, JFK airport closed down due to a severe thunderstorm for another hour. So, the delay was huge... We arrived in Amsterdam late and missed our next flight.  

It was unpleasant, and it was chaotic and difficult to find the help desk dedicated to stranded passengers like us. However, once we got to interact with the company employees, all we received was comfort, not abuse. We received our newly issued flight tickets, coupons for phone usage, coupons for the food court at the airport, and vouchers for approximately 50 euro for each of us to apply as a compensation to any future flight.

Within two months of filing a claim with AirHelp, I received the compensation for me and my child. The check was promptly deposited in my bank account. Thank you, AirHelp!