I caught a few planes recently on my way home to Australia with some very lengthy stopovers, this week.
Four hours in Bangkok and six hours in Kuala Lumpur.
Customs in many countries limit the Paleo snacks we can take along in our bag and the toll that heat and the duration of travel, have on fresh fruit and veggie snacks anyway, renders them uneatable after about 12 hours in your hand luggage. My once crisp and crunchy julienned celery and carrot sticks were sad and slimy once I landed in Malaysia and I was on the hunt….
I was tired and surrounded by marketing giants – you know the ones I mean.
Hungry, desperate with metaphoric spear in hand, I wandered the airport in hope.
The more I looked the worse it got. I went into a well-known coffee shop chain, ordered my black ice tea, no sugar no milk please….I was still hungry and with five hours of hanging around left and my Ipad just ran out of battery…
Then I found my only saviour – the juice man!
It doesn’t matter which airport I have visited, fresh vegetable and fruit juices are always available. I always try one or two glasses and order vegetable dominated beverages. This time I had, carrot, celery and orange with ginger. The cravings to eat burgers and sweet icey coffees, subsided and it bought me more time to look around for better food options. Unfortunately the juice bars usually don’t offer comfortable seating but there are other alternatives.
In Kuala Lumpur there is a lounge where one can have a shower and sit in a comfortable lounge area with free WIFI, TV and a buffet meal. Although the buffet wasn’t completely Paleo, there were some great options. Salads and curries with lots of tender slow- cooked meat. The lounge area cost 35 Euro for two hours – it broke up my six hour stopover and kept me sane and Paleo.

I am currently in Australia to visit my father, who has been hospitalised due to a stroke. I won’t get started on hospital food and the amount of pills they are shoving down his throat, so he will supposedly ‘get better.’ Emotions and family issues aside, I find food nostalgia and emotional eating a massive challenge at the moment.

I don’t know if some of you have spent a year or two away from home, but there is something special about the food you grew up eating.
It is somehow connected to some part of your psyche, that even though it is totally full of crap, there is this little girl inside your head ,that tells you that you just HAVE TO have it.
Sausage rolls, fish and chips (thickly cut, with salt and vinegar), Cherry Ripes, carob coated licorice, meat pies and Aussie hamburgers – with beetroot of course, are some of my nostalgic food.
I often think that staying clean on Paleo, is probably much easier in Thailand, where I have no emotional connection to most of the food.
Coming home is a whole new story – so many temptations, so many memories…..
So I decided, that I am allowed to cheat. But if I am going to cheat, I am going to do it slowly and enjoy every minute of it. SO, I ate a sausage roll yesterday ( hand-made – this alleviated the guilt a little). The meat in the sausage roll is Paleoish and the puff pastry is anyway full of butter….. it isn’t too bad right? I just want to say it tasted warm and delicious and I didn’t even feel bad after…..so there!!

Another obvious way to avoid the Paleo blues when traveling, is to order Paleo meals when you book your flight. Most airlines will offer at least a dairy gluten free option. Dried food is normally OK to travel with and will usually pass customs – however, my homemade beef jerky is always confiscated….