Healthy Eating on Vacation - Part 5. The Emergency Hotel Stop

Now on to the final part of my "Healthy Eating on Vacation" series: when you have an emergency overnight at a hotel.

Our trip, while we were blessed with some of the best summer weather in the northeast, probably ever, was cursed on the way home.

The storms hit the day we were to fly home out of Albany.

The flight from Albany to Newark was delayed 2 hours, so we missed our 1 hour 45 minute connection.

At the airport in Albany, after a few calls to United, we were rebooked on a flight 2 hours after the first.  That flight was also delayed because there was a period of time with a ground stop at Newark.

The end result was that instead of touching down at 9:50 pm in LAX, we touched down at 1:35 am.
- We  missed the last shuttle to the hotel where our car was parked
- Husband and older child took a cab while I waited at baggage claim with tired/ sleepy toddler and bags
- We pulled out of the airport at 3 am finally.  At this point, my spouse and I had been awake for 23 hours.  While we'd lucked out on our new long 5.25 hour flight with seats in Economy Plus (more leg room), we did NOT luck out in that we were the row in front of the emergency exit, and thus could not recline.  So no napping on the plane.
- The 2 or 3 hotels we tried to call in the LAX area were already booked.
- We headed north, and after we hit the 101, I called (and eventually connected) with a Hampton Inn and Suites in Thousand Oaks.

We crawled into the king bed (all 4 of us) at 4 am.  At this point, the parents had zero sleep in 24 hours, and the kids had 6 hours each (5 on the plane and 1 in the car).

At 6 am the kids awoke, and at 6:30 am I gave up on sleeping because they were awake, and I took them to breakfast.

Hampton Inn and Suites have similar breakfasts in every hotel that I've ever stayed in.  And it's really our hotel of choice when we travel.  Generally spacious, often a fridge/ microwave.  Breakfast and a pool.

So how do you eat healthy and stick to an eating plan in a Hampton Inn?  Here are some options, depending on your eating plan.  They have three hot options: one egg, one meat, and one carb.

General/ clean eating:
- eggs
- whole wheat toast
- oatmeal (nuts as a topping)
- fresh fruit
- yogurt (there is sugar in the yogurt)

Paleo/ Primal:
- eggs (always an egg dish)
- bacon (depending on the day)
- fruit
- nuts from the oatmeal bar

Vegan
- oatmeal (toppings available include nuts)
- fresh fruit
- toast

Gluten free (may have to be careful on the preparation of the items)
- fresh fruit
- eggs
- bacon
- potatoes (this is a sometimes item)

21-day fix:
- eggs (red)
- fruit (purple)
- toast (yellow)
- butter (tsp)
- oatmeal (yellow)
- nuts (orange or blue)

Other, less healthy (but yummy, and yes, I did have them) options are:
muffins
make-your-own waffles
bagels and cream cheese
a variety of breads to toast
pancakes or french toast
cold cereal
fruit juices
coffee and tea

My children both ate their weight in bacon (seriously!)  But it kept them busy  while daddy slept a little longer.