Travel Without the Guilt: Airport Food, Road Trips & Staying Active on Vacation

Every single time I travel, I get some version of the same question: Dara, how do you stay healthy on vacation without being that person who obsesses over it the whole time?

This summer alone has given me plenty of material to answer that. Between walking New York with my mom, a theme park day with my family, and a quick trip to Tampa for my first Mariners game, I've been living out of a suitcase more than my own closet lately. And every trip has reminded me of the same thing: the goal was never perfection. It was never even close to that.

The Airport Isn't the Enemy

I used to walk into an airport feeling like it was a trap — rushed, anxious about my gate, staring down a bag of pretzels or an overpriced pizza that spent too long under a heat lamp. What changed wasn't the food. It was the plan I started walking in with, and honestly, it's a lot simpler than people expect.

What "Eating Local" Actually Means to Me

If you go to a burger place, get the burger. If you go to a seafood shack, get the seafood. My New York trip with my mom this summer is a perfect example of why I believe this so strongly — and it's part of why I don't think a bagel or a butterbeer at Islands of Adventure is ever something to feel guilty about.

The One Rule I Have Around Alcohol

This comes up constantly in the summer — beach trips, ballgames, backyard barbecues. My approach is a lot less complicated than you'd think, and it has nothing to do with counting drinks.

Staying Active Without Turning Vacation Into a Workout Plan

I have a philosophy about movement while traveling that took me a few years and one CrossFit season to actually land on. It's less about what I do on the trip and much more about what I do before it — and that distinction changes everything about how the trip actually feels.

The Real Work Happens After You Get Home

This is the part of the episode I care about most. So many of us come home from a trip and go straight into damage control — extra workouts, restrictive eating, replaying every treat and every drink like it needs to be accounted for. I don't do that anymore, and I walk you through exactly what I do instead, including the mindset shift that changed everything for me.

I also close this one out in the Word, because underneath all of it — the airport snacks, the beach days, the ballgame — this episode is really a faith conversation wearing a travel costume.

Listen to the Full Episode

I get into all of it — the specific strategies, the stories behind each one, and the scripture that ties the whole episode together — in Episode 75 of Beyond Broke & Hungry: Travel, Vacations, and Staying Healthy Without Obsessing.

🎧 Listen to the episode onSpotify|Apple Podcasts|YouTube

If you've got a trip coming up this summer, this episode is for you.