Summertime is that time of year when families across the country pack up and hit the road to discover new destinations and adventures. For my family, our new destinations leads us to UCF, the University of Central Florida as my son begins his studies as a First Year Student.

Planning a road trip takes some thoughtful preparation. From our road trip, I learned that organizing and packing my child to go away to college for the first time requires a level of planning I wasn’t quite prepared for. Let’s face it, long trips in the car can be stressful and if you’re either trying to lose or maintain your weight while on the road there’s a real chance you could easily get distracted and derail your goals.

From my experience, the best way to keep stress at bay and be sure you will have nutritious food choices while on  your trip is to take the time and plan ahead. That’s why I wanted to share my list of healthy road trip and rest stop snacks!

There are always lots of details and pieces of the puzzle to put together when planning any sort of road trip, whether it’s a day at the beach or picnic in the park, one thing is on everyone’s mind will be what to snack on?

Whenever I’m traveling I always search for healthy protein packed snacks that my entire family will enjoy. As a bariatric patient, having adequate protein is the essential foundation to my eating plan and before my surgery, all of us leaned on high carbohydrate snacks such as chips, crackers, cookies and sweets.  I wanted to figure out a way to transition my family’s selections to protein packed healthy snacks that were satisfying to each of us as we have very different tastes.

So, before our trip I tried lots of different options and finally came up with 10 choices that really worked well for our journey.  One thing I discovered throughout our travels and was pleasantly surprised to see that amount of great choices available in the rest stops along the way. If you were not able to plan ahead and were worried you wouldn’t find healthy snack options, I’ve come up with my top 10 top healthy packed road ready snacks that offers something for everyone to enjoy.

Top 10 Healthy Snacks On The Road

1. Jerky – Try Lorissa’s Kitchen

2.Greek Yogurt – Chobani http://www.chobani.com/

3. Nuts – Plantershttp://www.planters.com/

Blue Diamondhttps://www.bluediamond.com/index.cfm?navid=3 & 

4. Cheese Sticks- Sargentohttp://www.sargento.com/

5.  Protein Shakes – Muscle Milk & Muscle Milk Pro http://www.musclemilk.com/

6.  Protein Bars – Kind http://www.kindsnacks.com/

Quest Bars http://www.questnutrition.com/?utm_source=msn&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=%28roi%29%20search_quest%20exact%20priority&utm_content=quest%20bars%20-%20exact%20match%20nutrition&utm_term=quest%20bars

7.  Protein Cookies – Lenny & Larry’s -The Complete Cookie https://www.lennylarry.com/shop/complete-cookie/

8.  Hard Boiled Eggs

9. Naked Protein Smoothies & Juiceshttp://www.nakedjuice.com/our-products/juice?isFacebook=false

10.  Hummus & Pita Chipshttp://www.stacyssnacks.com/