Tips for Eating Healthy on Your Sabbatical

Many years ago, a former boss returned from a family vacation with tales of kids who craved salads for dinner and inhaled celery sticks and sugar snap peas by the gallon at snacktime. They had spent an entire week indulging themselves with meals out to the point that they wanted something fresh, healthy, and homemade. Consider that example of eating healthy one of those “Everything I need to know, I learned in kindergarten” moments. If a six-year-old can crave green things after just a week, you probably will too. Here are a few tips for eating healthy on your sabbatical.

On my own sabbatical, I decided I’d like to strike about a 50-50 balance between cooking for myself versus dining out. I knew I’d be staying primarily in hostels and short-term rentals, so kitchen access would be easy.

Whenever you check into a new hostel or rental, take a look around the kitchen and see what equipment they have available. There might even be some leftover ingredients donated by departed travelers or supplies like salt and olive oil provided for everyone.

Use the tail end of your arrival day to head to a nearby market and stock up for your stay or for the upcoming week. For long stays, I recommend having regular Admin days for all kinds of errands and life management. That’s built-in time where picking up groceries won’t cut into your other plans.

Knowing what to cook can be challenging. I have the following criteria for a good hostel meal:

1. It’s quick
   Since we’re sharing space with lots of other travelers, I like to make sure I’m not monopolizing the kitchen. Meals that take 30 minutes or less are ideal.
2. It’s low maintenance
   I don’t know what kitchen equipment or cookware I’ll find when I arrive, so recipes that only require a pan and a stovetop, or no cooking at all, are best. It also shouldn’t require a laundry list of ingredients that I’ll have to abandon when I leave.
3. It’s versatile
   In the U.S., we tend to take for granted our ability to walk into a store on any given day and find whatever product we have a hankering for. This might not be the case in many of the places you visit. Learning how to use what’s available is a fantastic cooking skill to develop, instead of only shopping for a specific recipe. The best recipes will be ones that I can easily adapt as I go.

Frozen mixed vegetables are often a reliable grocery item around the world. You can add them to pasta, rice, or eggs. Salads, sandwiches, stir fries, and omelets are also great recipe bases that can adapt to whatever ingredients you have on hand.

In some places, many grocery stores will have good prepared meals that are a fraction the cost of eating out. (Japan is especially great for this!)

Just like at home, plenty of fruits, veg, and water add up to a healthier diet while traveling. Nutrition doesn’t change just because your location does. So the real trick to eating healthy on your sabbatical is getting out of vacation mode and not lapsing into nonstop indulgence.

Why is cooking while you travel so important? Learn what it did for my relationships in a study abroad program.