As a truck driver, you can face a number of challenges, including getting enough sleep, exercise, and time with family. Eating right while you’re on the road is another one of those challenges. Fortunately, there are a few steps you can take to help make this easier.
1- Be Sparing With Truck Stop Meals
After driving a truck all day, you’re tired. These meals are convenient and filling, and sometimes they even taste good. But if you’re eating most of your meals at truck stops, you’re probably getting too much salt and fat and too many calories. You don’t have to ban these meals completely if you enjoy them or you’re exhausted and starving with no other options, but try to make them either a treat or a last resort.
2- Always Have Quick Snacks
The best way to avoid eating junk food, whether that’s a meal at a truck stop or candy bars and bags of chips, is to have healthy and appealing snacks to hand at all times that don’t require any preparation. Exactly what those snacks are will vary according to your preferences, but they might include fruit, peanut butter, cheese, yogurt, nuts, and hard-boiled eggs. In a pinch, you can make a meal out of these snacks, but they’ll also help tide you over until you can get your hands on something more substantial.
3- Make Food on the Road
If you can get a couple of appliances for your truck, it can make a big difference in your quality of life and ability to eat more nutritiously. A slow cooker and an electric skillet will really expand your options. You don’t have to be a gourmet chef or even particularly interested in food to learn how to make things like chili or eggs, and you can grab a few ingredients at a store and put them in the slow cooker in the morning to have a nice meal in the evening. There are also plenty of no-cook options, such as salads with plenty of protein and vegetables or sandwiches.
4- Make Food Ahead of Time
Another option is making food ahead of time and bringing it along in containers you can reheat. Ideally, you have time to meal prep and can put together enough meals to last your entire trip, but this isn’t always possible. However, even if you only prep a few meals, that cuts down on the amount of unhealthy food that you eat.
5- Know Healthy Eating Basics
Wading through fads and evaluating what seems like ever-changing nutritional information can be a full-time job in itself, but the basics of healthy eating generally stay about the same. You can go a long way with just a few guidelines, such as eating plenty of vegetables, choosing leaner meats, avoiding too much fat, and opting for less processed choices.
Being a truck driver can come with a lot of stress. You don’t need the added stress of thinking you have to get every meal just right to shift toward eating more nutritiously. With the tips above, you can improve your diet a great deal, even on long hauls.