S7E9 MS Diet Travel Tips What I Ate on My 10 Day Hawaii Trip
[00:00:00] It's easy to think that if you're living with MS and following a therapeutic diet, that you are automatically gonna fall off track. If you go on vacation, you're out of your routine. You're surrounded by foods that you normally don't eat. It feels impossible to stay, quote unquote, compliant. But here's the truth, the point of making these changes of following a therapeutic diet.
Isn't to chain yourself to the kitchen, it's to give you the health and energy to actually live your life. And for many of us, that includes traveling. So today I wanna take you behind the scenes of my recent family, 10 day trip to Hawaii. It wasn't perfect, but I didn't fall off the bandwagon either. And I came home feeling good in my body.
And that's the balance that we're all after, right? We wanna live life. Feel good. And in today's episode, I wanna help you do the same. And just a quick note before we start. If you're [00:01:00] living with ms, you deserve to know the full story about progression. MS has a biological clock, and that means progression is happening in the background.
Whether you feel it or not, you don't get to choose the timing. But you do get to choose how you respond. That's why I created a free webinar, what most women with MS aren't being told about progression. In just one hour, I'll show you simple ways to help slow progression without extreme diets.
Overwhelming routines or giving up the life you love. Save your spot today at alenebrennan.com/webinar. Now onto today's episode, there are 1 million people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the us. So that makes you one in a million, and you have a special purpose in this world that no diagnosis can take away from you.
So if you are ready to reclaim your body, [00:02:00] mind, and life from multiple sclerosis, welcome to my MS podcast. I'm your host, Alene Brennan.
Well, this is a super fun episode to record today. I know sometimes I talk about heavier topics here because, well, that's part of living with ms, but I wanna balance it out and talk about the bright, sunny side of this journey too. And that's exactly what we're doing today because I recently got back from a 10 day family vacation in Hawaii and.
It was spectacular. Um, but it also took a decent amount of planning to make sure that I didn't completely fall off the rails and not from the context of making sure that I didn't fall off the rails and therefore like get down on myself and say, you failed. And, you know, it's not, you're not following the perfect diet.
Not from that perspective, but [00:03:00] I wanted to make sure that I was consistent. Because I wanted to feel consistently good while I was out there. I have worked so hard, so hard since I had a slight setback in December. Um, you may recall if you were following along at that time. I had a really stressful previous summer and, um, a move and all these different things.
That just caused me to have a little setback in December. So ever since then, I was so focused on feeling better for the summer because I live not too far from the shore, so I wanted to have time to go down to the shore with my family. I knew we wanted to take our first family vacation and Hawaii at that point, I don't think it was booked, but we were, um, we were definitely deep in discussions, you know, like looking at flights and, you know, planning all of the things.
And this has been my why for the better part of this year, really focusing on feeling as good as I [00:04:00] can so that I had the energy and the stamina and all of the things, not only to just enjoy the vacation, but I'll be honest, and I'm sure you can relate to this, even just the idea of kind of getting through an airport and taking a 12 hour flight.
It's 12 hours to get from Philly to Honolulu. That is a very long flight. PS I also had my three-year-old daughter with me, so there's that extra element there. So all of this to say, I have been very focused on managing, um, my diet, the lifestyle, the supplements, like all of the things. Again, not to have a perfect scorecard at the end of each day, but so that I felt good to enjoy summer and take a family vacation, and I am so glad.
To be able to say that I felt fantastic. I felt fantastic leading up to it during it, and I did really well on the reentry too. So, [00:05:00] um, today I just wanna kind of break down, you know, what worked for me, what surprises I came up against, and, um, basically just share. You know what worked for me, so that in hopes that it may help you.
It's not, it's never to suggest that anything that I am doing is the quote unquote right way or the only way, or the perfect way. It's just to share some ideas, inspiration. And give you a little encouragement if some future travels are on your bucket list. Alright, so let's start with the hardest day, the travel day.
This is the hardest because it's the least predictable when going through an airport. Unless it's your hometown airport. You don't always know what food options are gonna be available. And in our case, we arrived at the airport at like five o'clock in the morning. So a lot of the food places weren't even.
Open at that point. Then we hopped on a six hour flight to Arizona and we landed and only had about an hour layover, [00:06:00] and of course you board about a half an hour early, so it really wasn't any time for us to explore any food options there. Either way. Um, and then it was another six hours to get to Honolulu and then you land and you're not looking for a food place in that airport.
You're looking for the car rental and your luggage and get into the resort and all the different things. So it was a solid 12 to 15 hours that I knew I had to have already mapped out, planned, prepped the whole bit for our food. Now, as I said, we um, we got up around four ish. Um, and took off around seven ish.
Um, so I actually had, uh, all breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, all packed in my carry-on bag. So how I did that, I actually went to an allergy friendly bakery a couple weeks prior to our trip. Um, it's, it's about an hour away from my house, so it's not like super close to us, but I know that they have, um, bagels that are both gluten-free [00:07:00] and egg-free because I do have an egg allergy.
If you don't have an egg allergy, um, or don't have a sensitivity to them, you can go to most likely, like Whole Foods Trader Joe's Sprouts, like a lot of their regular grocery stores now have, um, gluten-free bagels. So you might have a little bit more easier accessibility to them. But nonetheless, for me, I got, I think I probably got like.
Eight bagels and came home and just froze them. So then a couple days prior to our trip, I went to Whole Foods and got the um, organic Chicken Sausage. Balinsky is a great brand as well as Whole Foods is. So what I did the morning of, we got up, um, we. I toasted the bagel and then warmed up the sausage, put it together in a little sandwich, put some foil wrap around it, and packed that.
That was the first meal that I had on the plane. Um, and then we had snacks like I did Paleo Valley, um, beef sticks or chicken sticks. You, [00:08:00] there's Chomps brand. You know, there's a lot of different ones that you can get from them. Um, we had a bunch of different fruit. And I think we had some like, um, cleaner like popcorn bags as well.
So those were kind of like our snacks. And then for lunch I did a bento box and I had some chicken breasts cooked from home. So I had some cut up chicken breasts, those individual guac packs. And then I think we had like some Clementines or something. And then for dinner I had gotten Trader Joe's has.
This pack, um, it's in the refrigerated section and it's just, um, sliced Turkey breast. So I had that for dinner just to kind of mix it up. You have chicken for lunch and Turkey for dinner. I really got fancy on it, right? But we had, um, sliced Turkey breast. I had made some corn muffins before leaving the house.
I brought them. And then, um, what do we have? Like strawberries? I can't remember if we had some guac in with it. I don't think we did. [00:09:00] Um, so yeah, so those were our main meals, the breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And then we had some snacks along the way. And then of course, lots and lots and lots of water. It wasn't glamorous, but a covered breakfast, lunch and dinner.
So that was the main goal. So then we landed and eventually got to our resort. We were actually staying at three different places throughout our stay. So that kind of complicated things a bit. But that was because we were going out there to see my family. So the first town that we were going to was where they live.
We stayed just like a mile down the road from them. And so I had the advantage of having been out there before and I knew that there was a Whole Foods the next town over. But I mean, quite honestly. Even if I didn't know that, it's a simple Google search. So anytime I'm going somewhere on like traveling wise, I will always check is there a Whole Foods, is there a Trader Joe's?
Like what are the grocery stores around where I am [00:10:00] staying? Um, and sometimes you may even look out, like if you can't find a close grocery store, maybe you'll find like a, what is it? A super target, you know, like how you have like the target or the, or the Walmarts of the world that have like. The food section to it.
So, you know, you just try to do a little bit of research. A quick Google search will tell you what grocery stores are where, uh, are close to where you are staying. So the first thing that we did the next morning when we got up, we were upright and early because they are a six hour time difference there, which is pretty significant.
But we, um, got up and we took a drive to Whole Foods. And I just stocked up on kind of like the basics. So for me, that was getting a pack of sausage because I brought those bagels with me. I froze them and brought them with me. So I knew I could have that for breakfast. I got some coconut milk yogurts. Um, the So delicious brand.
For some snacks and I think I got like some bananas or strawberries, you know, like just some fruit to kind of mix in with that. And just fruit for [00:11:00] a regular snack. And then I think we got some guac packs and like that may have been it, like it wasn't a huge grocery hall, but just some fresh fruit, some protein with the chicken sausage, the coconut milk, yogurt, and like probably some like little snacky things I can't remember fully.
But nothing complicated, like just some stuff that felt like a safety net for me because I knew with the sausage and bagels my breakfast was. And I knew kind of going into this that my goal wasn't to have a week of like extravagant food. I wanted to have some predictability on the simple meals like breakfast and lunch, and then dinners were a little bit kind of easier to navigate at restaurants, definitely more so than a breakfast, because when you're not having gluten, dairy, or eggs for breakfast, your options are really limited if you're going out to eat.
So not only did that give me a little bit of a safety net of here's what I know, I'm gonna pretty much have every breakfast and lunch, but it also saved us a [00:12:00] tremendous amount of money. I mean, Hawaii is obviously like, it's just stupid expensive out there. But it's expensive to eat out anyway. You know?
It doesn't matter where you are. We would have done that, quite honestly, whether I was following an MS diet or not, just from a cost savings perspective. I grew up that way. Anytime we went on vacation, we always ate breakfast and lunch. In the, um, hotel room and then you would go out occasionally for dinners and I can't even say that we went out for every dinner, you know, growing up either.
So yes, it helps with the diet, but it also saves you a couple dollars and that's always a win. So breakfast was typically the bagel with chicken sausage. Or as the week went on, sometimes I would have leftovers. Um, if I had any from the day before, like a dinner or something like that. Lunch, um, was probably the one that kind of caught me off guard the most with getting frustrated with it because, um, I would have either a salad or a [00:13:00] Bunless burger.
And I think because I was up so early, we were in the pool, like we're just so much more active than I was in a normal day at home. I was hungrier for breakfast, or excuse me, for lunch, so I wasn't always feeling a salad, like I wanted something substantial and I did feel more limited. With a Bunless burger and I kind of like was getting a little over that as the week went on.
I had the option to get a pokey bowl out there a couple times, but I do have such a sensitivity to nuts and sometimes even sesame seed. So, um, that would have been an option if that wasn't a sensitivity for me, and that's only from a migraine perspective. So had I been able to do that. That would've opened things up a lot more.
The other, um, thing that we did for lunch one day is we went to a place called pology and um, we did some research before going out there. You know, this is where [00:14:00] social media can really be helpful because I started to look on social media and Google for different places that were allergy friendly. You, you know, you can look up like gluten-free.
Hawaii, gluten-free, Honolulu, whatever the town is that you're going in, and, um, you'll find a lot of different videos or articles, blog posts, different things like that. So that's how I found out about this, um, allergy friendly pizza place in Honolulu. We went there our first day there and it was allergy friendly, but.
We each got individual pies and they were 20 bucks a piece, so it was $60 for pizza and it wasn't even that good. So those are the moments where I'm like, no, like we're just gonna have something back at the hotel room. 'cause like $60 on pizza for lunch, like, no. So, um, lunch was the one that I got. A little bit more frustrated with, but that's also where the mindset piece comes in as well.
Because I looked at that and I [00:15:00] thought, okay, you can get frustrated that you can't have all these other, you know, options that you would probably much rather have. Or you can look at this and say you're waking up every day feeling good, and you are able to have a full day in the pool with your daughter.
You're able to stay up, uh, in the evening for the luaus and. All the other things. So that's what I focused on and I just looked at it. I was like, okay, listen, just gimme the Bunless burger. I had lots of pineapple while I was out there. I had a salad. Like I had, you know, it wasn't it, it was varied up a little bit, but just not the most thrilling or exciting.
Um, and then snacks, like I said before, I did the coconut yogurt, fruit, um, paleo Valley sticks. Bobo bars, um, you get them in, um, like Whole Foods and something like that. It's basically like an oat bar. So I do okay with them if I have them. Occasionally. Oats do not contain gluten. They are kind of, I'll say like at high risk for having cross-contamination with gluten.[00:16:00]
So if you are having something oat based, it's ideally to have them like certified gluten free. Um, but like I said, they are. They're pretty substantial and um, they're just an easy thing that I can pack and have with me. So that was like a nice snack option too. So that was kind of like my daily rhythm, so to speak.
And then dinners, um, that was where we would eat out most nights. And like I said, we started off with the trip visiting my family. They're the reason why we went out there. And they, my extended family wasn't really familiar with the dietary changes that I had made. They knew about them, but they've never been like out, um, to dinners or like planned restaurants or like planned meals around that.
So I was a little apprehensive on how that would go because quite honestly. There are big foodies. They really enjoy like whining and dining and going to the nice restaurants. Then of course, when they're hosting people coming into Hawaii, like you're not just gonna [00:17:00] go to the place around the corner, you know, like you wanna go to some of the nicer places.
So I. I was a little bit nervous about that because as I'm sure many of us can feel like we didn't want the attention on us. We didn't want to be the one that prevented everybody from going to the one restaurant that was like the go-to place because you couldn't eat there. The thing that was most helpful is I basically had a conversation.
I actually think I had the conversation before we even got out there. I was talking with my uncle and I was like, Hey, just a heads up, you know, I'm following, um, a diet with managing MS and it's been really effective for me. So it's something that's really important for me to stay consistent with even when I'm traveling.
And I feel like saying that is always helpful because you're saying. Hey, here's what I do. I follow this diet and I'm getting good results from it. It's really helping me to feel better, so it's important I stay consistent. So that just kind of like sets the tone [00:18:00] there and then I never put the onus on the other person because that's not fair to them.
And it also doesn't put you in the safest place either. So I would just say, so, you know, what are some of the restaurants we're looking at going to, just so I can look them up in advance and. I did always call ahead and there were some events that he had booked and I knew that a dinner was gonna be served there.
Like one was a dinner cruise, one was a luau. Um, and in both cases they, you weren't ordering an individual meal like you were being served. Almost kind of like buffet style at the luau. And, um, kind of like wedding style on the dinner cruise. So, um, I just called in advance and I said, Hey, we have a reservation under this name.
I just wanted to give you a heads up. I have some allergies. Um, and I just wanted to review the menu with you to make sure that, you know, the any accommodations could be made for the allergies. And I was surprised that I got two very different reactions, um, with those [00:19:00] two examples. So with the luau, I thought that was gonna be the harder one, and it actually ended up being the easier one because I called them, I ran through the allergies and they said, actually.
The majority of the food that we're serving is allergy friendly. So they said, you know, we'll make a note in your reservation and also just let your server know to remind them when you are seated, and then they can make sure that they bring out a plate for you. That was allergy friendly. So the one thing that really helped there is that.
In that setup that was typically like buffet style. They went and plated my meal back in the kitchen and then brought it to me so I didn't have to go up in like the big shafing dishes where everyone's like mixing spoons and like doing all that other stuff. So that worked out really well. It was helpful.
I will admit that in Hawaii, um, rice is. Big staple out there. So that was pretty much, uh, available at any meal. And I don't eat a whole lot of rice, but, um, it does, [00:20:00] but it, it is gluten free and my body tolerates it, so I will have that. Um, and it's just, that's filling. So I had that. And then the Kal of pork is big out there, so most often that was, um, allergy friendly, every place I went.
And then they would have like vegetables and, you know, so, and the salad. I didn't get the, I just skipped the salad dressing, so I was surprised that certainly at the luau, um, that was easy. The dinner cruise was the one I thought was gonna be easier. Um, simply just because, I don't know, it was a, it was a nicer event.
Like they were, it was a surf and turf meal. I feel like when you're paying for a surf and turf meal, they. Have some type of accommodations and a little higher level of service to be accommodating to allergies. And I called them in advance and they gave me a pretty hard no, that we do not accommodate any allergies.
And my frustration was that I knew, so my meal, um, [00:21:00] came with a side of mashed potatoes, but I could see with their other, um. Ticket options. They had rice as an option. And I, my only ask, my only ask was, can you switch my side from mashed potatoes to rice? 'cause I see that's on your menu as well. And the woman could not have been more adamant that she would not put rice on my plate.
And she was like, ma'am, I'm sorry. There's too many people. We don't accommodate personal preferences. And that was the one that was just like really frustrating 'cause I'm like, this is not a personal preference, this is a health issue. This is an allergy that is based on a health issue. This is me not, not liking a specific like side dish and wishing that I had something else.
Like this is for a health reason. And she remained firm that it was a hard no. So I had to accept that. And I said, okay, well, at least with the proteins, please can you, can you do them without any sauces? And she said that she, they were definitely able to [00:22:00] do that, but they would not make any other alterations to the meal.
So I was like, fine. Um, the resort we were staying at had a restaurant where I, I actually went and I got a small takeout container of white rice. And I was like, listen, you're not gonna accommodate me, but I'm not letting that stop me. So I went and I got a small thing of white rice. I tucked that in my purse and we got on the dinner cruise.
And what surprised me is that when I actually showed up, they, the server came over and they're like, so we understand that you have some, um, allergies and we just wanna let you know that we're gonna put the rice on instead of the mashed potatoes. And then all of a sudden it was like they were. Offering, proactively offering everything that I had asked for and been shut down for on the phone.
So I don't know what happened, but um, they ended up being super accommodating, so it actually worked out really well. Um, and then, I'm trying to think, what are some of the other things? So we had the, um, the lal, we had the dinner, cruise. We actually did a second [00:23:00] luau at Disney. We did one night at Alani, which is the Disney resort in Hawaii.
And it. Was amazing. We added that in at the last minute and it was everybody's favorite day of the trip. Um, we started with breakfast with the characters, and this was my daughter's first Disney experience. That's why we added it in. So, you know, we got to meet Mickey and do all the things, but I knew that.
Disney was super, super good with allergies, and this was right at the midpoint of our trip. So we had stayed in the first town, um, visiting my family. Then we did a night at Disney, and then we went to Y Kiki afterwards. But the, um, the stay at Disney was amazing. So we again, so we started with breakfast with the characters, and I called in advance.
If you are going anywhere, just call the restaurants in advance because it's so much easier. And quite honestly, I feel like they take it more seriously [00:24:00] when you do call in advance because then you're having things noted on the um, reservation. You're giving them a heads up. I've had many cases before where they will say all of our protein is pre-marinated.
In addressing that has gluten or soy or dairy or whatever it is. But because you called in advance, we can set something aside to make sure that it's not marinated so that you can have it. So it's just so much easier. Always call in advance. Um, anyway, that's what I did with breakfast with the character.
So they noted everything. And then when we got there, will you believe that I was able to have Mickey Mouse waffles? I went over the allergies over and over and over again, and she's like, yep. These are all allergy friendly and they gave such a big serving of it that I actually had that for three breakfasts.
I had it the day of and then I had two leftover, um, meals of that as well. Now of course the, at the breakfast we had like a side of fruit and bacon, so that kind of helped to bulk it up too. But [00:25:00] um, but yeah, so we had the allergy friendly waffles for breakfast there and then we did a luau there as well.
And I think that was actually everyone's. Favorite meal of the entire trip there. Disney just does it right. They do it right. And with that one, actually, I was not able to get in touch with anybody prior to it, but they did have somebody come through the line, like before you kind of stood in line to get into the luau.
They had somebody walk by at every single party and take your name down, and then they. Initiated the question of are there any allergies in the family? So that's obviously like a dream come true. But, um, they noted it. And then once I got in and I was seated, it was a similar like buffet style setup and I actually went and, um, spoke with the server and asked to speak with a chef.
So he actually walked me through the entire buffet and showed me exactly what I could and couldn't have, which was super [00:26:00] generous of him. But then I actually asked if he would plate it in the back because it just made me nervous. I mean, there was a lot of people at this luau and people. Aren't aware of allergies and again, like mixing spoons and all that other stuff.
So he was able to plate it in the back and, um, brought that out. So that was like a dream come true for that. Uh, and then two other things. One we did, um, a drive along the North Shore. We actually did that twice 'cause we had so much fun doing that. And um, with that, you literally are just driving the North shore of Oahu and there's all these little food trucks and, um, like little.
Beaches that you can stop at? Well, my first trip out there was actually 20 years ago, and um, on that trip we had done the North Shore Drive and they have like these food trucks that have, um. The kahuku shrimp and like all kinds of different things. So I wanted to do that, so, so with a food truck, you can't really call in advance.
There's not like an email address. You just have to [00:27:00] like show up and ask and they were super accommodating. We went very, very early. So that certainly helped if you show up at one of these places. During lunch hour and they have a line through the parking lot, your chances of getting something allergy friendly are pretty slim.
We went, literally when they first opened, and um, they were able to do my order. My order was literally the first order that they did. So they felt pretty confident that there wasn't any like cross contamination or anything like that, but it was shrimp, it was steam shrimp and white rice. Um, so that worked out well.
And then the, on the last leg of our trip when we were in YKK, I feel like I'm kind of bouncing all around here. But, um, that was when we did more like restaurant dinners. And the one that I have to give a shout out to was Duke's, and that's kind of like a pretty iconic place right on y Kiki Beach. And, um, I called in advance, but then when I got there, what blew me away is not [00:28:00] only were they good with making the accommodations.
They actually had the manager of the bar come over to my table 'cause I had ordered a cocktail and she was like, I just wanna let you know I reviewed your allergies and I checked into the cocktail that you wanted. And just so you know, everything is allergy friendly and that as well. I have never, ever, ever gone to that level of detail.
But I was so grateful that they did. So the biggest takeaways definitely have something planned in advance for your travel day. 'cause it's your first day out. You wanna make sure that you have food that you can eat because not having food does not help your travel day at all. Um, and you also wanna make sure that, that you're having good food to keep your energy up.
So. Definitely plan in advance and OPS. I didn't mention this, but also check your supplement stash well in advance. So if you need to restock anything, you have that time to order, have that [00:29:00] delivered. And then I just put one of those like pill containers together that I brought with me so I didn't have to bring all the individual bottles.
But bottom line pack food for your travel day. Drink lots of water, and then go to the grocery store. Once you're out there, stock up on some staples that you know that you can have, especially like. Breakfast, lunch and some snacks. And then take a look at the restaurants. You're going to call in advance, look at the menus online.
Pretty much my staples for the dinners out was some type of a protein because it was Hawaii, did a lot of fish. Um, the, their staple starch out there, like I said, was rice. And then, um, there's just vegetables. A salad, vegetables like it What? It's not that hard when you think of it from that perspective.
What's a protein? Can I get some veggies on there? And is there a starch that I can work with where things get complicated are the sauces and the marinades and the dips and all that other stuff. So if you're okay with omitting a lot of that, yes. It tones down the flavor quite a bit. I will admit that.
But nothing [00:30:00] tastes as good as being healthy feels. Nothing tastes as good as being healthy feels, and that is what I always remind myself of. Last thing, um, before we headed home, we did do one more run to Whole Foods just to stock up on some food that we could have for our flight home. And then we did have an easy dinner planned for our first night back.
So this episode has gone. Way longer than I had planned it to. So if you're still listening, fantastic. Thank you. I hope this was helpful. Um, just a reminder, you know, like I said at the very, very beginning, all of this effort that we do in terms of eating healthy and taking the supplements and, you know, prioritizing sleep, drinking water, all the things, it's not to keep us chained to our kitchen or to our home.
It is to give us the freedom to have the energy and the health to go out and live our life. So remember that when you are making changes [00:31:00] today, because what you are eating today impacts your health, your brain, all of it tomorrow. So make sure that you are choosing good options, not so that you can feel restricted or deprived or whatever.
It's so you have the freedom to go and live your life, and I hope that today's episode showed you how you can get outside of your kitchen, outside of your home and go and travel and have the freedom. To live your life and feel good at the same time. Well, my friend, we've reached the end of this episode.
Pick one lesson from today's discussion and put it into action. Now it's time to reclaim your body, mind, and life. From Multiple sclerosis and for more resources, events, and programs, head over to alene brennan.com. See you on the next [00:32:00] episode of my MS podcast.