People ask me this a lot: how do you maintain your diet when you travel so much? The question usually comes with the assumption that I'm either suffering through joyless meals or secretly abandoning my nutrition entirely when I'm away from home.
The truth is neither of those things. Fawaz Sheikh eats well on the road — genuinely well, not "healthy-eating-content" well — and it doesn't require obsession, expensive supplements, or eating sad salads in airport departure lounges.
The mindset shift that changes everything
Stop thinking about travel nutrition as a compromise or a challenge. Most cuisines around the world are, at their foundation, built on vegetables, protein, and whole grains. Thai food, Japanese food, Mediterranean food, Middle Eastern food — these aren't obstacles to eating well. They are good food.
The problem isn't the local cuisine — whether you're in Bangkok or at a food hall in Frisco TX, the real enemy is laziness and convenience. The problem is the international hotel breakfast buffet, the airport fast food, and the overpriced tourist restaurants that have stripped out everything interesting about the local food and replaced it with beige, calorie-dense mediocrity.
"Eat local, eat real, eat where the locals eat. Your nutrition and your experience both improve immediately." — Fawaz Sheikh
Practical rules Fawaz Sheikh travels by
Protein is always findable
Eggs exist everywhere. So does fish, grilled meat, legumes, and dairy. In every city I've been to, a high-protein breakfast is available within five minutes of any accommodation. You just have to look for it at a local café rather than relying on the hotel kitchen.
Markets are your best friend
Local markets are where you find the best fruit, the freshest vegetables, and often incredible ready-made food at a fraction of restaurant prices. I visit a market in the first 24 hours of any new city. It tells you more about the local food culture than any restaurant guide — and it solves your snacking problem entirely.
One meal a day, no rules
When I'm travelling, I give myself one meal a day where I eat whatever I want, whatever looks interesting, with no tracking and no restriction. This is usually my biggest meal — often in the evening. For the other meals I eat relatively simply and sensibly. This approach means I never feel deprived, I experience the local food culture properly, and I don't destroy my overall nutrition.
Hydration over everything
Flying is dehydrating. New environments are disorienting. The single most important thing you can do nutritionally when travelling is drink enough water. Most of what feels like travel fatigue is dehydration. Carry a bottle, refill it constantly.
Don't try to replicate home
The worst thing you can do nutritionally when travelling is try to eat exactly as you do at home. You'll fail, feel guilty, and eat worse as a result. Adapt. Find the local equivalent of what you normally eat. It usually exists, and it's usually better.
What I actually eat on the road
Breakfast: eggs or yogurt with fruit, from a local café or market. Lunch: small, often street food — something I can eat standing up and that costs less than £5. Dinner: whatever is the most interesting local thing I haven't tried yet, at a place full of people who live there.
That's it. No meal prepping. No protein powder in my suitcase. Just eating real food made by people who know how to make it.
For more from Fawaz Sheikh, read about the best street food cities, building a fitness habit, or solo travel.