the athlete’s travel toolkit: snacks for airplane travel

Much as I love sampling local cuisine, the process of home-to-destination involves a trek through morbidly expensive, often bland airport snack counters. I’m not a proponent of blowing $7 on a small bag of trail mix or $4 for a tub of Siggi’s. Thankfully, TSA rules can be respected whilst ensuring nutritious nibbles lay ready in your pack. Food, too, that the stomach knows and loves, rather than chancing the unfamiliar – a fear of any athlete travelling to a race, to be sure, is a roiling, growling, stinging stomach. Or spurned tastebuds. That might be worse.

I leave for a weekend in Denver today, and though I’m not racing on this vacation, I’m still not keen on subjecting myself to overly costly Tampa International to-go stands. Some may side-eye my excessive snack-packing, but I am a monster when starving and my hunger often amplifies while in the sky, from stress or stimulation or otherwise. Too, I fall into the trap of neglecting my nutrition, and while some lenience is necessary when visiting a new place, I do enjoy familiar faces in my food repertoire, such as fresh fruits, that I probably wouldn’t leap out of the way to buy once landed.

When packing any snack (or anything) consult the TSA list of prohibited items and size restrictions to save headaches in the security line. With all that in mind, I’ve compiled a varied list of foods friendly for the road or the sky, homemade or storebought or fresh, for all tastebud cravings.

Related: In-Flight Yoga Postures for Fatigue

Store-bought favorites:

1. Kate’s Real Food Bars
2. Clif Builders Bars
3. Epic jerkies (more for J than me)
4. Wonderful Almonds (or any nut!)
5. Biena Chickpea Snacks
6. Nature’s Bakery Fig Bars (actually my mid-run fuel during the Big Sur Marathon last year)

TSA-friendly whole foods:

Stow any of the below pre-portioned in a small sandwich bag for easy access during the security checkpoint and on the plane itself.

1. Mandarin oranges or tangelos
2. Bananas
3. Apples
4. Hard boiled eggs (ensure you eat them sooner than later)
5. Medjool dates
6. Grapes
7. Justin’s Squeeze Packs: almond butter, peanut butter, or cashew butter
8. Baby carrots
9. Pretzels

Wholesome recipes:

1. South Table Trail Mix (from Venturing East archives)
2. Sunflower Bliss Balls (from Venturing East archives)
3. Snack Boxes (from Carmy)
4. Fudgy Vegan Double Chocolate Beet Muffins (from Minimalist Baker)
5. No-Bake Peanut Butter Energy Bites (from Gimme Some Oven)
6. Blueberry Coconut Energy Bites (from Two Peas and Their Pod)
7. Copycat Starbucks Protein Bistro Box (from Damn Delicious) – just be mindful of portioning the peanut butter, and stow everything in a soft-sided container

Now it’s your turn – what are your favorite in-flight snacks to stow?