Meat First: How I Eat When I Travel (2025)

Posted by Mira on May 28, 2025 in stories

Since I switched to eating mostly carnivore (or meat-based), every aspect of my life has changed — including how I travel. In the past, I would indulge in all kinds of food, sample everything at airport lounges, and order exotic dishes at restaurants. But after getting sick, I started paying close attention to everything I eat — because, as Hippocrates said, sickness begins in the gut.

In this post, I’ll document what I eat while traveling in the summer of 2025.

Here are some of my eating principles:

Meat-Based First: Prioritize animal-based foods — especially meat, fish, and animal fats.
Eat Clean: Choose foods with the fewest additives, preservatives, seed oils, or dyes.
Avoid Toxins: Steer clear of ultra-processed foods and ingredients that may harm gut health.
Read the Ingredients: If I don’t know what’s in it or where it came from, I’ll skip it.
Trust My Body: If I feel unsure or something seems off, I won’t eat it.
Fast if Needed: If clean food isn’t available, I’ll fast and feast later.
Occasional Fruit for Energy: Use fruits like apples or bananas strategically — to replenish glycogen or for quick energy — not as a staple.
Always Stay Mindful: Traveling doesn't mean letting go of my standards. I stay aware and make conscious choices every time I eat.
Watch My Skin: Skin and gut are connected. If my gut is off, my skin will show it.

Day 1 (May 27, 2025)
Day 2 (May 28, 2025)
Day 3 (May 29, 2025)
Day 4 (May 30, 2025)
Day 5 (May 31, 2025)
Day 6 (June 1, 2025)
Learnings

Day 1 (May 27, 2025)

Breakfast: 6 eggs fried in butter
Lunch: prosciutto, white cheese, salmon, cream cheese, apple, banana
Dinner: none (fasted)

It was a transit day. At the airport lounge, as usual, there was tons of savory and sweet food. Out of everything available, I found the charcuterie bowls and the salmon with dill cream cheese to be the best fit for my diet.

Charcuterie board with prosciutto and assorted cheese

I had six bowls of charcuterie with prosciutto and white cheese

I can eat the white-colored cheese and prosciutto. (Cheddar cheese in the U.S. often contains yellow food dye. I didn’t know the source of the cheddar cheese here, so I skipped it.)

Salmon Salmon with dill cream cheese

I ate the salmon, but I wasn’t sure about the ingredients in the sauce — whether it had seed oils — so I scraped it off and just ate the salmon and cream cheese (mainly as an energy source). I don’t eat much cream cheese at home. If it’s just dairy, it’s fine, but in the U.S., many cream cheeses come with lots of additives. I had it this time, but I’ll probably skip it next time.

In addition to these, I had 6 eggs at home for breakfast. I also had an organic apple I brought from home and a banana — to refill the glycogen stores in my muscles and give me a quick energy boost.

Day 2 (May 28, 2025)

Breakfast: none (fasted)
Lunch: 1 small avocado, 2 eggs fried in butter, 5 bacon slices
Dinner: flanken style beef ribs
Snack: whole milk yogurt, berries, cherries

Early in the morning, we picked up some healthy items from Trader Joe's and H-Mart. H-Mart has my favorite beef ribs, which are very easy to cook. Trader Joe's carries my favorite butter, Kerrygold — a grass-fed butter — as well as pastured eggs and wild-caught salmon.

What I got from Trader Joe's and H-Mart

I cooked bacon slices for the first time in my life, and they tasted heavenly. I saved the grease from frying the bacon and used it to cook other things like eggs and beef ribs.

Cooking bacon slices for the first time in my life

I also discovered that a bite of avocado with bacon tastes amazing!

Avocado with bacon

Day 3 (May 29, 2025)

Breakfast: none (fasted)
Lunch: salted wild salmon, 2 flanken style beef ribs, 5 slices of bacon, avocado
Dinner: Banh Hoi Bo Nuong La Lot (Woven Angel Hair Rice Vermicelli with Beef wrapped in Wild Pepper Leaves) at a Vietnamese restaurant (cheated)
Snack: yogurt, berries, cherries

At lunch, I whipped up a quick meal for the family with salmon, beef ribs, bacon, avocado, and sunny-side-up eggs. Surprisingly, it only took 30 minutes—thanks to some prep the night before (the wild salmon was marinated overnight, and the beef ribs were leftovers; the bacon and eggs were freshly cooked). I didn’t use a drop of seed oil—the bacon fat did the job—and the only seasoning was a bit of salt. The total cost was around $20.

It was incredibly nutritious: high in protein, fat, choline, vitamins A, B2, B3, B6, B7, B9, B12, and D, as well as choline,selenium, copper, iron, and zinc. Most of these nutrients are highly bioavailable—meaning the body absorbs them efficiently instead of excreting them.

Sunny-side-up eggs I cooked for the family, easy and very healthy

A Very Good Lunch Quick meal for the family with salmon, beef ribs, bacon, avocado, and sunny-side-up eggs

For dinner, since we were far from our Airbnb, we stopped by a Vietnamese restaurant that we used to love before I switched to a carnivore/meat-based diet. I ordered the Bánh Hỏi Bò Nướng Lá Lốt (Woven Angel Hair Rice Vermicelli with Beef Wrapped in Wild Pepper Leaves). It didn’t taste the same anymore—I think my palate has changed. The vegetables and vermicelli were bland, and the beef, which was ground and wrapped in leaves, lacked flavor. The whole dish didn’t feel satisfying at all. I was also worried about seed oils with every bite, and the dish didn’t look clean. I regretted cheating on my diet, but it also confirmed how tasty and healthy my usual meals are.

That night, I did get good sleep, which suggests that good sleep requires energy—either from carbs or fats.

The next morning, I experienced the worst constipation of my life. Since switching to a carnivore diet, I had never had constipation until then. The Vietnamese food, especially the vermicelli, really affected me. I think the combination of added carbs and a lack of fat throughout the day caused the issue.

Day 4 (May 30, 2025)

Breakfast: none (fasted)
Lunch: 3 boiled eggs, 1 can of cod liver, 2 bites of octopus
Dinner: chuck eye steak with butter
Snack: apple, berries, cherries

To reset my body, I fasted for the first half of the day and had a healthy, normal lunch: eggs and cod liver. It was simple but tasted heavenly.

My lunch: eggs and cod liver

My family ordered the octopus tacos I used to love from our favorite food truck, but I ate nothing except two bites of plain octopus. My suspicions about unclean food, toxic ingredients, and seed oils were always present whenever I saw prepared food.

Octopus tacos from our favorite food truck. I ate nothing except two bites of plain octopus. My family ate the tacos.

Day 5 (May 31, 2025)

Breakfast: none (fasted)
Lunch: 5 flanken style beef ribs, 3 tablespoons of butter
Dinner: 5 sunny-side-up eggs and 1 flanken style beef rib
Snack: banana

For lunch, I also made scrambled eggs with zucchini for my non-carnivore family. They made sandwiches with the eggs, zucchini, and flanken-style beef ribs in the middle, which my husband said looked and tasted amazing.

Scrambled Eggs with Zucchini and Flanken Style Beef Ribs My family's sandwich with scrambled eggs, zucchini, and flanken-style beef ribs in the middle. I did not eat it but took a photo because it looked so good.

Day 6 (June 1, 2025)

Breakfast: 3 boiled eggs, 1 avocado, cream cheese
Lunch: scrambed eggs, pork sausage, bacon egg tarts, cream cheese, butter
Dinner: none (fasted)
Snack: 1 apple

Today is a transit day. I grabbed a few boiled eggs and an avocado from home and paired them with cream cheese at the airport lounge.

At the layover lounge around lunchtime, despite my fear of seed oils, I picked as much carnivore-friendly food as possible: egg bites, salami, swiss cheese, and eggs. For “energy and poop,” I scooped some butter and cream cheese.

Food at the layover lounge at the airport: egg bites, salami, swiss cheese, and eggs