For years my job kept me on the road nearly full time and it's definitely a challenge. Here's some of my tricks.

1. Never go directly to the hotel without eating something even if this means stopping on the way and getting a second cab.
2. A grocery store with a good takeout section is your friend. They usually have a seating area or you can go back to your room.
3. Soup and salad shops are the next best choice because you are in control. Many cities have very upscale versions so lots to choose from.
4. If the meeting runs late, don't go out to dinner afterward. This could mean getting your entree at 1:00 or 2:00 am by your body clock. Requires some discipline and braving strange looks, but I politely declined such invitations even to the very best restaurants because I didn't enjoy it and found I wasn't as sharp the next day.
5. I always carried instant oatmeal and dried fruit to eat in my room every morning before going out. Then I could select a couple pieces of fruit from the breakfast buffet for a mid-morning snack. The instant oatmeal can be used if you get trapped on a plane without food for hours, just ask for hot water and you're all set.

You can research various groceries and other restaurants in advance. Being prepared is the best way to combat this problem.

You need to carry some food that takes up little room and is tasty to you, and healthy. Concentrate on health, not calories. While I don't travel, I do have opportunities to eat out all the time and find I can go through a drive through with friends who eat food that smells wonderful, if I have a granola bar in my purse and some rice crackers. Or nuts. I have started eating lots of almonds and cashews and
have lost weight.

You need to find foods you like and always have some with you. That way, when the only snacks offered are muffins, you have an alternative.
When breakfast is bacon and eggs, not that bad if you practice portion control, and have your healthy snack and the fruit. Skip the muffin or bagel. Skip the orange juice.
For lunch, have half a sandwich and your personal snacks.

Which for me is also apples, Greek yogurt and skinless grilled meat.

I have to believe however, that at lunch, you probably have some other options, like salads, that you just need to seek out a little more.

I don't do business trips per se, but I have done many long road trips in the past, and grabbing fast food always makes me feel 'oogy.' So I prefer to bring my own meals as much as possible.

I have been known to make Indian dal, dehydrate it, and then break it into an instant mix-just add water. Many people wouldn't care to go through that trouble, but there are instant 'cup of soup' type products that are healthier and tastier than your basic 'cup o noodle' type meals. Check Trader Joes and health food stores for those. A nice instant lentil soup makes a great snack or a meal when combined with some purchased crackers and cottage cheese.

A few energy bars, granola bars and the like. A bag of mixed dried fruits & nuts. Beef jerky is a great energy source, especially if you make your own and can cut down on the salt in the marinade (in this case, it is safest to keep it refrigerated whenever possible.) There are those dietary supplement drinks like Ensure, that often come in powdered form, just mix with cold water. They ain't a culinary treat, but they are a quick, easily transportable source for an 'emergency' meal in an airport or between stops or when you find yourself hungry enough to break down and eat fatty/salty/expensive fast food. I take a plastic water bottle, with the appropriate amount of powder already inside. Add cold water, shake, and appease your growling stomach. Wait 10 minutes and you'll be able to resist the junk food around you.

Many restaurants, if you explain to the server what your dietary needs are can come up with something to suit. When you're dealing with typical 'conference' type buffets, it can be a bit more problematical, but generally caterers will provide a special plate for a guest who requests one ahead of time. Even last minute, often caterers can come up with something if asked nicely.

We are a traveling family. I used to travel for work, on the road about 50% of my time, and now my husband travels extensively. It helps to stay in upscale hotels, the kitchens there are very accomodating and will pack up box lunches and snacks for you. Most of the places I traveled to were smallish cities in the mid-west and south, and the healthy food choices were slim. Business lunches were often a choice between fast food and convenience store/gas station food. blech.

Like Steff, I always carry instant oatmeal and dried fruit. If it was a particuarly long trip I'd also take energy bars and small boxes of cereal so I wouldn't dip into the mini bar at night.

My husband does none of these things. He mostly travels internationally to large cities, so he's always going out for excellent meals. He avoids meat and sticks to fish or vegetarian choices when traveling and eats more whole fruit and drinks more water than he does at home. He will often have the hotel put fresh fruit and extra water in his room.

We both make an effort to use the hotel gym when we're traveling. Even if it's just 20 min. on the treadmill, it really does help.

AM

All great suggestions, thus far. I would also suggest stopping by the Korean markets (all over NYC) and getting something from the salad bar. The selection is great, and you can make a fairly healthy meal from it.

Jo

For my business trips, lunches and dinners have always been an important part of the trips.

I am either taken out by vendors to upscale restaurants or I will take my clients out to nice eating establishments.

I will do some research on good places to eat and make reservations before the trips.

I always order drinks, appetizers, main dishes and disserts, otherwise the clients will think I am cheap.

How do you manage to eat well and stick to a diet while traveling?

Well there are always choices on the menus.

dcarch

I hear ya. You've been given some great tips by previous posters. As one who travels by car and then visits family (all of which are hard on the weight control part), I've learned to do the following:

Read all the tips you can at http://www.hungry-girl.com. There's a whole section about eating out there, including articles geared to specific fast-food and regular restaurants.

There's an inexpensive book series out there called "Eat This, Not That". One in the series is specifically geared towards eating out.

When in doubt, order a salad (not the loaded Cobb type, though) with low-fat dressing. Most places, I've found, have some sort of low-fat ranch or vinaigrette. Then use your own "secret snack sack" to dive into, making sure to control that.

If there's a supermarket near the convention hotel, go buy a couple of frozen Lean Cuisine (pretty decent, IMHO) and put them in the hotel room freezer. (I've found that most motels and hotels, even the lower-end motels, are putting little fridges in rooms. Even if your fridge doesn't have a freezer, a meal will be okay for a day or two.)

Hotel continental breakfasts: I usually find packets of oatmeal, bananas, apples, and of course, coffee, at these. I tend to stay away from the juices unless they are prepackaged, since I can't tell if they are 100% juice or not.

For car trips, we pack a cooler that contains individual servings of juice. My husband loves juice, but it is SO expensive at restaurants ($4 for one small glass of OJ at one place). We also pack bottled water for me and soda for him. In another container, this past summer, we packed our own coffeemaker, coffee, and filters. We are picky about what coffee we drink, and some hotels have the WORST coffee. Going to the 7-11 every morning is a pain, so it's easier for us to bring our own on car trips.

Donna

I have a different take on it. I'm not really a snacker at home. So as long as I keep to that approach on the road, I'm good. For example, I pack my own meal for the flight out that fits with what I usually eat. Then I try to figure out where/how to get the next real meal (especially if on a long flight, across time zones). Often times, if it's a stopover, I go to the nicest restaurant I can find and ask for a to go order, then take it on my next leg of the flight.

Traveling for business often entails both rushing around and boredom. The trick is to find a way to make mealtimes as "normal" as possible.

By the way, I've been to La Tapenade. They do have some very delicious and healthy eating options as far as airport restaurants go. See the yelp review below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Yelp reviews on La Tapenade at O'Hare

I always travel with cereal - a meal-size ziplock bag in my carry on (at least one but maybe more depending on the length of flight) and a bunch in my suit case. Flight attendants will give you a cup and some milk, and hotel mini-bars usually have milk too. It's not gourmet, but it has saved me many times (much better than most airplane food, and always available - even when you get in to your hotel in the middle of the night).

I used to travel frequently for work, so I can completely empathize. I travel much less frequently now, but still try to plan ahead for food, when I do fly.

I pack my own food for the flight. Fruit, like grapes, apple slices and a banana; veggies, like carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, or sugar snap peas; low fat muffins, trail mix or pretzels, cubed cheese, even a turkey or tuna sandwich. I try to prevent myself from becoming hungry to begin with. Then I'm less likely to binge heavily when I land. There are far too few airports that have decent food choices.

Breakfasts at the hotel, I usually ask if they can make a vegetarian egg white omelette, or cottage cheese with fruit, or oatmeal.

For lunches and dinners, I try to stick with soups, salads, fish, chicken, or vegetarian dishes and avoid big servings of beef, pork, cheeses, rich sauces and pastas.

If you are able to pack snacks to eat during the morning and afternoon you're less likely to overindulge when you are faced with your lunch and dinner menus. Drink lots of water. Stay away from alcohol as much as possible. Wine adds so many calories to a meal.

And use the hotel gym! Even if your not a regular exerciser, just use the treadmill for 30 minutes for a brisk walk. It will at least help to burn a few more calories.

I guess it depends on where you are staying. Big urban hotels, airport strip or smaller town motels.

I found I could order pretty much anything I wanted from room service if I was staying at a large hotel. Generally they would modify it any way I wanted but if not I could always find an upscale grocery store with take out salads , soups, homemade and healthy entrees etc.

Airport strip, not so much. Inflexible and there was nothing could walk out and get.

Small towns are more of an issue. Restaurant choices are limited and usually not waist friendly. When I found myself in this situation I would go to the grocery store and buy salad fixins, and fruit.

The airport strip was the worst!

If I could I would have a good healthy lunch and make dinner more of a snack. I found I made better choices if I wasn't ravenous from not eating all day. Breakfast was always just fruit.

Boredom in the hotel room, even when you are working , can be an issue so I usually had lots of nuts to nibble on.

When I was a flight attendant I used to carry one or two cans of white tuna. If I was flying domestic I would bring a whole lemon. International - I would stop into the hotel bar and ask if I could purchase some lemon wedges. They usually gave them to me.

That can't be every meal for you but at least one or two.

I worked on the road for about 10 years so I feel your pain. However, if by "New York" you mean NYC I'm very surprised you couldn't find food to your liking. Diners are plentiful and they all have healthy choices, even your neighborhood bars typically have something the diet conscious would be happy with. Plenty of modestly priced sushi places, any deli will make you an egg white omlette for breakfast, salad bars with vast topping selections can be found all over for lunch. You'd not be the only one in NYC watching their weight!

I reread your post and the impression I am getting is that you aren't necessarily looking for healthy choices but gourmet healthy choices, which is indeed difficult.

McDonald's, for instance, has salads, grilled chicken snack wraps, fruit and yogurt, oatmeal, and low fat fruit smoothies. While none of these are gourmet, they are tasty and healthy.

You said the turkey wraps did not appeal to you but in defense of them, sight unseen, they do sound like a good choice for losing weight. Provided they weren't slathered in mayo and loaded with cheese.
Right now, while loosing weight, you have two choices. Eat less of the foods you enjoy or eat normal portions of lower calorie foods.

Once you get to where you want to be, you can incorporate the tastier foods back into your life in moderation if you choose to forgo them for awhile.
Gee, John, you need to read a few womens magazines! This stuff is so ingrained in me I can spot a fat gram 10 feet away.

Ya I think the issue may be gourmet healthy vs. just healthy. I find the hardest thing is locating anything low in sodium. I often get oatmeal at Starbucks and they had some sandwiches that looked okay. I checked the nutrition info online and they were absolutely loaded with salt. On my last trip I had a car and stayed at a hotel with a small fridge. I bought skim milk, greek yogurt, fruit and a whole grain cereal (half the box came home in my suitcase). I found some tasty salads at the Nordstrom Cafe in a nearby mall. I'm probably also the only person who goes to Cheesecake Factory and has only a small salad. Sometimes I also bring food with me in my briefcase - fruit, dried fruit, almonds. I just focus on having some no frills healthy foods to hold me over when there is no opportunity to find anything healthy. I'll also buy a bottle of skim milk wherever I can find it - often at the airport. It's difficult. I particularly hate conferences where they have some kind of lunch buffet. I have a hard time resisting food if it's right in front of me - especially dessert. I'm always happy if they have vegetables and will usually eat a whole plate of them - though they are usually loaded with salt and butter.